Nicholas Brady (poet)

This article is about the poet. For the former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, see Nicholas F. Brady.

Nicholas Brady (28 October 1659 – 20 May 1726), Anglican divine and poet, was born in Bandon, County Cork, Ireland. He was the second son of Major Nicholas Brady and his wife Martha Gernon, daughter of the judge and author Luke Gernon: his great-grandfather was Hugh Brady, first Bishop of Meath. He received his education at Westminster School and at Christ Church, Oxford; he graduated from Trinity College, Dublin.

Brady was a zealous promoter of the Glorious Revolution and suffered in consequence. When war broke out in Ireland in 1690, Brady, by his influence, thrice prevented the burning of the town of Bandon, after James II gave orders for its destruction. The same year he was employed by the people of Bandon to lay their grievances before the English parliament. He soon afterward settled in London, where he obtained various preferments. At the time of his death, he held the livings of Clapham and Richmond.

Brady's best-known work, written with his collaborator Nahum Tate, is New Version of the Psalms of David, a metrical version of the Psalms. It was licensed in 1696, and largely ousted the old Sternhold and Hopkins Psalter. He translated Virgil's Aeneid and wrote several smaller poems and dramas, as well as sermons.

He married Letitia Synge and had four sons and four daughters. Notable descendants include Maziere Brady, Lord Chancellor of Ireland.