Thomas Bradley was born in 1596 or 1597, the son of Henry Bradley of Wokingham in Berkshire and his wife, Barbara daughter of Walter Lane of Reading in the same county.
[1] He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford and was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Divinity.
[1][2] He was initially chaplain to George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, whom he accompanied on trips to the Île de Ré and to La Rochelle[3] and in 1628 he was appointed chaplain to Charles I.
[4] During the Siege of Pontefract in 1644, he was a preacher to the Royalist troops under Sir George Wentworth.
He underwent much suffering during the Interregnum when along with his family he was ejected from their home.