Bright was baptised at the Church of St. Peter the Great in Worcester on 26 October 1562. He was the eldest son of James Bright, son of Nathaniel Bright. He was probably educated at King's Worcester himself, and matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford as a "plebeian" in 1580, aged 18. Having moved to Balliol College, Oxford, he graduated B.A. and M.A., and was elected to a fellowship at Balliol in 1585. Starting at King’s Worcester in 1589, he also held a number of preferments in the church, including the rectories of Broadwas, Tredington and Warndon, and canonries at Hereford Cathedral and Worcester Cathedral. In 1609 he purchased the estate of Brockbury in the parish of Colwall, Herefordshire. He died on 4 March 1627.
Marriages and children
Bright married twice. Firstly he married Maria Tovey, by whom he had a daughter:
Mary Bright
Secondly he married Joan Berkeley, a daughter of Rowland Berkeley and a sister of Sir Robert Berkeley, the judge. They had a son and three daughters:
Robert Bright, son and heir
Dorothy Bright
Joyce Bright, who married John Brydges – they had three daughters, Brydges' coheirs
Catherine Bright
Robert Bright inherited the estate of Brockbury, which remained in the family for many centuries, passing down to Henry Bright , then to the Oxford historian James Franck Bright.
Epitaph
Bright's wall monument survives in Worcester Cathedral. It carries an epitaph written by Joseph Hall, and quoted by Fuller as follows:
Notable pupils
Bright is principally remembered for the pupils he taught at Worcester whom he frequently sent to Oxford, many of whom became well known. They include:
John Beale, clergyman and scientific writer, in whom Bright helped develop an interest in Erasmus
Samuel Butler, a poet and satirist, author of Hudibras
For my own part, I behold this Master Bright placed by Divine Providence in this city, in the Marches, that he might equally communicate the lustre of grammar learning to youth both of England and Wales.
Pupils did attend the school from Wales as well as England. Bright arranged for Worcester Cathedral chapter to provide exhibition scholarships of 2 shillings per annum for pupils he sent to university. His reputation was also echoed by Anthony Wood in his Fasti Oxoniensis:
He had a most excellent faculty in instructing youths in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, most of which were afterwards sent to the universities, where they proved eminent to emulation. He was also an excellent preacher, was resorted to far and near... The posterity of this Hen. Bright do now live in genteel fashion in Worcestershire.
