Humphrey Bradley (Bergen op Zoom, birth year? - place of death? 1639) was a hydraulic engineer.
Bradley was born in Bergen op Zoom as an Englishman's son. In 1599 he was appointed by King Henry IV of France to Maître des Digues and Canaux du Royaume (Head of the dikes and canals in the kingdom). With a special royal exemption, he was concerned with the drying of marshes, both in ecclesiastical areas as well as in the nobility and in the royal and state domains.
With several employees who, like himself, were hugs, he worked on various projects in Aunis (including the Petra-Flandre marais), Auvergne and Languedoc. Many engineers and financiers from the Netherlands followed him. Bradley and his employees obtained half of the land acquisition in ownership, twenty years tax exemption, and French nationality after two years. In addition, the twelve largest shareholders were eliminated.
The first serious study of the Burgundy Channel, connecting the Seine and the Saône to the Mediterranean and Paris to avoid Gibraltar, was carried out by Humphrey Bradley around 1605 on behalf of Hendrik IV.
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