In 1429 John de Bradshawe executed two entail deeds, by which “Two messuages and 40 acres of land, lying in Bradshaw and Turncroft, in the Township of Bowden, were settled on his eldest son William and his heirs male, and in default of male issue on his other sons, John, Robert, and Henry, in tail male.” The other deed entails the Lightbirch Estate on his second son, John, and his brothers, in tail male. The eventual sale of the Lightbirch Estate to Reynold Legh, of Blackbroke, near Chapel-en-le-Frith, was the cause of the dispute about the Hollow Meadow previously alluded to. It originated in a statement made by Reynold Legh that the “Holle Medow,” or Hollow Meadow, was attached to the Lightbirch Estate when sold to him. The first step to disprove this of which there is any evidence was taken on the 2nd of August, 1483, when Nicholas Dickson, parson of Claxbe, co. Leicester, obtained the depositions of William Bradshawe of Bradshaw, on his death-bed. He most solemnly declared that the “Hoole Medow had never formed part of the Lightbirch Estate, and had not been given to his brother John by his father with the Lightbirch lands.” But not until fifteen years later was it apparently found necessary to take the evidence of John Bradshawe, the owner and vendor of the Lightbirch Estate. Possibly during that time Reynold Legh had remained quiet. Then, however, we gather from an original MS. in the writer’s possession that John Bradshawe made a statement before witnesses to the effect that his father, John Bradshawe, had in his own house at Lichfield denied that the land in dispute had ever been owned or sold by him, but that Reynold Legh had endeavoured ineffectually on three separate occasions to obtain an admission from him that it had been included in the Lightbirch Estate, first, by sending a servant with a document for him to sign, then by coming himself, on which occasion he became so pressing that he had found it necessary to leave him and to refuse to speak again with him on the matter, and finally by requesting Thomas Auby, who happened to be at Blackbroke on other business, to go to Lichfield and endeavour to obtain the admission he had himself failed in obtaining.
The next step was taken on the 28th of August following, when Henry Bradshawe, who as his father’s son and heir had been in possession of the estates, including the land in dispute, since the year 1483, obtained a warrant against Reynold Legh to answer for a trespass “upon a meadow in Bowden called Holmedowe,” which was followed by an order made to the Sheriff, May 1st, 1499, at the instance of Reynold Legh himself, to summon a jury to try the case. The jury, which was composed of men well known in the county, such as Peter Pole and John Gell, of Hopton, decided in favour of Henry Bradshawe of Bradshaw, who was thenceforward left as undisputed owner of the field, which is in the possession of his descendant to-day. Five years before William Bradshawe’s death, his son Henry had been practically master at Bradshaw, probably because his father had become conscious of the infirmities of age, for he must have been exceedingly old when he was troubled on his death-bed, in 1483, with the dispute about the Hollow Meadow. A lease had been executed by Wm. Bradshaw,[43] which seems to have been in lieu of a will, letting for twenty-one years to his son “Hare,” “his place calde ye Bradsha, and all ye lade and meydo [land and meadow] with ye apurtenances logyg yereto [belonging thereto], except a wode calde ye Greyve Crofte,” but in making arrangements for the maintenance of his widow, he stipulates that “unless it plesse her bettur to be in any odr plase, ye seyde Hare shall fynde and suffyshundeley kepe his Modr at things to hyr necessare to hyr degre.” He also arranges for his son to relieve him of the worry of paying the King’s taxes in the words, “and ye seyde Hare to pey ye Kyge his dute for ye whole lynelode” [income]. He also gives to “ye seyde Hare all his stuffe of Howsholde, wit all things of his yt longus to husbodry” [that belongs to husbandry]. This curious lease is dated at Chapel-in-ye-Frythe, 18 Edward IV. (1478). William’s wife was Elizabeth, a member of the family of Kyrke, of Whitehough, near Chapel-en-le-Frith[44].
Henry appears to have been their only son, and probably lived with his parents at Bradshaw Hall. He died in 1523, and his will, made two years before, is a curiously worded one, with quaint spelling. Having satisfied his conscience with regard to the Church, and dealt with the two farms in his occupation, the testator proceeds:—
“I beqweyth to my wyff Elizabeyth to hyr dowary & joyntre a mesne place off land callyd ye Tornecrofts wt all the aportenās, and all ye Bradmarchys wt the aportenās unto the end of hyr lyffe & afftr to ye performacyon off my Wyll yt ys to Wytt unto my too sonnes Wyllm & Henry unto ye tyme that Rychd Bradsha son off John Bradsha cum to ye age off xxi - zeres ffully.”
At the close of the will, the testator mentions John as his eldest son at that time deceased. Richard therefore was legally the heir to the estates, and, as a minor, was left under the guardianship of his two uncles. Henry then expresses the desire that:
“my wyffe & my sayd sonnes kepe to scole the sayd Rych: unto he come to ye age of xxi yeres fully yff he will, & mey be att theyr kepyng & yf noo I wyll yt my wyffe & my sayd sonnes Wyllam & Henre gyffe to ye sayyd Rych Bradsha xls off gud money yerely to hys ffynding unto ye tyme yt Rych Bradsha cum to ye age of xxi yeres.”
His two sons, William and Henry, and his daughter, Margaret, have their fair share of his estate, and he beseeches
“Sir Godfrey Foljamb of Walton Knt & Sir George Savage off ye Spetyll parson to be ye Ouersears off thys sympull testamett & last Wyll & to be gode maysturs to my wyffe & too my sonnes ffor Goddes sake & trew preyars ffor them qwycke & ded.”
Henry Bradshawe’s wife Elizabeth was one of the daughters of Robert Eyre, the second son of William Eyre, of North Lees, near Hathersage. His deceased eldest son, John Bradshawe, had married, according to Lincolnshire Pedigrees,[45] Isabella, daughter of Peter Ashton, of Halmear Grange, in Spalding, co. Lincoln. Both he and his wife had apparently died leaving only one child, Richard, who could have been little more than ten years of age when, in 1523, his grandfather’s death placed him as heir to the estates, under the guardianship of his two uncles.
Possibly Richard was not easy of control, and did not remain at school sufficiently long to learn wisdom, for before he could have arrived at the age of thirty he had come to grief, and his possessions had all passed into the hands of his uncle William, who was thus the progenitor of the future Bradshawes of Bradshaw.