Birth of Francis, son of Godfrey Bradshawe, 17th February, the eighth hour after noon, A.D. 1555.
Of these children Godfrey, as the eldest son, inherited the Bradshawe estates, as will be presently seen. Henry, the second son, eventually purchased the Marple Hall estate, where he had been bred, and most probably born. He founded the family of Bradshawe, of Marple Hall, co. Chester, now represented by Mr. Bradshawe Isherwood; but he is especially noted for being the grandfather of John Bradshawe, President of the High Court of Justice which tried and sentenced King Charles I. to the scaffold. President Bradshawe, the second son of Henry, the elder of the two sons of Henry Bradshawe, of Marple, was born at Wybersley in December, 1602. Against the entry of his baptism in the Stockport registers for the 10th of that month, some loyalist has written the word “traitor.” He was called to the bar in 1627, and was a member of Gray’s Inn. In 1640 he was appointed Judge of the Sheriff’s Court in Guildhall, London, and Serjeant-at-Law in 1648. When the House of Commons had decided on the trial of the King, they appointed a Court of Commissioners, the presidency of which was offered to John Bradshawe. It is only fair to say that he earnestly pleaded to be excused, though it is possible that this hesitancy may have been due to the undoubted danger attached to the position, which he was apparently aware of if we are to judge by the broad brimmed hat[46] which he wore during the trial, still preserved at Oxford, for it is lined with plated steel as a protection against personal violence.
The High Court began their work on the 20th January. The first few days were entirely occupied by a lengthy dispute between the King and John Bradshawe concerning the authority of the Court, which, as King, Charles naturally refused to acknowledge. On the 29th of January, however, the death warrant was signed, to which the signature of John Bradshawe stands first as president. He did not live to witness the Restoration, for he died 31st October, 1659, and was buried with great pomp in Westminster Abbey. His body was, however, exhumed with those of Cromwell and Ireton, and all three were hung and buried at Tyburn.
John Bradshawe, Serjeant-at-Law.
President at the Trial of King Charles I., 1649.
John Bradshawe seems to have kept up friendly relations with his Derbyshire kinsmen. His signature appears in more than one of the deeds connected with family arrangements, and he acted as one of the overseers to the will of George Bradshawe, of Eyam, the High Sheriff’s brother, made 17th June, 1646.
Anthony Bradshawe the youngest son of William Bradshawe, of Bradshaw, is perhaps better known than his brothers by reason of his quaint monument in Duffield church, a photograph of which illustrates this article. He was born on February 3rd, 1545; was educated at Oxford, where he took his B.A. degree 3rd April, 1566;[47] and entered as a student of the Inner Temple 25th May, 1573. He made his home, however, in Duffield, where he lived in a house called Farley’s Hall. He owned the Duffield mill, and lands in Duffield and Holbrook, and other places in the neighbourhood. He was the author of various interesting articles, which prove that not only was he an adept in his vocation as a barrister, but also was an industrious and intelligent student of the history of his own county. He wrote a most remarkable poem of fifty-four stanzas, giving an interesting account of Duffield and Duffield Frith. It is published at length in the Reliquary.[48] All his MSS. were specially left to his son Jacynth, but with the exception of that on his own family, of which a literal transcript is given, they have all mysteriously disappeared. Some of them found their way, many years ago, into the possession of Mr. Barber, of Smalley. Extracts from these are quoted by Rev. C. Kerry, late rector of Upper Stondon, in the article on the “History of Peak Forest” which he contributed to the Journal of the Derbyshire Archæological Society in 1893.[49]
One of these MSS., a great portion of which has been there transcribed, supplies most curious and interesting information concerning the customs and duties of the officers of the forest of the High Peak. Other MSS. had been published ten years before by Mr. Kerry for the Reliquary.[50] One of these contains “the Account of a Conference” held between himself and a distinguished visitor, “W. N., a Sowthern gent att the howse of the said A. B., called ffarley’s House, in Duffield, in the County of Derby,” on 1st May, 1603.
It begins thus:—
“W. N of C in the Countie of Suffolk gent an auntient Scholar and Companion of the said A B above 40 yeres past in the vniversitie of Oxford (there p’ceding graduats togeather) & afterwords dyvers yeres fealow student by practique wth the said A B in the Innr Temple London ... tooke paynes to repose himself for a few daies wth the said A B att his house aforesaid whenne he went to Buxton Well & so to Bradshaugh Hall in Bradshaugh Edge a little there begyled where the said A B was born & his auncestors whither the said A B verie willinglie accompanyed him & the better occasioned to visit his brother & friends there ...