The disturbances were eventually quelled, and the rioters tried in the Court of the Star Chamber.
On the 10th April, 1570, Godfrey executed a deed of entail of Bradshawe on himself for life, with remainder to Francis, his eldest son, and then to Leonard, Godfrey, Peter, and Henry, his other four sons, in tail male, in default to his three brothers, Henry, of Marple, Francis, and Anthony. In a list of the principal landowners in the High Peak for 1570 appear the names of Godfrey Bradshawe, of Bradshaw, and of his wife’s brother, Leonard Shallcrosse, of Shalcross.[54]
Godfrey died early in the year 1607, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Francis, who was married when quite a child to Anne, one of the four daughters and co-heiresses of Humphry Stafford, of Eyam. Indeed, he was not much more than nine years old according to the register of his birth, for the 4th May, 1565, appears to have been the day on which he was married. The Staffords had been settled at Eyam certainly as far back as the reign of King John, at which time their lands were held “by hereditary right for the free service of finding one lamp burning before the altar of St. Helen in the church at Eyam throughout the year during divine service.”[55]
The possessions to be divided among the four daughters appear to have been very considerable. In 1568 a deed was executed to enable Francis Bradshawe and Anne, his wife, peaceably to enjoy a fourth part of the lands lately the inheritance of Humphry Stafford. This consisted of much of the ancient domain of the Staffords actually in Eyam, with the Old Hall, and included lands in the vicinity at Monyash, Chelmorton, and other places, as well as the whole of the townships of Bretton and Foolow. No evidence exists as to the destiny of the two children for some years after their marriage. Ten years later, however, they were apparently living in the Old Hall at Eyam, and on the 8th of January, 1576, a settlement of the hall and lands at Eyam was executed on the young couple, and upon their eldest son. The deed must have been drawn up either before or immediately after his birth, for a space has been left blank throughout the original deed for the Christian name of “their son and heir.” The Manor of Abney, which marched with his wife’s estates, was bought in October, 1593. It adjoins Bretton and Foolow, which are townships in the ecclesiastical parish of Eyam.
There is no evidence that Francis Bradshawe ever lived in Bradshaw Hall, which devolved on him on the death of his father, Godfrey, in 1607. Only three years elapsed between this event and his eldest son’s marriage, and in all probability the Hall had no permanent tenant until after it had been rebuilt. At any rate there is little doubt that Francis Bradshawe, the elder, as he is generally styled, lived on at Eyam Hall, where his chief interests lay, until his death, of which date there is no record. After the year 1615,[56] when he qualified as a magistrate for the county, nothing is known about him. His wife died before the 18th December, 1606, the date of a settlement of “money which rightly belonged to the said Francis in right of Anne, his late wife.” Francis, the eldest son of their very large family, succeeded him. The first date of which there is any evidence of his being in possession of the estates is 10th June, 1619, when he executed a deed entailing them on his heirs male. This same year, too, evidently marked the completion of the rebuilding of the Hall, for a stone is still in existence inscribed F.B., B.B., 1619, which most probably formed the centre-piece over the doorway in the entrance porch, now demolished. His wife was Barbara, daughter of Sir John Davenport, of Davenport, co. Chester. In his marriage settlements, bearing the date of 1610, he is described as barrister-at-law of the Inner Temple. Possibly he made London and Eyam Hall his headquarters till the completion of the hall, which work may well have begun soon after his grandfather’s death in 1607, when it was probably assigned to him as a future residence. It is fairly certain that the present hall was the first stone-built residence of the Bradshawes, for the following reason. After the civil wars of Stephen’s reign, it was found necessary to forbid such substantial residences to be built without permission from the King. Timber, therefore, was the principal material used for ordinary buildings, and only in the time of the Tudor Sovereigns did the long established custom of ignoring the stone of the district begin to die out. The half-timbered houses still so prevalent in Cheshire are scarce in our own county, but 300 years ago they were probably common enough, and as a contrast to the stone walls must have added considerably to the beauty of the Peak country. Such a house, therefore, we may well imagine the original Bradshaw Hall to have been, standing in a conspicuous place on the slope of Eccles Pike.
In the time of Henry VIII., however, the ancient custom of allowing the smoke to find its own way out through a hole in the tiling, which was called the “louvre,” began to be discontinued, and stone-built chimneys were then added outside the timber house for the sake of safety. Mr. Gunson, in his article on Bradshaw Hall,[57] says:—
This chimney contained a broad archway opening into the room in which the log fire was kindled. This seems to have been the case at Bradshaw, for on the line of what was formerly the outside wall of the hall is still standing a great stone chimney stack. That it was the chimney to the ancient Hall, and is the oldest portion of the present building, there can be but little doubt, for it plays no part in the later design. Moreover, a portion of the top where the plaster ‘parging’ of its flue can still be seen has been taken down to allow the main timbers of the present roof to pass over its head; it has been filled in and its archway beneath built up. When the architect designed the later building he found that this old stack fell into line with his plan and served as a support for the great staircase which he built around it.”
No doubt it was the presence of this huge and apparently useless block of masonry, running the whole height of the house, which gave rise to the generally accepted notion that Bradshaw Hall possessed a secret chamber or “priest hole.” This legend is adopted by Mr. Allan Fea, who remarks in his interesting book on Secret Chambers and Hiding Places: “Bradshaw Hall has or had a concealed chamber high up in the wall of a room on the ground floor, which was capable of holding three persons.” Of course, tradition says “the wicked judge was hidden here.” The actual place here described is a modern cupboard, which has not been in existence a century as yet!
One other remnant of the old house remains in the present structure. To use Mr. Gunson’s words:
“The staircase is supported on bearing timbers made of principals from the old high-pitched roof, in which the mortices and oak pins still disclose their previous use and design; these, after serving their original purpose for generations, were yet sound enough to be used to sustain the heavy staircase—a remarkable testimony to the quality of the oak selected for such purposes some six centuries ago, and still apparently as good as ever.”