George Bradshawe, his brother and successor, lived throughout his married life at Eyam; the old Hall, the home of the Staffords, his mother’s ancestors, having been entirely rebuilt for him. He was buried in Eyam Church, 25th June, 1646. His widow lived on at Eyam until she and her only unmarried daughter were driven away by the plague, which was raging in that village during the years 1665 and 1666. Francis, the eldest son, who inherited all the Bradshaw estates, had married in 1652 Elizabeth Vesey, a Yorkshire heiress, and he elected to live in his wife’s ancestral home at Brampton, co. York, and there did all the future Bradshawes, of Bradshaw, live, forsaking the old home and county. Francis Bradshawe died at Brampton, 21st December, 1659, leaving two sons. Francis, the elder, who succeeded to the estates but died unmarried in 1677, left all his estates to his brother, John Bradshawe. Living as his father had done in the old hall at Brampton, John Bradshawe allowed strangers to continue to rent Bradshaw Hall. In 1660, during the minority of his brother, the hall had been let to Edward Ash and Thomas Wright, and he himself let it to John Lowe in 1693. In 1717 John Bradshawe was High Sheriff for the County of Derby, but he died where he had lived, at Brampton, co. York, in November, 1726, leaving by his wife Dorothy, daughter of Anthony Eyre, of Rampton, co. Notts, a son, George, and a daughter, Elizabeth. George Bradshawe succeeded to the Bradshawe estates, but dying childless in 1735, the estates devolved on his sister’s son as heir-at-law and from him the present representative of the family is descended.
It is a curious coincidence that the last official act of George, the last Bradshawe, of Bradshaw, of which there is any evidence, was, only three months before his death, to execute a lease, dated 13th September, 1735, for eleven years to Robert Lowe and John Jackson of the old hall of his ancestors, in which document it is described as “all that capital messuage with the appurtenances lying and being in the parish of Chapel-en-le-Frith, commonly called or known by the name of Bradshaw Hall.”
OFFERTON HALL.
By S. O. Addy, M.A.
The hamlet of Offerton is near Hathersage, and now consists of three houses, called Offerton Hall, Offerton House, and Offerton Cottage. It stands high, but the moors on the south rise higher still, and partly hide the rays of the midday sun from these buildings. So, as you walk up the hill on a summer’s morning, the gateway of the hall, already darkened by time, is further darkened by shadows. But there is plenty of light when you get into the courtyard.
You ascend a little-used, narrow lane, with walls on either side, and leaving Offerton House, itself a quaint old building, on your right, you presently enter the courtyard of Offerton Hall through a tall gateway, which stands between farm buildings on one side and a barn on the other. Within the archway on either side are mullioned windows, and just beyond the archway is a door, as if a porter once kept the gate.
Offerton Hall (Front View).
