RRADSHAW HALL AND THE nRADSHAWES. 15 



found worthy of hearing arms. Most of these, either by their 

 name, roat-(vf-arms, or crest, showed their descent from the 

 ancient foresters of the Peak. The very early history, as will 

 he conceived, of these first proj^enitors of the High Peak 

 families is not easy to read for lack of documentary evidence. 

 The Record Office, however, helps us somewhat with regard to 

 tho.se dwelling in the district in the time of King John, the 

 first royal lord of the manor, for in that inedited collection is a 

 huge inindle of skins fastened together, which forms a portion 

 f)f the rolls of the forest of the High Peak, and which has prove(l 

 a wealthy mine of information to the antiquary and genealogist. 

 The roll contains the names of those foresters and deerkeepers 

 who were convicted and punished for " Vert and Venyson " 

 offences, or offences against the game laws on the royal lands 

 during the reigns of King John and Henry III., as well as the 

 Assarts and Purprestures made by them, in respect of clearances 

 of the forest, for the purposes of agriculture and the building of 

 houses, which they were enabled to do by the grants made 

 to them by the king. For the knowledge that these records 

 existed, as well as in what way to obtain access to them for the 

 purpose of making extracts from them, the writer of this article 

 was indebted, .some years ago, to the kindness of Mr. Pym 

 Yeatman, who since then has made the work of research com- 

 paratively easy, by including his own transcripts from these 

 valuable rolls in his ''^Feudal History of Derbyshire." 

 Section VI. of that histor}- will be found to contain clear and 

 certain evidence that the Bradshawes were among the earliest 

 of the residents in that porticMi of the parish of Chapel-en-le- 

 Frith called Bowden, which still retains its name as one of its 

 townships. This Assart Roll practically upsets the theory 

 which has been more than suggested at various times, and which 

 has obtained some credence, that this family is descended from 

 a scion of the house of Bradshawe, of Bradshaw, near Bolton, 

 in Lancashire, who settled in this county about the time of 

 Henry IV. Eanvaker, in his East Cheshire* asserts that this 



* Vol. ii., p. 61. 



