BRADSHAW HALL AND THE BRADSHAWES. 1 9 



undouhtedly sprang from one ami the same stork, and were 

 therefore closely related to each other, it is easy to surmise, Inil 

 not so easy is it to determine the most likely jjrogenitnr of the 

 Uradshawes of Bradshaw. 



Api)arently there are no Plea Rolls of the forest in existence 

 between the years 12 Edward II. and 22 Richard II. (1319- 

 1398). Thus few. if any, rays of light would have penetrated 

 the mists which, at this time, envelop the mountain home of 

 the Bradshawes if it were not for a deed of grant* which has 

 descended to the writer, " dated at Chapel-en-le-Frith the Thurs- 

 day after the Feast of St. Michael, 6 Edward III., 133^, in 

 which " Richard son of John de Bradeschawe grants to John 

 de Bradeschawe my Father and to Mary his wife my Mother " 

 certain lands in Bowden, of which a portion are stated to be 

 situated in Thornyleye, and a portion in Wytehalnfeld ;t while 

 a piece of land called Perts Acre is de.scribed as being near the 

 Holumedue,t which latter, as will be seen, eventaially gave rise 

 to an important dispute. § 



Now, though Ivo, Walter, and Randoljjh de Bradshawe are 

 all proved to have been in the possession of land in the same 

 locality, namely, in Bowden and Whitehall ; yet as their Christian 

 names are never repeated the most probable progenitor of the 

 above-mentioned John de Bradshawe must be looked for in 

 Richard, the son of William, who assarted the twenty-two acres 

 at Whitehall. If this surmise be correct, little more than fifty- 

 five years intervenes between the mention of the two Richards, 

 suggesting the possibility that John de Bradshawe, father of 

 Richard (II.), might be son of Richard (I.), and therefore grand- 

 son of William de Bradshawe, who was dead in 12 15 — T121. 

 There is al.so the possibility that the house built by Walter in 

 Bowden has descended to this family, and was the original 

 Bradshaw Hall. 



Again there falls an impenetrable curtain of mist, and a 

 period of utter silence succeeds in which no member of this 



* Now in the possession of the writer, as are all other deeds cited or 

 quoted, unless otherwise stated. 



t Whitehall Field— Whitehough. A. S. /iJ/=hall. 



X Or " HoUmedovv." It is still called the Hollow Meadow, and lies 

 between the Turncroft and Bradshaw Hall. 



§ See page 23. 



