24 BRADSHAW HALL AND THE BRADSHAWES. 



not been given to his brother John (see Appendix D, p. 55). 

 But not until fifteen years later was it, apparently, found neces- 

 sary to take the evidence of John Bradshawe himself, the owner 

 and vendor of the Lightbyrch estate, which suggests the 

 possibility that during that period Reynold Legh had left the 

 owner of the Hoole Meadow in undisturbed possession. Then, 

 as we gather from the document, given in full in the Appendix 

 E (p. 56), John Bradshawe made a statement to Robert Worth, 

 Thomas Auby, Hugh Bradshawe, of Morebarn, and John Brad- 

 shawe, the younger, of Lichfield, to the effect that John 

 Bradshawe, senior, had on the 6th March, 1498, stated in his 

 own house at Lichfield that the land in dispute had neither been 

 owned nor sold by him, but that Reynold Legh had endea- 

 voured, ineffectually, on three separate occasions, to obtain an 

 admission from him that it had been included in the Lightbyrch 

 purchase, first by sending a servant with a document for him to 

 sign, then by himself coming, on which occasion he became so 

 pressing that he had found it necessary to leave him and to 

 refuse to speak again with him on the matter, and finally by 

 requesting Thomas Auby, who happened to be at Blackbroke 

 on other business, to go to Lichfield and endeavour to obtain 

 the admission he had himself failed in obtaining. 



The next stej:) taken was on 28th August following,* when 

 Henry Bradshawe, who since his fathers death in 1483 had 

 been in possession of the land in dispute, obtained a warrant 

 against Reynold Legh to answer for a trespass " upon a meadoAv 

 in Bowden called Holmedowe, ' which was followed by an order 

 made to the sheriff, ist May, 14 Henry VH. (1499),! at the 

 instance of Reynold Legh himself, to summon a jury to try the 

 right of Henry Bradshawe to the land. In the panel of the jury 

 are Peter Pole, gent., Thomas Bradshawe, gent., Judde Stafford, 

 gent., John Gell, of Hopton, and Nicholas Eyre, of Redreth. 

 The case was tried early in J 500, J and a certificate was 

 addressed to the king (Henry VH.) by Sir Ralph Longford and 

 Thomas Meyv'erell to the effect that both disputants had 



* Wolley Charters, xii., 42, dated 28th Aug., 14 Henry V[I. (1498). 

 t Wolley Charters, xii., 66, dated Westminster, ist May, 14 Henry VII. 

 (1499). 



JAppendi.x F, \>. 57. 



