WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



WIGAN 



sixty years of age." Ralph died early in 1554, his 

 heir being his brother William's son Roger, aged 

 about thirty-six." 



Roger Bradshaw of Haigh 

 died 20 February 1598-9." 

 To the religious system estab- 

 lished by Elizabeth he showed 

 'some degree of conformity,' 

 but was of 'general note of 

 evil affection in religion, and 

 a non-communicant.' " In 

 temporal matters the time was 

 one of prosperity for the fa- 

 mily, the cannel-coal of Haigh 

 being famous already, and 

 bringing wealth to the lord of the manor.'* 



His son James having died before him he was 



Bradshaw of Haigh. 

 Argent two bendlets be- 

 tween three martlets sable. 



succeeded by his grandson Roger, twenty-one years 

 of age in 1599." He also, after some wavering, 

 adhered to the ancient religion," but died in May 

 1 64 1 , before the outbreak of the Civil War.^' His 

 grandson and heir Roger, being then only thirteen 

 years of age, took no part in the war, and the estates 

 escaped the sequestration and forfeiture which would 

 no doubt have overtaken them under the Common- 

 wealth.'" The minority, however, involved the 

 placing of the heir under a Protestant guardian ; 

 he changed his religion and conformed to that 

 established by law." In 1679 he was made a 

 baronet"; he was knight of the shire in 1660,*' 

 showing himself an opponent of the Presbyterians " 

 and also of the adherents of Monmouth." He died 

 in 1684, and his son Roger three years later," when 

 the third Sir Roger Bradshaw, his son, succeeded." 



*" Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. vii, no. 

 16; the fine of 1477 and other settle- 

 ments are recited. Roger Bradshagh was 

 'not at home* when the herald came 

 in 1533, so that only his arms were 

 recorded ; f^isit. (Chet. Soc), 174. His 

 will is in P.CC. 



Sir Roger's widow Anne married 

 Nicholas Butler of RawclifFe and various* 

 disputes followed ; Ducatus Lane, (Rec. 

 Com.), ii, 70. She died at Hoole 

 22 Aug. 1554; Duchy Plead, (Rec. 

 Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), iii, 182. 



Henry Bradshagh of Halton, Bucking- 

 hamshire, attorney-general of the king, 

 seems to have been concerned in the 

 manor ; Close, 37 Hen. VIII, pt. ii, no. 

 46 ; pt. iv, no. 37. 



^^ Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. x, no. 41. 

 William Bradshaw is named in various 

 suiU of the time ; Ducatus (Rec. Com.], 

 ii, 32. 



8* Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xvli, no. 

 59 ; the tenure was unchanged. A 

 pedigree was recorded in 1567 ; Visit, 

 (Chet Soc), 88. 



*5 Gibson, Lydiate Hall, 245, quoting 

 S.P. Dom. Eliz. cczxxv, 4. His son 

 Thomas was a serjeant-at-arms to the 

 queen ; Ducatus (Rec. Com.), iii, 295. 



"^ Leland, writing about 1536, noted 

 that ' Mr. Bradshaw hath » place called 

 Haigh a mile from Wigan. He hath 

 found much cannel like sea coal in his 

 ground, very profitable to him ' ; Itin, vii, 

 47. These mines led to various law 

 suits ; see Ducatus (Rec. Com.), ii, 179, &c. 



In 1554 Roger Bradshaw said that 

 he was owner of the demesne lands of 

 the manor of Haigh, within which there 

 had always been certain mines or pits of 

 a kind of fuel called cannel, wherein the 

 tenants within the lordship had been 

 accustomed to dig and get cannel to be 

 ' spent and brent ' in their tenements, 

 for which they had paid by boons, presents, 

 and averages ; Duchy Plead, iii, 182. 



^ James son and heir of Roger Brad- 

 shaw married, in or before 1567, Jane 

 the daughter and heir of Thomas Hoghton 

 of Hoghton i Dods. MSS. cxlii, fol. 44. 



88 Richard son of Roger Bradshaw of 

 Haigh was baptized at Wigan, 28 

 Dec. 1601 ; Reg. 51. In 1623, on en- 

 tering the English College at Rome 

 under the name of Barton, he gave the 

 following particulars : ' My true name is 

 Richard Bradshaw. I am in my twenty- 

 second year, was born in Lancashire, and 

 for the most part brought up there. My 

 parents are Roger Bradshaw of Haigh . . . 

 and Anne his wife. The former, who had 

 been brought up in the Catholic religion. 



left it in his youth ; at length, however, 

 by the goodness of God, about six months 

 ago, he again embraced the true faith and 

 I hope will persevere in it until death. 

 My mother, brought up a Catholic by her 

 parents [Anderton of Lostock], has never 

 professed any other religion. I have 

 seven brothers and six sisters, all of whom 

 are Catholics. I received some local 

 schooling until my fifteenth year, when I 

 gave myself up to hunting and suchlike 

 youthful sports ; but by good fortune 

 being sent to St. Omers College, I 

 applied myself to humanity studies. I 

 was always a Catholic' He afterwards 

 joined the Society of Jesus, and from 

 1655 to 1660 was head of the English 

 Province ; Foley, Rec, Soc, Jesus, i, 

 229-32, where extracts from his letters 

 are given ; vii, 78 ; GiUow, Bibl. Diet, 

 of Engl. Cath. i, 287 ; Diet, Nat. Biog, 



Thomas Bradshaw, a younger brother, 

 entered the English College from St. 

 Omers in 1626, and made a similar 

 declaration : * My chief relations are 

 uncles and aunts, all Catholics, except 

 one uncle, Alexander Bradshaw, who is 

 a Protestant'; Foley, i, 228. He also 

 became a Jesuit and laboured in England 

 from 1650 to 1663 ; vii, 79. A third 

 brother Peter, also a Jesuit, served the 

 English missions from 1650 to 167;, and 

 was twice rector of the Lancashire 

 district ; ibid, vii, 77. Another brother, 

 Edward, a Carmelite, after a term of 

 imprisonment was banished, but returned 

 to England and ministered at Haigh Hall ; 

 he was a student of English antiquities ; 

 Gillow, op. cit. i, 286. Another brother, 

 Christopher, was a secular priest. Three 

 of the sisters were nuns. A brother 

 William was knighted by Charles 1 ; his 

 will is printed in Lanes. Pf^ills (Chet. Soc, 

 new sen), ii, 66. 



'^ Duchy of Lane, Inq. p.m. xxix, no. 

 66, His eldest son James was buried 

 at Wigan 7 June 1631 ; Royalist Comp, 

 Papers (Rec. Soc, Lanes, and Ches.), i, 

 229, 230. 



A pedigree was recorded in 161 3 ; 

 Visit, (Chet. Soc), 57. Roger refused 

 knighthood, paying in 1632 a composition 

 of 20 marks ; Misc, (Rec. Soc. Lanes, 

 and Ches.), i, 222, 



*" Royalist Comp. Papers, i, 228-33 i '' '' 

 obvious that strict inquiries were made 

 by the Commonwealth authorities. There 

 are numerous references to the family in 

 the Cal. of Com. for Compounding. 



*^ The guardianship system was a 

 common and successful means of induc- 

 ing such conformity. 



Dr. Wroe, warden of Manchester, who 



H7 



preached the funeral sermon, said : 

 'His religion was true Protestant; not 

 that of late falsely so called, but that 

 which is by law established, the religion 

 of the Church of England ; in which he 

 was happily educated and instructed in 

 his greener years by the care and directions 

 of the Right Honourable James, Earl of 

 Derby, to whom he was entrusted by his 

 faithful guardian, John Fleetwood of 

 Penwortham, esq. ; to whose religious 

 designs and the joint endeavours of his 

 virtuous consort he owed the early 

 impressions of piety, and in that family 

 first commenced Protestant, and was 

 thence sent into the Isle of Man, where 

 the principles he had already imbibed 

 were soon cultivated and improved under 

 the umbrage of that religious, loyal and 

 great man ; * quoted in Pal. Note Bk. ii, 34. 

 One of his sisters was a nun and the other 

 married Thomas Culcheth of Culcheth. 



^^ Burke, Extinct Baronetcies. A pedi- 

 gree was recorded in 1664 ; Dugdale, 

 Visit. (Chet. Soc), 52, 



"^^ Pink and Beaven, Pari. Rep. of Lanes, 

 yy, 78. He was made a knight in the 

 same year ; Le Neve, Knights (Harl. Soc), 

 yy. He was re-elected in 1661, this 

 Parliament lasting till 1678, There is a 

 monument to him in Wigan Church ; 

 Bridgeman, op. cit. 701, 702. 



In a fine of 1673 the estate is described 

 as the manor of Haigh, sixty-four 

 messuages, two water-mills, a saw-mill, 

 500 acres of land &c., with views of 

 frankpledge in Haigh and Wigan. The 

 deforciants were Sir Roger Bradshaw, 

 kt., Elizabeth his wife, and Roger Brad- 

 shaw, esq. ; Pal. of Lane. Feet of F. bdle. 

 191, m. 71. 



** Hist. MSS. Com, Rep. xiv, App. iv, 84. 

 There are a number of Bradshaw letters 

 in this volume, *^ Ibid. 161, 



*^ The son represented the borough of 

 Wigan in 1678, and the county in 1685 ; 

 Pink and Beaven, op. cit.228, 79. Like his 

 father he was a Tory. He was knighted 

 in 1679 ; Le Neve, Knights, 330. 



^7 He was a member for Wigan in 

 fourteen successive Parliaments from 1695 

 till his death, 25 Feb. 1746-7 5 Pink and 

 Beaven, op. cit. 230-3. According to 

 this he was Tory down to the accession 

 of George I, when he became a Whig. 

 He restored the family chapel in Wigan 

 Church in 1719 ; Bridgeman, op. cit. 620, 

 A view of Haigh Hall as it existed in his 

 time is given in Baines' Lanes. For 

 recoveries of the manor in Aug. 1697, 

 see Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 4.66 ; in 1727, 

 R. 524, m. 7d. ; in 1730, R. 533, m. 



2d. 



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