BRADLEY, John I

This MP presumably hailed from Bradley, a few miles to the south of Leominster. In a deed dated 30 July 1428 he is described as ‘of Leominster, mercer’, evidence, along with his two appearances at the hustings in the town, that he was resident there. Unlike the majority of the town’s MPs, he is known to have held land outside its boundaries. The deed cited above is a conveyance by Maurice Taylor and three other insignificant local men, his feoffees in property in Bradley and nearby Weobley, Dilwyn and King’s Pyon, to Walter Devereux I*, John Skydemore*, John Devereux and Richard Devereux. Four local esquires from two of Herefordshire’s leading families are unlikely trustees for a mere Leominster burgess, and it may be that this transaction represents the sale by Bradley of most of a modest patrimony. If so, the process of alienation was probably completed in the following year. By a final concord levied in Michaelmas term 1429 he and his wife, Joan, conveyed 18 acres of land and two acres of meadow in Weobley to John Brugge†, John Monnington*, George Breinton* and Thomas Barton of Weobley and the heirs of the latter.1 E40/6038; CP25(1)/83/54/26. He did, however, retain some property outside Leominster. According to an indictment taken before the county’s j.p.s at Shrewsbury on 28 July 1440, a local yeoman and others had on the previous 5 June broken into his house at Wellington, not far from Weobley, and stolen five marks in cash.2 KB27/736, rex rot. 8. No other certain references to him have been traced.