BRADSHAW, Thomas

By the mid fifteenth century several Bradshaw families, all probably sharing a common ancestry, had established themselves in Derbyshire and Staffordshire. In 1434 as many as six Bradshaws were sworn to the peace in the former county. Two of these families were settled in the vicinity of Derby, one at Windley, a few miles to the north, and another at Osmaston just to the south.2 S.M. Wright, Derbys. Gentry (Derbys. Rec. Soc. viii), 191; CPR, 1429-36, pp. 412-13. Our MP is likely to have been a member of the latter, perhaps a younger son of John Bradshaw, who was described as ‘of Derby, gentleman’ when listed in the subsidy returns of 1431 as seised of property in Osmaston and Duffield.3 Feudal Aids, i. 304, 307. John was assessed on an annual income of £6 in the subsidy returns of 1435-6: E179/240/266. He was probably the s. and h. of another John, who attested the Derby parllty. return of 1426 and whose wid., Agnes, was party to a fine in 1431 conveying property in the town: C219/13/4; Derbys. Feet of Fines (Derbys. Rec. Soc. xi), 1064, 1078. Thomas Bradshaw’s first certain appearance in the records dates from 29 Oct. 1449 when he was present at the borough’s parliamentary election.4 C219/15/7. He is to be distinguished from his more important namesake, who was one of the county coroners from about 1415 and, as such, attested nine Derbys. elections from 1417 to 1432. Either he or our MP attested the Derbys. election of 1447: C219/15/4. Thereafter he very quickly assumed a prominent part in town affairs. At the following election in October 1450 he was himself returned to represent the town in Parliament.5 C219/16/1. Later, while serving as the town’s bailiff, he was one of a number of leading townsmen, including Elias Tyldesley* and John Spicer*, involved in offences against the neighbouring abbey of Darley. According to a bill laid before justices of oyer and terminer who came to the town in September 1454, a riotous assembly of over 70, our MP among them, had, on 13 Nov. 1453, rung the bells of the church of All Saints, ‘discordie videlicet Awkewardly’, as a signal for the gathering of an armed band of 300 men which then went to throw down the close and hedges of the abbey at Little Darley. Like those indicted with him Bradshaw was able to put himself back on the right side of the law on payment of a small fine.6 KB9/12/1/2.

Soon after, Bradshaw came into conflict with the influential gentry family of Statham of Morley. On 10 June 1455 he and two others allegedly took 200 oaks, the property of John Statham, from Kilburn, a few miles to the north of Derby, but there is no evidence to give this offence a context.7. CP40/790, rots. 430, 433. Later, in December 1459, he took a joint lease, with John Brydde*, of a wood called Shining Cliff and other property in Alderwasley, several miles to the north of Derby, for a term of four years at 15s. p.a.8 C219/16/5; Derbys. RO, Hurt of Castern mss, unnumbered. In this last part of his career there is evidence to suggest that he had important connexions among the leading county gentry. In the late 1450s he was one of the joint plaintiffs of Walter Blount* in actions of forcible entry pursued in both central courts, and, far more significantly, he and his relative, Robert Bradshaw of Windley, were among those to whom Blount allegedly distributed livery at Barton Blount on 20 May 1461.9 CP40/790, rot. 363; KB27/794, rot. 46; KB9/13/22. This connexion with Blount arose despite the alleged involvement of John Bradshaw of Osmaston, who may have been our MP’s elder brother, in an attack on Blount’s servants at Derby in Apr. 1455: CP40/780, rot. 414; KB27/786, rot. 109. Indeed, this association with Blount may have originated several years earlier and may thus have been a factor in his election to the Parliament of 1450, in which Blount sat for the county and another of Blount’s associates, Thomas Agard*, was our MP’s colleague for the borough.

As a recipient of Blount’s livery Bradshaw was described as ‘of Quarndon, yeoman’ rather than, as he more commonly appears, as ‘of Derby, merchant’, and there can be little doubt that he had landed interests outside the town. Quarndon lay very near the residence at Kedleston of another of the leading men of the shire, John Curson, and this may explain why Curson appears among the executors of our MP. By Michaelmas term 1462 Curson, together with his fellow executors, our MP’s widow, Joan, a chaplain, William Wolset, and William Bulkeley, had pursued actions of debt in the court of common pleas as far as the issue of writs of outlawry, and it is therefore likely that our MP died shortly after taking Blount’s livery. In 1473 Henry Bradshaw took a lease of Shining Cliff in Alderwasley, an indication that he was the successor to our MP’s property.10 CP40/806, rot. 226; Hurt of Castern mss, unnumbered.