John Bradshaw 1602-1659

John BRADSHAW 1602-1659

Biographical Note

Born in Wibersley, Cheshire, son of Henry Bradshaw of Marple Hall; the family rose from yeoman to gentry status during the 16th century. Entered Gray’s Inn 1620, called to the Bar 1627. He developed a legal practice in Cheshire and held municipal offices there during the later 1630s. He was appointed a judge in the City of London in 1643 and rapidly gained prominence as a parliamentarian lawyer, involved in high profile cases such as the appeal of John Lilburne in 1646. In 1649 he was appointed Lord President of the court established to try Charles I, and subsequently chaired the court to try and condemn royalist delinquents. He was the first chair of the council of state set up by the Rump parliament. He remained a significant political and legal figure throughout the 1650s, despite tensions with Oliver Cromwell, and during this time acquired extensive property, granted him by parliament from the estates of dispossessed royalists. He was a member of the council of state set up in May 1659 and was active in the period of constitutional uncertainty immediately preceding the Restoration, during which he died. A year later his body was exhumed and hung alongside Cromwell and Henry Ireton.

Books

Bradshaw bequeathed all his law books, and a selection of his “divinitie, history and other books” to his nephew Henry Bradshaw (d.1698). The collection, whose size is unknown, was apparently dispersed sometime before the 19th century.

Sources

• Kelsey, Sean. "Bradshaw, John, Lord Bradshaw (bap. 1602, d. 1659), lawyer, politician, and regicide." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Maggs (catalogues of the London booksellers Maggs Bros.) 1324 (2002)/76.