Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bradshaw, James (1636?-1702)
BRADSHAW, JAMES (1636?–1702), ejected minister, of the Bradshaws of Haigh, near Wigan, the elder and royalist branch of the family, was born at Hacken. in the parish of Bolton, Lancashire, about 1636. He was educated at the Bolton grammar school and Corpus Christ College, Oxford, but did not graduate. This was due to the influence of his uncle Holmes, then a minister in Northamptonshire, under whom he studied divinity, Returning to Lancashire, he was ordained minister of Hindley. With other Lancashire ministers, he was concerned in the royalist rising under Sir George Booth [q. v.] He was ejected in 1662, but, continuing to preach, he suffered some months' imprisonment at the instance of his relative Sir Roger Bradshaw, an episcopalian magistrate. On the indulgence of 1672 he got possession of Rainford Chapel,in the parish of Prescot. The neighbouring clergy now and then preached for him, read-ing the prayer-book; hence the churchwarden was able to say 'yes' to the question at visitations: 'ave you common prayer read yearly in your chapel?' Pearson, the bishop of Chester, would not sustain informations against peaceable ministers, so Bradshaw was not disturbed. He was also one of the Monday lecturers at Bolton. He died at Rainford in 1702, in his sixty-seventh year, his death being the result of a mishap while riding to preach. His son Ebenezer, presbyterian minister at Ramsgate, was ordained 22 June 1694 in Dr. Annesley's meeting-house, Bishopsgate Within, near Little St. Helen's (this was at the first public ordination among presbyterians after the Restoration). Bradshaw published:
- . 'The Sleepy Spouse of Christ alarm'd,' &c., 1677, 12mo (sermons on Cant. v., preface by Nathaniel Vincent, M.A., who died 21 June 1697, aged 52).
- 'The Trial and Triumph of Faith.'
Halley confuses him (ii. 184) with another James Bradshaw, born at Darcy Lever, near Bolton, Lancashire, educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, presbyterian rector of Wigan, who in 1644 encouraged the siege of Lathom House by sermons from Jerem. xv. 14, in which he compared Lathom's seven towers to the seven heads of the beast. He was superseded at Wigan by Charles Hotham for not observing the parliamentary fast, but called to Macclesfield, whence he was ejected in 1662. He preached at Houghton Chapel, and subsequently at Bradshaw Chapel, reading some of the prayers, but not subscribing. He died in May 1683, aged 73.
[Calamy's Account, 1713, pp. 16, 123; Calamy's Continuation, 1727, pp. 17, 140; Palmer's Nonconf. Memorial, 1802, i. 337, ii. 364; Hatfield's Manch. Socin. Controversy, 1825, p. 140; Halley's Lanc., its Puritanism and Nonconf., 1869, i. 391, 473, ii. 97, 105, 108, 185, 238; Cat. Dr. Williams's Library, 184 1, ii. 432; Fisher's Comp. and Key to Hist. of Eng. 1832. pp. 535, 757; Calamy's Hist. Acc. of my own Life, 2nd ed. 1830, p. 349; information from Rev. P. Vance-Smith, Hindley.]