Dorothy Bradshaigh

Dorothy Bradshaigh (baptised 1705, d. 1785), British letter writer and cookery book compiler. After her marriage she lived at Haigh Hall near Wigan. Her letters and suggestions to Samuel Richardson influenced his novel The History of Sir Charles Grandison.

Life Bradshaigh was baptised on 21 March 1705 at Rufford, Lancashire. She was born with the last name of Bellingham - her parents were Elizabeth, (born Spencer) and some-time lawyer William Bellingham. She and her sister Elizabeth were her father's co-heirs and they shared their childhood home with Elizabeth Hesketh who was their mother's daughter from her first marriage. Her father's family home had been Levens Hall in Westmoreland until this was sold in 1688 as a result of the over spending by her paternal uncle, Alan. Her father's finances were transformed when he married her mother.

Private life She married Sir Roger Bradshaigh, Baronet and they had no children.

In 1804 a "fictitious" portrait of her was engraved and published. This is now in the National Portrait Gallery.