James Benn Bradshaw

James Benn Bradshaigh Bradshaw (22 September 1832 – 1 September 1886) was a 19th-century member of parliament in the Otago region of New Zealand. He also played cricket.

Private life He was born in Barton Blount, South Derbyshire, England, the son of a clergyman. He was a gold prospector and miner in Australia before becoming a bank assayer. In Otago he was also an assayer, before becoming the editor of the Lake Wakatip Mail newspaper in 1863. During his political career he worked for reform of the laws relating to gold mining and for labour law reform and small landholders. He lived in Thames in the late 1860s and in April 1870, he married Harriette Clementina Bolton at Auckland. By the following year, they were back in Dunedin.

Political career

He first stood for the Otago Provincial Council in 1864, but was unsuccessful. He represented the Gold Field Towns electorate from to 1870; then from 1871 the Waikaia electorate, until he retired in 1875. He then represented the Dunedin Central electorate from 1884 until he died in 1886.

Death Bradshaw died of a stroke in Dunedin on 1 September 1886. He was survived by his wife and five children, and they returned to live in England.