James Bradshaw

James Bradshaw (1717–1746) was an English Jacobite rebel.

Life Bradshaw was the only child of a well-to-do Roman Catholic in trade at Manchester. He was educated at Manchester free school, and learned some classics there. About 1734 he was bound apprentice to Charles Worral, a Manchester factor, trading at the Golden Ball, Lawrence Lane, London.

In 1740 Bradshaw was called back to Manchester through the illness of his father, and after his father's death he found himself in possession of a thriving trade and several thousand pounds. Very quickly (about 1741) he took a London partner, James Dawson, near the Axe Inn, Aldermanbury, and he married a Miss Waggstaff of Manchester. She and an only child both died in 1743. Bradshaw is an important eyewitness for the aftermath of the battle. He highlighted the barbaric treatment of the Jacobite prisoners by the Hanoverian regime: 'I was put into one of the Scotch kirks together with a great number of wounded prisoners who were stripped naked and then left to die of their wounds without the least assistance; and though we had a surgeon of our own, a prisoner in the same place, yet he was not permitted to dress their wounds, but his instruments were taken from him on purpose to prevent it; and in consequence of this many expired in the utmost agonies'.

Bradshaw was then taken to London by ship, with forty-two fellow-prisoners. He was taken to the New Gaol, Southwark; his trial took place at St. Margaret's Hill on 27 October. On that occasion he was dressed in new green cloth, and conducted his defence with great vigour. His counsel (who only had limited input into the trial, in accordance with the legal rules of the time) argued that Bradshaw had always had "lunatick pranks", and had been driven entirely mad by the death of his wife and child. Bradshaw was found guilty, and having been kept in gaol nearly a month more, he was executed on Kennington Common, 28 November 1746, aged 29. His scaffold speech gave an effective and eloquent defence of his Jacobite principles, including religion: 'I die a member of the Church of England, which I am satisfied would flourish more under the reign of a Stewart than it does now, or has done for many years. The friends of the House of Hanover say they keep out Popery. But do they not let in Infidelity, which is almost become (if I may so say) the religion established?'