ociety of Friends, and gave considerable time to
philanthropic work, died in 1853.

BRADSHAW, HENRY (c. 1450-1513), English poet, was born at Chester. In
his boyhood he was received into the Benedictine monastery of St
Werburgh, and after studying with other novices of his order at
Gloucester (afterwards Worcester) College, Oxford, he returned to his
monastery at Chester. He wrote a Latin treatise _De antiquitate et
magnificentia Urbis Cestriae_, which is lost, and a life of the patron
saint of his monastery in English seven-lined stanza. This work was
completed in the year of its author's death, 1513, mentioned in "A
balade to the auctour" printed at the close of the work. A second ballad
describes him as "Harry Braddeshaa, of Chestre abbey monke." Bradshaw
disclaims the merit of originality and quotes the authorities from which
he translates--Bede, William of Malmesbury, Giraldus Cambrensis, Alfred
of Beverley, Henry of Huntingdon, Ranulph Higden, and especially the
"Passionary" or life of the saint preserved in the monastery. The poem,
therefore, which is defined by its editor, Dr Carl Horstmann, as a
"legendary epic," is rather a compilation than a translation. It
contains a good deal of history beside the actual life of the saint. St
Werburgh was the daughter of Wulfere, king of Mercia, and Bradshaw gives
a description of the kingdom of Mercia, with a full account of its royal
house. He relates the history of St Ermenilde and St Sexburge, mother
and grandmother of Werburgh, who were successively abbesses of Ely. He
does not neglect the miraculous elements of the story, but he is more
attracted by historical fact than legend, and the second book narrates
the Danish invasion of 875, and describes the history and antiquities of
Chester, from its foundation by the legendary giant Leon Gaur, from
which he derives the British name of Caerleon, down to the great fire
which devastated the city in 1180, but was suddenly extinguished when
the shrine of St Werburgh was carried in procession through the streets.
_The Holy Lyfe and History of saynt Werburge very frutefull for all
Christen people to rede_ (printed by Richard Pynson, 1521) has been very
variously estimated. Thomas Warton, who deals with Bradshaw at some
length,[1] quotes as the most splendid passage of the poem the
description of the feast preceding Werburgh's entry into the religious
life. He considered Bradshaw's versification "infinitely inferior to
Lydg