- the Church of England, proved from the Nonconformists' Principle,' 1634, 4to, in reply to Bradshaw and Alexander Leighton, M.D., a non-separatist presbyterian. Gataker then brought out a supplemented edition of Bradshaw's book, 'The Unreasonableness of the Separation made apparent, in Answere to Mr. Francis Johnson; together with a Defence of the said Answere against the Reply of Mr. John Canne,' 1640. 4to.)
- 'A Treatise of Justification,' 1615, 8vo; translated into Latin, 'Dissertatio de Justificationis Doctrina,' Leyden, 1618, 12mo; Oxford, 1658, 8to. (Gataker says that John Prideaux, D.D., a strong opponent of Arminianism, afterwards bishop of Worcester, expressed pleasure at meeting Bradshaw's son, 'for the old acquaintance I had, not with your father, but with his book of justification.')
- The 2nd edition of Cartwright's 'A Treatise of the Christian Religion, …' 1616, 4to, has an address 'to the Christian reader,' signed W.B. (Bradshaw).
Probably posthumous was
- 'A Preparation to the receiving of Christ's Body and Bloud, …' 8th edit., 1627, 12mo.
Certainly posthumous were
- 'A Plaine and Pithie Exposition of the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians,' 1630, 4to (edited by Gataker).
- 'A Marriage Feast,' 1620, 4to (edited by Gataker).
- 'An Exposition of the XC Psalm, and a Sermon,' 1621, 4to. (The first of these seems to have been separately published as 'A Meditation on Man's Mortality;' the other is the same as 14.) In addition to the above, Brook gives the following, without date;
- 'A Treatise of Christian Reproof.'
- 'A Treatise of the Sin against the Holy Ghost,'
- 'A Twofold Catechism.'
- 'An Answer to Mr. G. Powell' (probably the same as 11, but possibly a reply to one of Powell's earlier tracts).
- 'A Defence of the Baptism of Infants.'
A collection of Bradshaw's tracts was published with the title, 'Several Treatises of Worship & Ceremonies,' printed for Cambridge and Oxford. 1660, 4to; it contains Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 8, 9 (which is dated 1604) and 10. From a fly-leaf at the end, it seems to have been printed in Aug. 1660 by J. Rothwell, at the Fountain, in Goldsmith's Row. Cheapside. All the tracts, except 3 and 4, have separate title-pages, though the paging runs on, and are sometimes quoted as distinct issues.
[Life, by Gataker, in Clark's Martyrology, 1677; Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, Dublin, 1759, i. 381, 418; ii. 62 seq., 106; Brook's Lives of the Puritans, 1813, ii. 212, 264 seq., 376 seq.; Brook's Memoirs of Cartwright, 1845, pp. 434, 462; Fisher's Companion and Key to the Hist. of England, 1832, pp. 728, 747; Rose, Biog. Dict. 1857, v. 1; Cooper's Athenæ Cantab. 1861, ii. 236, 405 seq.; Barclay's Inner Life of the Rel. Societies of the Commonwealth, 1876, pp. 67, 99, 101; Wallace's Antitrin. Biog. 1850, ii. 534 seq., iii. 565 seq.; extracts from Stapenhill Registers, per Rev. E. Warbreck. The list of Bradshaw's tracts has been compiled by help of the libraries of the Brit. Museum and Dr. Williams, the Catalogue of the Advocates' Library, Edin., and a private collection. Further search would probably bring others to light. They are not easy to find, owing to their anonymity.]
BRADSHAW, WILLIAM (fl. 1700), hack writer, was originally educated for the church. The eccentric bookseller John Dunton, from whom our only knowledge of him is derived, has left a flattering account of his abilities. ‘His genius was quite above the common order, and his style was incomparably fine. … He wrote for me the parable of the magpies, and many thousands of them sold.’ Bradshaw lived in poverty and debt, and under the additional burden of a melancholy temperament. Dunton's last experience of him was in connection with a literary project for which he furnished certain material equipments; possessed of these, Bradshaw disappeared. The passage in which Dunton records this transaction has all his characteristic naïveté, though it may be doubted whether, if Bradshaw lived to read it, he derived much satisfaction from the plenary dispensation which was granted him—'If Mr. Bradshaw be yet alive, I here declare to the world and to him that I freely forgive him what he owes both in money and books if he will only be so kind as to make me a visit.' Dunton believed Bradshaw to be the author of the 'Turkish Spy,' but this conjecture is negatived by counter claims supported on better authority (Gent. Mag. lvi. pt. i. p. 33; Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, i. 413; D'Israeli, Curiosities of Literature, 5th ed. ii. 134).
[Life and Errors of John Dunton, 1705, ed. 1818.]
BRADSHAW, WILLIAM, D.D. (1671–1732), bishop of Bristol, was born at Abergavenny in Monmouthshire on 10 April 1671 (Cooper, Biographical Dictionary). He was educated at New College, Oxford, taking his degree of B.A. 14 April 1697, and proceeding M.A. 14 Jan. 1700. He was ordained deacon 4 June 1699, and priest 26 May 1700, and was senior preacher of the university in 1711. On 5 Nov. 1714, when he was chaplain to Dr. Charles Trimnell, bishop of Norwich, he published a sermon preached in St. Paul's Cathedral. After having been for some time incumbent of Fawley, near Wantage, in Berkshire, he was appointed on 21 March 1717 to a prebend of Canterbury, which he
