John Bradshaw (Judges)

(15 July 1602 – 31 October 1659) was an English judge. He is most notable for his role as President of the High Court of Justice for the trial of King Charles I and as the first Lord President of the Council of State of the English Commonwealth.

John Bradshaw (sometimes spelt Bradshawe) the second son of Henry Bradshaw and Mary Marbury was born in 1602 probably at Wybersley (Wyberslegh) Hall in the village of High Lane near Stockport or possibly at the nearby Peace Farm, Marple (his father farmed at both) and baptized on 10 December in Stockport Church. As a child he attended the free school at Stockport, as well as schools in Bunbury, Cheshire, and Middleton.[1] During his teenage years he also attended Macclesfield Grammar School (now The King's School in Macclesfield). According to local tradition he wrote the following inscription on a gravestone at either Macclesfield or Bunbury in Cheshire:

"My brother Henry must heir the land,

My brother Frank must be at his command;

Whilst I, poor Jack, will do that

That all the world will wonder at!"

He was articled as clerk to an attorney in Congleton. After studying English law in London, he was called to the bar at Gray’s Inn on 23 April 1627. He served on the provincial bar of Congleton until he became mayor in 1637.[1] John Milton wrote highly of Bradshaw’s aptitude during his public service, saying that “All his early life he was sedulously employed in making himself acquainted with the laws of the country; he then practiced with singular success and reputation at the bar.”

At some time between 1640 and 1643, Bradshaw moved from Congleton to Basinghall Street in London. In 1643, he was elected judge of the London sheriff’s court. He maintained the post until his death.[1] Following the death of the Earl of Essex in 1646, Parliament voted Somerhill House to Bradshaw.[4] He was appointed a serjeant-at-law by Parliament and in 1648 Chief Justice of Chester and North Wales.

Trial of the King

In 1649 he was made president of the parliamentary commission to try the king. Other lawyers of greater prominence had refused the position. Bradshaw was a controversial choice as Lord President, and opinions of his efficiency as a judge varied. Bulstrode Whitelocke believed that he was “learned in his profession,” but Thomas Fuller dismissed him as a man “of execrable memory, of whom nothing good is remembered.”[3] The King himself, as well as much of the court, professed to having never heard of him.

Bradshaw himself did not attend court until the third session after his appointment, apologizing on the grounds that he had been out of London and disavowed his ability to perform “so important a task.”[3] While he served as the Lord President, he was flanked by an impressive personal guard and carried a sword at his side. He wore scarlet robes and a “broad-brimmed, bullet-proof beaver hat, which he had covered over with velvet and lined it with steel and he also wore armour underneath his robes.”[3] King Charles refused to recognise the authority of the court and would not plead. After declaring Charles I guilty as a “Tyrant, Traitor, Murderer, and a public enemy,” Bradshaw did not allow the king any final words. Under English law, a condemned prisoner was no longer alive and therefore did not have the right to speak, and Bradshaw followed this tradition strictly.

Commonwealth and Protectorate

On 12 March 1649 Bradshaw was elected President of the Council of State, which was to act as the Executive of the country's government in place of the King and the Privy Council. After wars in Scotland and Ireland the Long Parliament had still not dissolved itself or called for re-elections.On 30 April 1653, Oliver Cromwell declared Parliament and the Council dissolved and soon assumed rule as Lord Protector calling elections for a new Parliament himself.

Since 1 August 1649, Bradshaw had also held the post of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. After 1653, he served as commissioner of the Duchy, jointly with Thomas Fell, until mounting differences with Cromwell culminated in his resignation in 1654. Bradshaw, an ardent Republican, became an opponent of the Protectorate.

After Oliver Cromwell died in 1658, his son Richard succeeded him as Lord Protector and reinstated Bradshaw as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. In 1659, Bradshaw moved to Westminster after falling dangerously ill, and died on 31 October of the same year. He was buried with great honours at Westminster Abbey. The eulogy was given by John Rowe.[1] On his deathbed Bradshaw said that if called upon to try the King again he would be "the first man in England to do it".

Posthumous execution

Charles II was restored to his throne in 1660. On 30 January 1661 – the twelfth anniversary of the regicide – the bodies of Bradshaw, Cromwell and Henry Ireton were ordered to be exhumed and displayed in chains all day on the gallows at Tyburn. Many sources claim that the body of John Bradshaw had previously removed by his son, James Bradshaw[6], who re-buried his father's remains on a hill near Martha's Brae on the island of Jamaica and marked the spot with a cannon. A location now known as "Gun Hill" is 2.5 miles SW of the northern port city of Falmouth, in Trelawny Parish, Jamaica. At sunset, back in England, the three bodies that had been displayed publicly as those of the three judges being executed posthumously were all beheaded. The bodies were thrown into a common pit and the heads displayed on pikes at Westminster Hall.[5] One of the three men had children who removed to Highland County, Virginia. James Bradshaw acquired the land in Jamaica where his fathers remains were buried. Several sources recorded an inscription with the cannon found on Gun Hill, Jamaica, and associate the quote that Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God[7] to John Bradshaw.