Henry Bradshaw

English Benedictine and poet, b. in the City of Chester, England, date unknown; d. 1513. From very early years his life was spent at St. Werburgh’s monastery, with the exception of a period during which he was pursuing a course in theology at Gloucester College, Oxford. His writing are “De Antiquitate et magnificentiâ Urbis Cestriæ”, and “Chronicon and a Life of St. Werburgh”. This second work, in English verse, includes the “Foundation of the City of Chester” and the “Chronicle of the Kings”; it fixes the year of Bradshaw’s death by a poem addressed to him, was printed by Pinson in 1521, and re-edited by E. Hawkins for the Chetham Society, 1848. The poet followed mainly a Latin work then in the library of St. Werburgh, called “The True or Third Passionary”, by an author whose name was unknown to Bradshaw. His work, written not for the learned, but for the ruder classes, has been variously appraised by critics.