John Bradshaw (criminal)
John Bradshaw (b. 1658/9) was an English criminal, convicted of the robbery and attempted murder of an Oxford fellow in 1677. The crime is known through the contemporary account of antiquarian and diarist Anthony Wood.
Early life
Bradshaw was born in
Robbery and prosecution
In the early morning of 13 July 1677, two scholars of Corpus Christi, Bradshaw and Robert Newlin, broke into the chambers of John Wickes, a senior fellow at the college and (Wood notes with some disgust) Bradshaw's "patron and benefactor".[2] They robbed Wickes's chambers, and then attempted to kill him by attacking him with a hammer while he slept. However the head fell off the hammer before it made contact, saving the fellow's life.[1][3][2]
Both men were apprehended and locked up in the college for a night. That night Newlin managed to escape, Wood reports, by the "connivance" of Newlin's uncle, the President of Corpus Christi
Bradshaw petitioned the king for reprieve, and on the 31 July, through the influence of Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey, it was granted. Annesly went on however to petition Secretary of State for the Northern Department Joseph Williamson for Bradshaw's transportation. He argued that, while "not [...] fit to continue of a college after such an offence", such a "man being young and of great parts and learning" ought to be transported. This recommendation went on to receive the support of the vice-chancellor of Oxford, Dr Henry Clarke.[1] However it is not known whether Bradshaw was transported, and Wood suggests otherwise.[1]
Later life
Bradshaw's later life is obscure. Wood, who recorded the circumstances of the initial robbery in his diary and went on to write about Bradshaw in his Athenae Oxonienses (1691-2), claimed that Bradshaw was pardoned entirely. He apparently later retired to Kent and taught at a petty school. Both Bradshaw and his associate Newlin were atheists in university, but Wood reports Bradshaw later became a
Wood attributes to Bradshaw the political pamphlet The
Wright notes that neither Quaker nor Catholic denominations have any record of John Bradshaw, and fundamentally "his later career remains a matter for speculation". Neither Bradshaw's place or date of death are known.[1]
References
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/3202. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ a b c d e Anthony Wood, "John Bradshaw" in Athenae Oxonienses (1820). Vol. IV. pp. 619-620.
- ^ a b c Thomas Foster, The history of Corpus Christi college (1893), p. 254.
- Early English Books Online.