BRADSHAW (Henry), a Benedictine monk, was
born at Chester, about the middle of the 15th century.
Discovering an early propensity to religion and litera-
ture, he was received while a boy into the monastery
of St Werberg in that city; and having there imbibed
the rudiments of his education, he was afterwards sent
to Gloucester college, in the suburbs of Oxford, where
for a time he studied theology with the novices of his
order, and then returned to his convent at Chester;
here, in the latter part of his life, he applied himself
chiefly to the study of history, and wrote several books.
He died in the year 1513, the fifth of Henry VIII.
His poetry is not inferior to that of any of his coter-
poraries. His works are, 1. De antiquitate et mag-
nificentia urbis Cestrie. 2. Chronicon. 3. The life
of the glorious virgin of St Werberg. Printed Lond.
1521, 4to, in verse. The life of St Werberg makes
only part of this work; for it contains also a descrip-
tion of the kingdom of Mercia, life of St Etheldred,
the life of St Sexburg, the foundation and history of
Chester, and the chronicles of some kings. Possibly
this work may include the two first. Bishop Tanner
says, that he wrote a chronicle in English verse, ex-
tracted from Bede, Malmesbury, Geraldus, and others.
Probably this is the chronicle abovementioned.