The first member of the Bradshaw family that is listed as living in Halton, was William Bradshaw, an experienced and well-regarded tapestry weaver who worked in London. He was the son of James and Elizabeth Bradshaw who lived in Cockerham, another village not too far away from Halton, in 1700.

William was friends with a well-known furniture maker William Gillow before he went to London in 1728. He must have been a hardworking and driven man, regardless of what financial backing he might have had, as he established premises in three locations in London, taking them over from Joshua Morris after Joshua lost a lawsuit to William Hogarth. He earned enough money to retire in 1748, returning to the north of England and the house that he had purchased five years before, Halton Hall.

His nephew William Fletcher Bradshaw was a forceful and charismatic man, who owned Halton Hall up until his death in April 1815. William changed his middle name as a mark of respect to his uncle, becoming William Bradshaw Bradshaw after he inherited in 1775. He and his first wife Isabella had five children together, one of which, their daughter Elizabeth was born before their wedding in an act that would have been remarked upon at the time.

Isabella and William had the following children:

– Elizabeth

– Sarah (1800)

– Robert Fletcher (1801)

– Isabella (1802)

– Margaret (1803)

– Maria (1804)

William and Isabella’s sole heir Robert Fletcher was born in 1801 and was their third born child. Robert was possibly a headstrong man, inheriting his father’s disposition, as he married before he came of age. Robert married his cousin Sarah Anne in 1819, he was seventeen and she was four years his senior. The two of them were evidently a very fertile couple who loved each other, seeing as they managed to have fourteen children together.

Their children were called:

– Annie (born 1822)

– Robert Fletcher (born 1822)

– Sarah Isabella (21.04.1823- 25.05.1875)

– Sydney Maria (1824)

– Millicent Jane (1825)

– Henry Yates (26.07.1826- 10.09.1826)

– Charlotte Elizabeth (1827)

– Charles Billington (1828)

– George Wrayfell (1830)

– Phoebe Ellen (1831)

– William (01.10.1832- 17.11.1832)

– Cicely Mary (1834)

– Sofia Alicia (1835)

– Frances Emily (1837)

Unfortunately, they lost three of their children before they reached adulthood, something that was all too familiar to others of their time.