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Name
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Bradshaw, William
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Date of birth
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1842
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Location
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Bibury
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Notes
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Birth / baptism
Gloucestershire, Northleach, 1842, Jul, Aug, Sep, Vol. 11 p 359; Bibury, Gloucestershire, 9 October, 1842 [AB];
Marriage
Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Cirencester, 1866, Apr, May, Jun, Vol. 6a, p 631; William Bradshaw married Harriet Reeves.
Death / burial
Gloucestershire, Northleach, 1920, Jan, Feb, Mar, Vol, 6a, p 520; age, 77.
BRADSHAW, WILLIAM
Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard,7/2/20 p.4 [Local news, Bibury]
TRAGIC DEATH AT BIBURY DETERMINED SUICIDE
On Wednesday night the death occurred under remarkable circumstances of William Bradshaw, aged 77, who resided with his wife at 24, Bibury Square. It appears that after going to his allotment and the Vicarage garden, he returned home at 3 pm. He had tea and sat by the fire until 8.30, when he had gruel and retired to rest. His wife did not hear anything further of him till midnight, when she went upstairs and told him she would get him a cup of tea. While doing so she heard him moving, and on going upstairs again saw him setting fire to the bedclothes with a candle, and holding his face in the flames. She tried to prevent him, but Bradshaw drove her out of the room and downstairs, out into the road. He locked the door and returned upstairs. Mrs Bradshaw called for help, and a neighbour, William Turner, forced an entrance, and on going upstairs found Bradshaw lying dead on the floor badly burned. Turner fetched the police constable, who found the bedding, a box, and a portion of the floor burnt where Bradshaw was lying dead. The old man had been suffering from bronchitis for about four months, and had been attended by Dr De War, who last saw him on Monday. Bradshaw had been an inmate of the county asylum, and his father had committed suicide by cutting his throat. These facts have been reported to the coroner, who is holding an inquest to-day.
My particular thanks to Dr. C J Bearman who researched a number of Gloucestershire singers as part of the Singing Landscape Project, 2008 - 2010 with whose kind permission this obituary is reproduced.
