ABSTRACT
In February 1641, during a lawsuit concerning the nature of entry nes brought before the court of the Duchy of Lancaster by the leading tenants of Dueld against the lord of the manor, deponents on behalf of the tenants were asked whether one Anthony Bradshaw was ‘well acquaynted with the customes and usages of the said mannour? And was hee not industrious and carefull in wryteing and keepeing books of the sayd customes and usages? And was not the booke nowe shewed unto you the sayd Anthony Bradshawes booke?’.1 Some four decades later, in 1683 during the commission relating to a Chancery suit between John Heynes et al. and Henry Mellor et al., another of Anthony Bradshaw’s books, entitled ‘Notes of Dueld Frythe customes’, was shown to Vicesimus and George Bradshaw, two of his descendants, when examined on various interrogatories for the complainants.2 During that commission, the two men were also required to answer interrogatories relating to a third volume written by Bradshaw, which comprised a dialogue on the customs of
Dueld between him and an old friend. Furthermore, as late as 1792, during the commission relating to the Exchequer suit between William Lygon et al. and Jedediah Strutt et al., this latter volume was shown to one Charles Upton, gentleman, when being examined on one of the defendants’ interrogatories.4
