This family was reported in Magna Britannia being a Topographic Account of the Several Counties of Great Britain (The Rev. Daniel and Samuel Lysons, 1810).

“the eldest branch of the Kelsalls who were of Kelsall in Tarvin became extinct at an early period: a younger branch was of Bradshaw and Heathside, both in Cheadle: the immediate descendant of this family is Oldfield Kelsall who is the present owner of Bradshaw Hall but resides in Chester. James Kelsall a younger son of the Bradshaw family settled in Audley in Staffordshire and died in 1583 at the age of 107 years leaving a numerous family, a branch of which settled at Barthomley and became extinct in 1802. Another branch of the Kelsalls, which was of Trafford, has become extinct also in the male line, the heiress of this branch married J. Clegg of Withington”.

This account links the Bradshaw family to both the Kelsall area and the tree of James Kelsall of Audley but actual pedigrees have not been connected.

The Bradshaw pedigree is included in East Cheshire: Past and Present, A History of the Hundred of Macclesfield in the County Palatine of Chester (J.P. Earwacker, 1877) with the following history:

Bradshaw Hall, in this township, was purchased about the year 1550 from Sir John Savage, Knt., by James Kelsall, who, in an old pedigree, is called a lawyer. He was the founder of the family of the Kelsalls of Bradshaw, who were seated here for many generations. The accompanying pedigree is rendered as trustworthy as the records I have seen will at present permit. In the fifth generation a difficulty occurred in ascertaining who was the father of the Reginald Kelsall who was undoubtedly of Bradshaw Hall. He married for his first wife Margery, one of the four daughters and coheiresses of William Newton, of Pownall, Esq. She died in 1636, and on the death of their only surviving son, James Kelsall, in the same year, an inquisition post mortem was held, which, however, relates entirely to the lands to which Margery Newton was joint heir, and it has accordingly been quoted in the account of Pownall Hall (seep. 125). The Kelsalls did not enter at any of the Cheshire Visitations. On the death of Oldfeld Kelsall, the last of that family, in 1817, without issue, his estates passed to the Rev. Charles Prescot, B.D., Rector of Stockport, who had married in 1784 Jane Dyson, the only niece of Oldfeld Kelsall. They are at present vested in the Rev. Oldfeld Kelsall Prescot, late Vicar of Alderton, co. Wilts, and now of Bournemouth, grandson of the Rev. Charles Prescot. Bradshaw Hall is now a gabled farmhouse, which has been stuccoed over and much modernized internally. It stands about half a mile from the high road between Cheadle and Wilmslow.

The pedigree copied direct from Earwacker is inserted below, followed by a transcription in genealogical report format made by Andrew Kelsall Pearson.

In 1664 Reginald Kelsall, then head of the family, refused to enter his pedigree at the heralds’ visitation and was thus denied the right to bear arms and to be styled ‘gentleman’. There is however a small brass plaque to the Kelsall family in Cheadle Church which shows that the family chose to defy this order for it is headed with a decorative coat of arms. This is presumably the coat of arms included with the pedigree reproduced by Earwacker, copied below.

Some people (and companies selling genealogical merchandise may present this as the Kelsall coat of arms but this would have been specific to the Bradshaw family.

Another document reproduced below tells the sordid tale of the seduction of Catherine Fallowes by Radcliffe Kelsall of Bradshaw in the 17th C.

The final document reproduced identifies Kelsall gravestones from St. Mary’s Church, Cheadle. It also describes a window presented in 1879 by the Rev. Oldfield Kelsall Prescot of Bournemouth, the great grandson of the last of the Kelsalls with issue. It depicts Jesus taking leave of His disciples before His Ascension.

Rosalind Couchman is descended from this line via Jane Kelsall (1734-1808).

Another descendant may have been Henry Kelsall Prescott who died in 1995. The following summary of his biography and pedigree was prepared by Andrew Kelsall Pearson.

Henry Kelsall Prescott (“KP”) was born on October 5, 1898, the son of a solicitor with a practice in Bombay and was appointed to the staff at Eton College in September 1930. A lifelong abstainer and nonsmoker, [KP] was an enthusiast of powerful vintage motor cars including an open 50-hp Mercedes (known to the boys as “Goering” from its supposed provenance). For most of his life … [KP] tended to be alarmed by women, and might cross the road to avoid confronting a colleague’s wife, especially if she were pushing a pram. It was not until his ninth decade that his manner became more relaxed”. In 1958 he retired but within a few months he was recalled for a further 10 years after the sudden death of the college librarian. “Security was then uncomplicated: at the end of each half, acting on the provost’s instructions, [KP] would trundle the Gutenberg Bible down to the bank in a wheelbarrow, and then back again for the following half.”

According to Earwaker’s History of East Cheshire, it seems most likely that KP descended from Jane, daughter of Smith Kelsall (1706-1782), who married Joseph Dyson, one time Mayor of Chester. Their daughter, also Jane, married Rev. Charles Prescot, rector of Stockport and possessor of Bradshaw Hall in 1784. Jane Prescot died in 1819 and Charles in 1820.  Their eldest son, (Rev.) Charles Kenrick Prescot (“CKP”) was born in 1786, rector of Stockport 1820-1875, and died May 4 that year. CKP had married Emma Octavia Warre and they had children:(Rev.) Kenrick Prescot (born 1830) Charles Warre Prescott (born 1838) – “a solicitor in Bombay” – as well as 8 daughters, 3 dead, 4 married and one unmarried. In my opinion, it seems likely there was an intermediate generation between Charles Warre Kelsall and KP himself.

 

 

BRADSHAW

 

Savage Seduction of Catherine

 

Cheadle gravestones