• General Notes

  The Bradshaigh Family
  In 1295 William de Bradshaigh, acquired Haigh and Blackrod Manors by marrying Mabel le Norreys de Haghe and Blackrode, which were Mabel's right as heir of the last-named Hugh le Norreys. William from his name is supposed to have been a descendant of the Bradshaghs of Bradshaw, near Turton.
  
  In 1302 William de Bradshagh held the twelfth part of a knight's fee in Haigh of the Earl of Lancaster. Sir William absented himself from Haigh, for his share in Adam Banastre's rebellion against the Earl of Lancaster in 1315 and the death of Henry de Bury. He was outlawed for felony and by 1317 his manors of Haigh and Blackrod had been taken into the king's hands and demised to Peter de Limesey, but Mabel de Haigh intruded herself. Sir William appears to have been killed at Winwick in August 1333.
  
  However, according to legend, ten years after leaving, Bradshaigh returned in 1324 - from the wars in Scotland - and promptly killed his wife's new husband, Sir Osmond Nevile, a Welsh knight. She had remarried, thinking Sir William had perished. Sir William made her walk barefoot and dressed in sackcloth from Wigan to Haigh Hall, once a week, for the rest of her life. The account was made into a novel by Sir Walter Scott, and the event is still marked by Mab's Cross, in Wigan Lane.
  
  Mabel's title to the Norreys lands must have been recognized, for in 1336 and 1337, when a widow and childless, she arranged for the succession to the manors as absolute owner, granting them to her husband's nephews; Haigh to William, a son of John de Bradshagh, and Blackrod to Roger son of Richard, who was another son. In 1338 she founded a chantry in Wigan Church for her husband's soul and her own, as also for the soul of Edward II. In 1346 Mabel de Bradshagh, heir of Hugh le Norreys, held the manor of Haigh for the twelfth part of a knight's fee and by the service of 10d., yearly.
  
  Early in 1365 Roger de Bradshagh of Westleigh demanded the manor of Haigh from William de Bradshagh and Sir Henry de Trafford, in virtue of the settlement of 1312. There may have been two Williams in succession, for William de Bradshagh, who died in 1380 seised of the manor of Haigh, left a son and heir Thomas only twelve years of age. Thomas de Bradshagh took part in the Percy rising of 1403 and was present at the battle of Shrewsbury; afterwards he received a pardon from Henry IV.
  
  Apart from the Bradshaw family there do not seem to have been any important landowners. In 1540, an antiquarian called John Leland reported that Sir Roger Bradshaigh had discovered a plentiful shallow seam of smooth, hard, Cannel Coal on his estate. The deposit came to be known as the Great Haigh Fault. The shallow depth of the Cannel meant that it was suitable for the simple surface mining methods available at that time. It could be worked and carved, and was an excellent light fuel which burned with a bright flame, it was easily lit and left virtually no ash. Widely used for domestic lighting in the early 19th Century, before the incandescent gas mantle was available, it gradually lost favour; as the use of coal gas made it obsolete
  Reported dead in the Crusades. On returning home from Crusades found hiswife, Mabel, had married Sir Osmund Neville, a Welsh Knight. Sir Osmondfled towards Wales, but was overtaken and slain near Neston Park inLancashire.
  
  http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=hayes-drake&id=I632090&style=TABLE

Details of William's family with Mabel de Norreys