There is no evidence that Francis Bradshawe ever lived in Bradshaw Hall, which devolved on him on the death of his father, Godfrey, in 1607. Only three years elapsed between this event and his eldest son’s marriage, and in all probability the Hall had no permanent tenant until after it had been rebuilt. At any rate there is little doubt that Francis Bradshawe, the elder, as he is generally styled, lived on at Eyam Hall, where his chief interests lay, until his death, of which date there is no record. After the year 1615,[56] when he qualified as a magistrate for the county, nothing is known about him. His wife died before the 18th December, 1606, the date of a settlement of “money which rightly belonged to the said Francis in right of Anne, his late wife.” Francis, the eldest son of their very large family, succeeded him. The first date of which there is any evidence of his being in possession of the estates is 10th June, 1619, when he executed a deed entailing them on his heirs male. This same year, too, evidently marked the completion of the rebuilding of the Hall, for a stone is still in existence inscribed F.B., B.B., 1619, which most probably formed the centre-piece over the doorway in the entrance porch, now demolished. His wife was Barbara, daughter of Sir John Davenport, of Davenport, co. Chester. In his marriage settlements, bearing the date of 1610, he is described as barrister-at-law of the Inner Temple. Possibly he made London and Eyam Hall his headquarters till the completion of the hall, which work may well have begun soon after his grandfather’s death in 1607, when it was probably assigned to him as a future residence. It is fairly certain that the present hall was the first stone-built residence of the Bradshawes, for the following reason. After the civil wars of Stephen’s reign, it was found necessary to forbid such substantial residences to be built without permission from the King. Timber, therefore, was the principal material used for ordinary buildings, and only in the time of the Tudor Sovereigns did the long established custom of ignoring the stone of the district begin to die out. The half-timbered houses still so prevalent in Cheshire are scarce in our own county, but 300 years ago they were probably common enough, and as a contrast to the stone walls must have added considerably to the beauty of the Peak country. Such a house, therefore, we may well imagine the original Bradshaw Hall to have been, standing in a conspicuous place on the slope of Eccles Pike. [56] _Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals_, by Dr. Cox, vol. i., p. 38. In the time of Henry VIII., however, the ancient custom of allowing the smoke to find its own way out through a hole in the tiling, which was called the “louvre,” began to be discontinued, and stone-built chimneys were then added outside the timber house for the sake of safety. Mr. Gunson, in his article on Bradshaw Hall,[57] says:—