Talk:James Bradshaw (MP, born 1793)

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
	This article is supported by the politics and government work group (assessed as Low-importance).

Confusion - There were two MPs of that name, born same year[edit]

The James Bradshaw who was MP for Berwick and a subsequent seat is not the same as the James Bradshaw who was, with his father, the last MP for Brackley. According to his History of Parliament Biography, he was born 15 April 1786 and committed suicide in his father's lifetime in 1833.Cloptonson (talk) 20:07, 1 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Cloptonson: Well spotted - I've just picked this up as well. Historic Hansard conflates the two (which is a fair enough mistake) and it seems we've followed through. I think the date of birth quoted for the Berwick MP is in error, though - History of Parliament is very clear that it thinks 15/4/1786 is the Brackley MP. Do we have any kind of sources for the birthdate of this one? I've knocked it back to just 1786 for the time being Andrew Gray (talk) 16:24, 22 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The History of Parliament is likely to have a birthdate as it is recent enough within history to be exact. Look on online H of P for a volume that covers a year he was an MP.Cloptonson (talk) 11:21, 24 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Unfortunately he's not covered (yet) - he was first an MP in 1835, and that volume is still under preparation. I'll see if I can trace a newspaper obituary with an approximate age. Andrew Gray (talk) 17:12, 24 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

...and it turns out most of the contemporary obituaries confused the two! This from the Morning Post is representative: "He was a comparatively old member of the House, having first entered it in 1823, for the now disenfranchised borough of Brackley...". On the plus side, it very definitely confirms a death date of 4th March ("...expired yesterday afternoon..."). Honourable exception to the Canterbury papers, but you'd hope they would actually know something about the local MP. I can't find any obituaries which quoted a date, but if they've got the two muddled, then perhaps it wouldn't be very reliable anyway. Andrew Gray (talk) 17:29, 24 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Cloptonson: Okay, I've now drawn a blank on other approaches (eg a birth notification). I think our best bet is perhaps just to remove this one's birthdate entirely - I don't think we have any particularly solid basis for saying it's 1786 given what we know about the conflation. Andrew Gray (talk) 17:42, 24 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I've added his date of birth from a source on FamilySearch.org, not sure if this okay as it's a primary source?. I also created James_Bradshaw_(MP_for_Brackley), which was being redirected here. I think both could do with some more work Piecesofuk (talk) 09:14, 21 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]