Man About Town – July 2026

By Mark Edwardson

As a younger man I didn’t really pay much heed to my ancestry. In addition to my parents and sister I knew my grandparents, uncles, aunties and cousins. I was blessed with a kind, generous and loving family and I think about them every day. However, I didn’t see any point thinking about who had gone before after all I never knew any of them.

Being from grimy south Lancashire I didn’t expect there’d be much to discover. Both my grandfathers were colliers, my dad was a brickie whilst my mum was a school dinner lady and Kwik Save cashier. So far, so humble.

Being recently semi-retired I was looking for something to do. I considered golf but I know I’m useless at it. Sudoku? Mmmm. Line dancing? With my brace of left feet? No chance.

Instead, I bought a DNA testing kit and got started. Mercifully it wasn’t complicated. I posted a saliva swab and a week later I was up and running.

I was amazed to find there were some real surprises waiting for me. As it turns out I might be distantly related to the aristocracy, a very famous Congleton local and a notorious school bully.

Let’s start with my noble ancestors. The DNA test and a bit of research has led me to Sir William Parr, Marquis of Northampton.

Historians amongst you might recall he was the brother of a one Catherine Parr, Henry VIII’s sixth wife. My investigations suggest King Henry Tudor’s brother in law could be my 13th great uncle. I’m still trying to establish precisely how this happened but it could make sense. It’s known that Catherine’s family name reflects what could have been their ancestral home - Parr in modern day St Helens. I grew up next door in Haydock. And talking of neighbours the family adjacent to us was called, you guessed it, Parr! I feel compelled to point out we lived in three-bed semi’s and not royal palaces.

An on-line encyclopaedia says William was, “…a sincere, plain, direct man, not crafty nor involved”, whose “delight was music and poetry”. The similarities between us are striking. (Really? - Ed) However, just like Great (x13) Auntie Cath I’m not going to lose my head either.

Fast forward to the present day and a name I won’t mention popped up as a close cousin. I was shocked to discover that this lad and I are actually related through our mothers. I’ve considered contacting him just to say “Hi! Remember me?” but there’s a strong, lingering fear that he will come ‘round and beat me up for my dinner money again.

Meanwhile back in the middle ages, there’s some evidence I’m the 12th great descendant of a Lady Catherine O’Brien. She’s said to have been Irish by birth and later emigrated to the colonies in North America in the 16th Century. It looks like her final destination was a tobacco estate in the Carolinas. Judging by what we know now about how her family would have shamefully “recruited” their workers from west Africa all I can say is there’s always a bad apple if you look hard enough.

Finally, I was hugely excited to discover my 14th and fifteenth great grandfathers were called John Bradshaw - the elder being a Knight of the Realm. Could one of them be, I wondered excitedly, the same John Bradshaw of Congleton who signed the death warrant for King Charles the First? The man who was, according to history, President of the High Court of Justice and the first Lord President of the Council State of the English Commonwealth following the Civil War? The jurist who effectively ran the country on behalf of the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell? Whose house still stands proudly in Congleton town centre? At this point my heart started to race rapidly to a point where I thought about calling an ambulance. But the dates of birth don’t quite coincide. Nearly but not quite. Then the ultimate body blow for a professional northerner - the record shows they were born in Westminster. That’s right, darn sarf.

But I’m not giving up. Hopefully, I’ll establish a link with that fine man, John Bradshaw of Congleton and perhaps reclaim my birthright. It is a very nice house after all.