Bradshaw, William F.

Flourished: Ogle County, Illinois

William F. Bradshaw was a farmer, landowner, and deponent and pleading participant in Kemper v. Adams & Bovey, an ejectment case where Abraham Lincoln was legal counsel for the defendants, Adam Adams and John Bovey. In 1840, Bradshaw was living and farming near Dixon in Lee County, Illinois. In June 1842, he purchased approximately seventy-four acres of public land near Grand Detour, Illinois, and an additional 320 acres in the Pine Creek Township, north of Grand Detour. He also acquired approximately 820 acres near Dixon and Nelson in Lee County.

U.S. Census Office, Sixth Census of the United States (1840), Dixon, Lee County, IL, 212; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Ogle County, 716:2, 15; Lee County, 712: 202, 203, 716:5, 7, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Kemper v. Adams & Bovey, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=140935.