Bradshaw

Bradshaw is a footman in the household of Dr. Henry Jekyll, one of the servants who, along with the cook, housemaid, and knife-boy, huddles in terror about the hearth in the brightly lit hall on the night of the final crisis. When Mr. Utterson and the butler Poole resolve to force their way into the cabinet, the lawyer summons Bradshaw by name, and the footman comes "very white and nervous." Utterson instructs Bradshaw to take the boy with him, arm themselves with a pair of good sticks, and post themselves at the laboratory door to prevent any malefactor from escaping by the back. The lawyer gives them ten minutes to reach their stations. Bradshaw's visible fear and his silent obedience to this dangerous assignment mark him as one of the many ordinary people caught in the spreading dread that has overtaken Jekyll's house, where the servants, as Poole reports, "are all afraid." His role is purely functional: he is the last line of defense against Hyde's possible flight, and his presence completes the cordon that Utterson and Poole establish before they break down the cabinet door. After the door is forced and Hyde's body is discovered, Bradshaw does not reappear in the narrative; his part ends with the successful execution of the guard duty he was ordered to perform.