Nicholas Brome, Esq., second son of John Brome (alias Brown), Esq. and his wife Beatrix Shirley, was born about 1450. He was heir shortly before 12 January 1473/4 to his older brother, Thomas Brome.[1][2]
Nicholas's father was slain by John Herthill, steward to Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, in 1469, over a land dispute which led to a violent quarrel. A few years later, Nicholas encountered John Herthill near Longbridge, Warwickshire, and killed him.[3] Herthill's widow Elizabeth commenced legal proceedings but was persuaded to agree to arbitration. The resulting settlement required Nicholas to pay £151 to St Mary's Church, Warwick for the maintenance of a priest to say mass for a year for the souls of Herthill and Nicholas's own father, and to pay for a priest who would sing mass for their souls at the church of Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire for two years, while Elizabeth was to supply the bread and wine for the services at St Mary's, Warwick.[3]
On another occasion, Nicholas came home and found the parish priest of Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire "chocking [chucking] his [first] wife under the chin" in his parlour, and killed him in rage. For this he received pardons from both king and Pope. In penance he agreed to pay for a tower and steeple to be built at the church of Baddesley Clinton,[3][4] and for a steeple at the church of Packwood, Warwickshire.[3][5]
Nicholas was Escheator of Warwickshire and Leicestershire.[1] He was Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1504.[1][6]
Nicholas held lands in Baddesley Clinton, Kingswood, Lapworth Hall, Woodlows, and Warwick, Warwickshire and London.[1]
Marriages and Children
Nicholas married three times:
FIRST, on 10 February 1473/4 (by settlement dated 20 December 1473), Elizabeth Arundel, widow of William Whittington and daughter of Sir Renfrey Arundel and Joan Coleshull[1][2] (see Research Note, below). They had two daughters:
Isabel, married Sir Thomas Marrow,[1][2] who she predeceased[7]
Constance, married Sir Edward Ferrers[1][2] and died in 1551,[4] leaving issue.[7] A number of their descendants in the next century were recusants.[8]
His wife, Elizabeth, was living 10 July 1496.[1][2] Her date and place of death are not known.
Joyce,[1][2] (or Jocasa) was named in the 1551 will of her sister, Constance Ferrers, and the 1567 will of brother Ralph
Katherine was living 10 January 1506/7, and probably in 1509. She was appointed as an executrix of a will sometime in the period 1500-1515.[1][2] Her date and place of death are not known.
THIRD, (unknown date/place) [?Lettice] Catesby, daughter of Nicholas Catesby, Esq.[1][2] They had two sons:
Ralph, Esq.,[1][2] died 1567, married first Anne Digby and second to a daughter of William Newport and had issue with both wives[7]
Death and Burial
Nicholas died 10 October 1516 and was interred at the church of Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire.[1][2] At his request, he was buried in the church entrance, standing up, so that anyone going on would tread on his head[9] - presumably this reflected guilt over killings he had committed.
The manors of Baddesley Clinton were settled on his daughter Constance and her husband, Sir Edward Ferrers, in 1531.[4]
His widow Lettice's date and place of death are unknown.
Baddesley Clinton
The manor of Baddesley Clinton, was purchased by Nicholas' father, John Brome, in 1438. On John's death, the manor passed to his son, Nicholas:
"...who rebuilt the nearby parish church dedicated to Saint Michael. He did so as a penance for having murdered the parish priest, a crime reputed to have been committed inside the house. The house from this period was equipped with gun-ports, and possibly a drawbridge over the moat. When Nicholas Brome died in 1517, the house passed to his daughter, who in 1500 had married Sir Edward Ferrers, Sheriff of Warwickshire. The house remained a possession of the Ferrers family until 1940, when it was purchased by Thomas Walker, a relative of the family who changed his name to Ferrers. His son, who inherited it in 1970, sold the estate in 1980 to the National Trust, which now manages it."[10]
Research Notes
Elizabeth Arundel's First Marriage
Elizabeth Arundel's first husband, William Whittington, died in 1470 and they had a son John: "... the manor passed to Guy's grandson William Whittington (d. 1470) and to William's son John (fn. 137) (d. 1525)....". See British History Online: Pauntley Manor.
Death Year
A later inscription in the church of Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire, gives his death year as 1517: "Nicholas Brome Esquite Lord of Baddesley did new bvild this steeple in the raigne of King Henry the Seaventh. He died in October 1517."[4] Douglas Richardson gives the death date as 10 October 1516.[1][2] The Inquisition Post Mortem took place in 9 Henry VIII (April 1517 to April 1518).[11]
↑ 2.002.012.022.032.042.052.062.072.082.092.102.112.122.132.14 Douglas Richardson. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham. Salt Lake City, UT: the author, 2013, vol. III, page 271, HAWES 16, Nicholas Brome.
↑ 3.03.13.23.3 William Dugdale. The Antiquities of Warwickshire Illustrated, Vol. II, J Osborn and T Longman, 1730, pp.971ff, Google Books
↑ 4.04.14.24.3 L. F. Salzman, ed. "Parishes: Baddesley Clinton" in A History of the County of Warwick. Volume 4, Hemlingford Hundred. London: Victoria County History, 1947, pages 13-19. Online at British History Online, accessed 4 May 2020.
↑ 'Parishes: Packwood', in A History of the County of Warwick, Volume 5, Kington Hundred, ed. L F Salzman (London, 1949), pp. 129-132, British History Online, accessed 4 September 2020]
↑ 7.07.17.27.37.4 Hawes, James William. Edmond Hawes of Yarmouth, Massachusetts: An Emigrant to America in 1635. (New York: The Lyons Genealogical Co., 1914). Online at Archive.org, pages 80-91.
↑ John Fox. The Bromes of Holton Hall: A Forgotten Recusant Family. Online .pdf at Oxoniensia.org, the annual journal of Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society, accessed 4 May 2020.
↑ The National Archives, Chancery: Inquisitions Post Mortem, Series II, and other Inquisitions, Henry VII to Charles I, National Archives catalogue entry for 'Brome, Nicholas: Warwick, accessed 4 September 2020
Richardson, Douglas. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 4 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham. 2nd edition. (Salt Lake City, UT: the author, 2011). See also WikiTree's source page for Magna Carta Ancestry.
Richardson, Douglas. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham. (Salt Lake City, UT: the author, 2013). See also WikiTree's source page for Royal Ancestry.
Dugdale, William. The Antiquities of Warwickshire Illustrated, Vol. II, J Osborn and T Longman, 1730, pp.971ff, Google Books
"Baddesley Clinton's Medieval Murder Mystery: An Impact on Historical Fiction" online at OurWarwickshire.com: Story and photos.
Acknowledgements
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Magna Carta Project
This profile was reviewed and approved for the Project by Thiessen-117 on 4 May 2020.
Nicholas Brome Esq. is appears in project-approved/badged trails (reviewed by a Magna Carta Project member in May 2020) from Gateway AncestorEdmund Hawes to Magna Carta Surety BaronsRobert de Ros and Richard de Clare. This profile also appears in another trail between Gateway Edmund Hawes and surety baron Richard de Clare that is documented by Douglas Richardson in Magna Carta Ancestry, vol. II, pages 380-383 HAWES. That trail needs further development by the project. See the profiles in all these trails, along with the status of each profile, in the Magna Carta Trails section of Edmund Hawes' profile.
See Base Camp for more information about identified Magna Carta trails and their status. See the project's glossary for project-specific terms, such as a "badged trail".