I have traced, with not too much difficulty, my line of Middlebrookes to Harmston Lincolnshire where they were living in the 16th C(thanks to reigsters and Lincs to the Past). They were wealthy yeomen, and had clearly benefitted from the dissolution of the monasteries and the subsequent rise of Protestantism. But there the line comes to an abrupt stop. Before1500, I have found nothing on the Middlebrookes of Lincolnshire (who seem to have a local origin, distinct from those of the same surname in Yorkshire, according to one name studies).
In order to buy land, a family has to have money and/or have connections. They were doing land transactions with the manor lords of Harmston, the Thorolds, though not intermarrying with them.
My question is: has anyone seen documents of the Middlebrookes of Harmston dating from before 1500, which could establish how they gained their position and relative wealth during the 1600s and 1700s?
The first on my line is William Middlebrooke:
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Middlebrooke-6
