Edward Brocket

Thomas and Dionice Brocket of Brocket Hall had two sons, Thomas, of Brocket Hall who married Elizabeth Ashe and Edward who married Elizabeth Thwaytes. Thomas had no children. The rights to the manor passed to his brother Edward and continued in the family through his descendants until it came to Sir John Brocket who married Helen, daughter of Sir Robert Lytton of Knebworth Place.

Edward Brocket and Elizabeth had several children, six of them surviving at the time Edward died. In his will Edward left 'my vi childerne eche of theim a pece of siluer'.

There are three pedigrees that trace Edward’s lineage. Harley 807, followed by Berry and Clutterbuck. They create as many problems as they solve. In his will Edward left 'my vj childerne eche of theim a pece of siluer'. Three were sons, of full age—the last 2 therefore—Robert and William—born at the latest 1466 and 1467. Harley 807, followed by Berry and Clutterbuck, recorded 7 children, but only 2 were daughters. Perhaps their 3rd surviving daughter was another Elizabeth. Two sons were called Thomas in an attempt to continue the name of Edward's father and brother, and probably grandfather. The 1st Thomas was therefore probably the 1st son. The 3 pedigrees did not place the names in the same order; some of this was clearly in order to give visual balance to the charts on the page, but the Brokett descent in BL ms Add 29438 (which only listed heirs) said 'Thomas Brokett Esqr [Edward's] son & heir dy'd without issue male' and called John the 2nd son.

• Thomas. All evidence suggests that this Thomas died unmarried. The alledged marriage of Joan, daughter of Sir William Neville, Lord Fauconberg to a 'Mr. Thos. Brocket, of co. Herts' is to be rejected, compared and perhaps linked with a flawed attempt to make Dionisia more explicitly a Fauconberg heiress.
• John. Edward's heir, becoming head of the dynasty in Hertfordshire after Edward died in 1488.
• Thomas. Recorded as marrying Elizabeth CALTHROP or Calthorpe, heiress, Thomas appears to have stayed in Yorkshire. Calthrop is not a Hertfordshire name—there are no old Hertfordshire wills of that name—whereas one of the coats of arms in the windows of 16th C Steeton Hall were of Calthorpe (another was of Thwaites, MJ Harrison 2000 p 263). They had a daughter Margaret, but who apparently had no issue.
• Elizabeth. According to Harley 807 Elizabeth married DOCRAY, but according to the Hertfordshire Berry and Clutterbuck she married Thomas FISHER of Hertfordshire.The Visitation of Hertfordshire 1572 and 1634 for 'Docwra of Putteridge' (Metcalfe 1886 Appendix II 139) recorded Roger, 2nd son of Peter Docwra of Yorkshire, marrying Elizabeth 'daughter to Edward Brocket of Brocket Hall, co. York'. The 1860 Gateshead Pedigree followed Metcalfe. But the chronology is problematic. According to Metcalfe, between Roger and John (d 1531) there were 3 generations: Roger, Reignold, Richard, James, John. Even assuming as little as 21 year generation gaps, this would place Roger's birth in the early 1400s, while Elizabeth could not have been born before 1451. Two solutions could be:
  • 1. The Elizabeth who married Roger Docwra was the daughter of an earlier Brocket of Brocket Hall. There was only one—Edward's father Thomas (c 1370-1435), but if he had a daughter Elizabeth, she probably married a Hesylrigg. Thomas, however was probably himself not born much before Roger, so perhaps Elizabeth was a Yorkshire relative of the line that established Brocket Hall, and Metcalfe's 'of Brocket Hall' was a heraldic improvement.
  • 2. To follow Harley 807 which simply said, 'Elizabeth married unto Docray' and conclude that Elizabeth married another Docwra after 1450.
• Elizabeth—a second one?—who married HAZELRIGG. Harley 807 placed her as Edward's sister.
• Robert. While his brothers were bequeathed land in Hertfordshire, Robert was bequeathed the manor of Jewleas, near Appleton. Harley 807 dubbed him 'sine prole' (without issue), but his son and descendants were local lords of the main Broket manor there until 1565. Harley 807's frequent sine prole is genealogically unreliable and reflects inheritance concerns of 3 generations later. Children other than the heir are listed in each generation, for sure, but rather to dismiss any potential claim. Glover usually wrote that they died sine prole—without children—or sans issu; giving them no descendants emphasized the eldest line.
• William. Bequeathed the Manor of Herons in Wheathampstead. Although dubbed 'sine prole' by Glover like his brother Robert, William was probably the father of William Brockett, yeoman of Hitchin, died 1556.
• Alice married to Thomas PERIENT Esq.

Children of Edward Brocket and wife Elizabeth Thwaytes: [as best as can be determined by the three pedigrees discussed above]

• Thomas Brocket, born c.1451 and died quite young, probably before 1453, as the next son was given the same name.
• Thomas Brocket, born c.1453, often called “the Younger” to distinguish him from his dead brother. Recorded as marrying Elizabeth Calthrop or Calthorpe, heiress, Thomas appears to have stayed in Yorkshire. Calthrop is not a Hertfordshire name—there are no old Hertfordshire wills of that name—whereas one of the coats of arms in the windows of 16th C Steeton Hall were of Calthorpe (another was of Thwaites, MJ Harrison 2000 p 263). They had a daughter Margaret, but who apparently had no issue.
• Elizabeth Brocket, born c.1455. She married Thomas Fisher of Hertfordshire.
• Alice Brocket, born c.1459, married Thomas Pervent or Perient
• John Brocket, Esq., Sheriff of Hertfordshire, became the heir to the manors. He married Lucy Pulter by whom they had children, John, Edward Lucy, Elizabeth and Allice. Their son Edward married Margaret Mikleford. This Edward resided at Letchworth, Hertfordshire. The descendants of this Brocket line are the Brocketts of Codicot, Hertfordshire and the ‘Rector’ of Graveley parish who during the Civil War, 1642-51, was one of large number of the clergy ejected from their livings.
• Robert Brocket, born c.1466
• William Brocket, the youngest son, born c.1467, probably the founder of the “cadet line,” the Brocket’s of Campton and Dunton, Bedfordshire and Guilden Morden, Cambridgeshire.

Links to additional material:

• http://www.wheathampstead.net/brockett/index.htm
• http://www.brockett.info/hertfordshire/EdwardofWheathampstead.htm
• http://www.brockett.info/Hertfordshire/Glover.htm
• http://books.google.com/books?id=Qz42AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA227&lpg=PA227&dq...

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Edward Brocket died 25 Jul 1488. He was buried 1488 in Wheathampstead, , Hertfordshire, England.

He was the son of Thomas I Brocket and Dionisia Sampson.

He married Elizabeth Thwaites, daughter of John Thwaites and Jane Thornton. She died 1507. She was buried 1507 in Wheathampstead, , Hertfordshire, England

Children include

• Alice Brocket, married Thomas I Perient
• John Brocket, married Lucy Pulter

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From https://williamhenryfluen.de.tl/William-Thwaites.htm

John Thwaites of Denton was married twice, 1st to Jane Thornton.

Their daughter was Elizabeth Thwaites married Edward Brockett in 1450; the marriage brought Edward half of Steeton, which John Thwaites gave as a marriage dowry with his daughter, thereby making an alliance with the leading local family. In return the groom's family guaranteed the bride a juncture, an annuity in case of her widowhood, as mentioned in Edward's will.

• https://old.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=121104462