William Bruley, MP

Family and Education s. of John Bruley, ?by Bona Fitzellis. m. bef. Mar. 1380, his kinswoman Agnes, da. and h. of Henry Bruley of Waterstock, 1s. d.v.p. 2da.

Offices Held Escheator, Oxon. and Berks. 4 Feb. 1386-8.

Alnager, Oxon. 8 Feb. 1397-7 July 1399.

Biography The family of Bruley, originating at White Ladies Aston in Worcestershire (where it retained land), acquired property at Waterstock in the late 13th century. William Bruley, who belonged to a cadet branch, made good his claim to the family holdings through marriage to a relation, Agnes Bruley, whose title to them was stronger than his own. Thereafter, he was untroubled in possession of Waterstock and the other properties, save by a lawsuit brought in 1409. In addition, he and his wife held land in Little Milton and Little Rycote, nearby.1

Not long before his death in 1394 Sir Ralph Stonor, the wealthy Oxfordshire landowner, named Bruley among the feoffees of his principal estates, including those in Devon. One of his associates in the trust was Robert James* of Wallingford, who in January 1397 placed him in a similar position with regard to his own recently inherited lands in the locality, and, indeed, retained his services in this respect until his death. During the 1390s Bruley was also closely involved in the affairs of the family of Quatremayn: before his neighbour Thomas Quatremayn of Rycote died in 1398, he gave his manor in Great Milton in trust to Bruley, to hold on behalf of his widow, and it may be assumed that the marriage of Bruley’s son, John, to Quatremayn’s daughter, Maud, had already taken place. As a feoffee by nomination of his kinsman John Fitzellis (d.1395) of manors in Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, Bruley was party in 1409 to a settlement on Sir William Lisle* and his wife, Amy Fitzellis; in 1413 he acted as co-patron of the Fitzellis living at Yattendon, and four years later he made a formal quitclaim to Robert James (who had married into the Fitzellis family) of any right he had in the manor of Oakley. Another associate of his later years was his son-in-law, John Cottesmore, the able lawyer who was to rise to be chief justice of the common pleas shortly before his death in 1439.2

Bruley, last recorded in December 1419, may be presumed to have been still alive in March 1423, when John Danvers* of Calthorpe, who had married his grand daughter and heir Joan, presented to the living at Waterstock not by virtue of his wife’s inheritance but rather by her grandfather’s gift. Bruley’s landed holdings were all to pass in due course to Danvers and his sons.3

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421 Notes 1.VCH Worcs. iii. 559; VCH Oxon. vii. 222-3; Peds. Plea Rolls ed. Wrottesley, 266, 465; F.N. Macnamara, Mems. Danvers Fam. 223-5; CP25(1)191/23/13, 291/63/8. 2.CCR, 1392-6, p. 342; 1396-9, p. 125; 1405-9, pp. 482, 484; Boarstall Cart. (Oxf. Hist. Soc. lxxxviii), 123, 262-3, 266; VCH Oxon. v. 10; vii. 127; VCH Bucks. iv. 81; C136/85/39; Reg. Hallum (Canterbury and York Soc. lxxiv), nos. 444-5; Vis. Oxon. (Harl. Soc. v), 186-7. 3.Boarstall Cart. 146; Macnamara, 225.

• William de Bruley in Geneagraphie
• Agnes de Bruley in Geneagraphie

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British History Online

Parishes: White Ladies Aston Pages 557-561 A History of the County of Worcester: Volume 3 . Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1913.

"Land at White Ladies Aston, afterwards known as the manor of ASTON BRULEY (Nether Aston, xvii cent.), was held under the Bishop of Worcester as of his manor of Northwick by the Bruleys from very early times. In the Bishop of Worcester's Domesday (c. 1182), Richard de Bruley is entered as holding a hide at Aston, and Richard 'Brusle' is mentioned in the Pipe Roll of 1175-6. In the early 13th century a descendant of Richard's bearing the same name held a hide at Aston for the service of a fifth part of a knight's fee. Milicent widow of Richard de Bruley sued Henry de Bruley in 1274-5 for not keeping a covenant made between them as to 3 virgates of land at Aston under Oswaldslow. No further mention has been found of this manor until 1346, but it probably passed from Henry Bruley to his son Henry, and from him to his eldest son William. Henry Bruley son of William left a daughter Agnes, who married a cousin William Bruley, and William in 1346 held the land in Aston which Richard Bruley had formerly held. In 1413-14 he and Agnes conveyed a toft and 2 virgates of land in Aston Bishop to John Lynton and John Bertelmewe. William and Agnes Bruley had a son John, whose daughter and heir Joan married John Danvers of Ipswell and Calthorpe, co. Oxon. John Danvers died about 1448, and Thomas, the eldest son of John and Joan Danvers, died in 1502 without issue, being succeeded by his brother Sir William Danvers. The manor passed in 1504 from Sir William to his son John, who died in 1508, leaving an infant son John. On his death while still a minor in 1517 this manor passed to his youngest sister Dorothy, who married Nicholas Hubaud or Hubold. It was settled in 1532 upon them and the heirs of their bodies with remainder in default to Dorothy's heirs. Nicholas died in 1553 and Dorothy in 1558, and the manor was sold by their son Sir John Hubaud to William Solley, whose son Leonard Solley held it at the time of Habington's Survey of Worcestershire. In 1610-11 Sir - Fitton, kt., was lord of the manor of Aston Bruley. Its further descent has not been traced, and the manor no longer exists."

• https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/worcs/vol3/pp557-561
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Ladies_Aston

The Manor of Aston Bruley from the 12th century to 17th century

Robert de Bruley is recorded as holding the land of Nether Aston in 1185 and it being referred to as Aston Bruley. In the 13th century the marriage of William de Bruley to Beatrice Beauchamp of Warwickshire. The lands in the area continued in the Bruley Family until the middle of the 15th century, when by marriage it became the property of the Danvers Family, then to the Hubaud or Hubold Family. In 1558 the manor was sold to William Solley. The Solley family was still in possession of the manor in 1610 at the point when the Manor of Aston Bruley ceased to exist. By the time of the English Civil Wars (1642–1651) the property was in the possession of the Symonds Family who were Roundheads and energetic supporters of Parliament during the English Civil War.[4]

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