Beachborough Manor - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Beachborough Manor was a manor in Beachborough, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, UK purchased by Sir William's great-grandfather Father Henry Brockman ca. 1500 and subsequently passed through various squire

Squire

The English word squire is a shortened version of the word Esquire, from the Old French , itself derived from the Late Latin , in medieval or Old English a scutifer. The Classical Latin equivalent was , "arms bearer"...

s in the English Brockman family

Brockman

The Brockman surname is not common, but has spread to several countries around the world. The name can be a topism combining "wet/water" and "man". However, in Old English and in heraldry a "brock" is also a badger, and some have claimed it to mean "broker". Thus, there may be multiple meanings of...

. Like many buildings in the UK, it found use in World War II by the Allies

Allies of World War II

The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...

, as an American hospital. It later became Stowe College and served in that capacity for several years. Prime Minister David Lloyd-George lived there in the early 20th century. The property now serves as a Bed and Breakfast

Bed and breakfast

A bed and breakfast is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast, but usually does not offer other meals. Since the 1980s, the meaning of the term has also extended to include accommodations that are also known as "self-catering" establishments...

Heraldry of some of the early English Brockmans

The origins and evolution of the Brockman arms are not completely documented. English arms are given to specific individuals; sons (and daughters) have to be given their own. Any person may display the arms of any lineal ancestor so long as one is honest about whose arms they were.

Brief history and sketch of Arms of the Beachborough squires

Sir William Brockman
Sir William Brockman
Sir William Brockman was an English military leader, politician, and land owner, and who fought for the Royalist cause in the English Civil War.-Early life:...

(1595–1654) was an English military leader, politician, and land owner, and a notable combatant in the English civil war, wherein he fought against Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....

's Republican forces.

James Brockman, was the son of William of Newington, Kent

Newington, Swale

Newington is a village in Kent, England on the A2 road between Chatham to the west and Sittingbourne to the east. The local district council is Swale. Newington acquired its name in Saxon times meaning 'New Town' built on an old one, probably Roman and possibly the site of the Roman station...

. He martriculated into Corpus Christi College

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

Corpus Christi College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is notable as the only college founded by Cambridge townspeople: it was established in 1352 by the Guilds of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary...

on 10 December 1641, aged 15. He was born in Beachborough, Kent. He died in February, 1683.

William Brockman was a descendant (the third in a line) of Sir William Brockman of Kent. He married Anne Glydd, elder daughter of Richardd Glydd, Esq, of Pendhill, in Surrey. They had three sons, William, James and John. His son William pre-deceased him. John died in 1739. James, his second son, became heir. William Brockman Esq. served as a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons

British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

. Notes relating to his activities show him to be active in this capacity from about 1691 to 1693. These activities can be researched via the name "Brockman" at British History Online

James Brockman Esq. (died 1767) was the last male heir of the Brockmans of Kent, Beachborough. He died unmarried in 1767 and bequeathed his estates to his cousin, the great nephew of his mother, the Rev. Ralph Drake. (Vide App. VIII). Thus came the double name of Drake-Brockman, for it was on condition that Rev. Ralph Drake took the Arms and Surname of Brockman that the estates were left to him. (It is interesting to note that according to the Register of Alumni Oxoniensis, by Foster, vide App. V, it states that as “R. D. Brockman, which latter name he had assumed in addition to his patronymic.”) Concerning this point of the double name, see App. IX and Will of Rev. Ralph Drake-Brockman. The Drake-Brockmans produced several notable descendants in England and Australia (see the English Brockman

Brockman

family summary).

Rev. Ralph Drake-Brockman died at the age of 57, on 11 November 1781. He continued the Brockman succession from Sir William via a maternal line as described above. The Rev. Ralph Drake thus took the Arms and Surname of Brockman and the estates were left to him.

Several notable Australians are descended from Ralph Drake-Brockman (see Brockman surname disambiguation page)

Brockman

or various external links.

A brief history of the Beachborough Brockmans

The Beachborough family has figured prominently in the social and public life of Kent, two of the Brockmans, Sir William Brockman

Sir William Brockman

Sir William Brockman was an English military leader, politician, and land owner, and who fought for the Royalist cause in the English Civil War.-Early life:...

and James Drake-Brockman, having served in the office of sheriff

Sheriff

A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....

of Kent, and all those who inherited the Beachborough Estate were in the Commission of Peace for East Kent. Several Brockmans in Kent were armiger

Armiger

In heraldry, an armiger is a person entitled to use a coat of arms. Such a person is said to be armigerous.-Etymology:The Latin word armiger literally means "armour-bearer". In high and late medieval England, the word referred to an esquire attendant upon a knight, but bearing his own unique...

ous gentry and used the "esquire

Esquire

Esquire is a term of West European origin . Depending on the country, the term has different meanings...

" title.

The first record of the family dates from the reign of King Richard II

Richard II of England

Richard II was King of England, a member of the House of Plantagenet and the last of its main-line kings. He ruled from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. Richard was a son of Edward, the Black Prince, and was born during the reign of his grandfather, Edward III...

. Lands which had become vested in the Crown on the attainder of Sir Robert Belknap

Robert Bealknap

His Worship Sir Robert Bealknap JP was a British justice. He is first mentioned in June 1351 in a papal register of indults issued to inhabitants of Great Britain, where he is called a "clerk, of the diocese of Salisbury" in Wiltshire. He next appears in 1353 as a member of a commission to...

, were granted to John Brokeman in the 13th year of that monarch's reign, i.e., in 1390, and consisted of the Manor of Pirrie, extending to Old Romney and Medley, with other lands in Stowting and Crundale, by a patent which was enrolled in the Tower

Tower of London

Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...

in that year.

John Brokeman received arms, a motto, a grant of land, and was made Collector of Customs for the Cinque Ports

Cinque Ports

The Confederation of Cinque Ports is a historic series of coastal towns in Kent and Sussex. It was originally formed for military and trade purposes, but is now entirely ceremonial. It lies at the eastern end of the English Channel, where the crossing to the continent is narrowest...

(the five port cities in Kent immediately opposite the upper French coast). Richard II, the grantor, had just achieved his majority, fired his guardians, and was selecting trusted allies for key positions. Keeping watch on those five ports was important--John of Gaunt, Richard's chief adversary in England, was getting major support from France. The family was allowed to maintain the motto "Esse Quam Videri" – "To be, rather than to appear to be." The Brokeman name spelling became "Brockman" within one generation.

An interesting side note of the Kentish Brockmans is their relationship with the St. Leger family, who also have an interesting genealogy and history. John's grandson John Brockman married Helen St. Leger Clifford, a young widow. As a St. Leger by birth, she is descended from a Norman

Normans

The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...

knight who accompanied William the Conqueror from Normandy

Normandy

Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...

to England. The St. Legers settled at Ulcombe, Kent, where a "brass" memorial to Helen's father John St. Leger still exists in the church floor. A descendant of John St. Leger through another child, Warham St. Leger, came to Jamestown, Virginia

Jamestown, Virginia

Jamestown was a settlement in the Colony of Virginia. Established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 14, 1607 , it was the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States, following several earlier failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke...

early, but apparently left (as a number of Cavalier

Cavalier

Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...

s did) when the Cromwellian

Oliver Cromwell

Puritan

The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...

s came to power in England and made Claiborne the governor of Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

. Warham had returned to England about 20 years before the ancestor of most USA English Brockmans

Brockman

, Henry Brockman, came to St. Mary's County, Maryland.

Paintings by Edward Haytley

Edward Haytley

Edward Haytley was an English portrait and landscape painter of the 18th century. Little is known about him, but the background of some of his sitters and professional contacts suggest he may have come from Lancashire.Few of his works survive, but he appears to have specialised in the...

, a lesser-known English master, was hired to paint "conversation pieces" featuring the Brockman family at Beachborough. These pieces show the family indulging in various activities with the various views of Beachborough highlighted. The paintings are now housed at the National Gallery Victoria in Australia.

External links

Sources

Burke's Landed Gentry
Burke's Landed Gentry
Burke's Landed Gentry is the result of nearly two centuries of intense work by the Burke family, and others since, in building a collection of books of genealogical and heraldic interest,...

Burke's Peerage Ltd; Jubilee edition, Mr. Bernard Burke, Mr. Gordon Pirrie (author/compiler)
Hasted's History of Kent,: Corrected, enlarged, and continued to the present time, from the manuscript collection of the late Rev. Thomas Streatfeild and ... the public records, and other sources, ASIN: B000874L4G
Harris's History of Kent.
The history and antiquities of the county of Essex,: Compiled from the best and most ancient historians; Philip Morant, reprinted and sold by Meggy and Chalk (1 January 1816), ISBN 0-7158-1301-3, Another republishing, 1978.
The Brockman Papers (records in the British Museum).
The Brockman scrapbook;: Bell, Bledsoe, Brockman, Burrus, Dickson, James, Pedan, Putman, Sims, Tatum, Woolfolk, and related families (unknown binding) by William Everett Brockman, ASIN: B0007E8Y48 (out of print), this information provided courtesy of Paul Brockman (Virginia)
Record of the Brockman and Drake-Brockman family (privately published) by Brigadier-General David Henry Drake-Brockman C.M.G. 1936 provided courtesy of Hugh-Drake Brockman (UK), ASIN: B00089U71U (out of print)
Brockman & Drake-Brockman Family Tree : the Australian Branch 1830–1993. (Menora, Western Australia : Alan Jackson, 1993) ISBN 0-646-18200-5
Orange County Virginia families: Volume III (unknown binding) by William Everett Brockman, Publisher: W.E. Brockman (1 January 1959), English, ASIN: B0007G5G0Q

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