Sir
Henry BROMLEY
Born: ABT 1556, Holt Castle, Worcestershire, England Died: 15 May 1615, Shrarwardine, Shropshire, England Buried: Holt Castle, Worcestershire, England Father:
Thomas BROMLEY
(Lord Chancellor of England) Mother:
Elizabeth FORTESCUE Married 1:
Elizabeth PELHAM Children: 1.
Thomas BROMLEY (Sir Knight) 2. Mary BROMLEY 3. Dau. BROMLEY 4. Dau. BROMLEY 5. Dau. BROMLEY Married 2:
Elizabeth VERNEY
26 Nov 1591 Children: 6. Son BROMLEY Married 3:
Anne SCOTT
(dau. of Sir Thomas Scott of Scot's Hall, and Elizabeth Baker) (w.
of Richard Knatchbull of Mersham-Hatch)
28 Jun 1593 Children: 7. Henry BROMLEY 8. Son BROMLEY 9. Son BROMLEY Married 4:
Anne BESWICKE
(d. 1 Jan 1629) (dau. of William Beswicke of London) (w. of William
Offley) 7 Jun 1604 Sir Henry Bromley was the eldest son of
Sir Thomas Bromley
and Elizabeth Fortescue (daughter of Sir
Adrian Fortescue). Sir Thomas was Lord Chancellor (appointed in 1579)
and had presided over the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1586. On his death
in 1587, Sir Henry inherited all his father's lands except the family seat
at Holt Castle which was held by Sir Thomas' widow for her life. Sir Henry rose through the statesman ranks, eventually becoming Sheriff
of Worcester. In Feb 1601 he was implicated for his involvement with
the Essex Rebellion, and his lands, including Holt Castle, were forfeited,
but upon the accession of James I, these were returned to him, and he
proceeded to show James his full loyalty. Bromley was amongst the fourth category of offenders in the
Essex
Rebellion, those heavily fined and "reserved to her Majesty's
use". Among this group also were Sir
William Parker, Robert
Catesby, and Francis
Tresham. Bromley served as the local magistrate and was known at court from around
Apr 1603 when a rhyme popular around the time inferred his religious
stance: "Neville [Dr. Neville, Dean of Canterbury] for the Protestants,
Lord Thomas [Howard] for the Papist, Bromley for the Puritan, and Lord
Cobham for the atheist". It was common knowledge that Bromley was a staunch Puritan, and perhaps
it was an indication of their religious disaffection that his family allied
themselves with the recusant Littleton family through his sister Muriel's
marriage to John
Littleton of Hagley (John Littleton was a local Member of
Parliament who was condemned for
his part in the Essex Rebellion. He died in the Tower of London before he
could be executed). Evidently Bromley found favour at court for on 8 Feb 1604 he
received a grant in fee-farm of land in the Duchy of Lancaster, and in Sep, a further grant of lands in Essex and Suffolk. Both grants were
worth substantial annual incomes.
Whether these grants were an inducement or not, Bromley was eager to help
the Privy Council in its apprehension of Jesuits, and return the favours he
had received. Knowing that Thomas
Habington had a priest in his house at Hindlip virtually on a constant
basis, Bromley managed to procure from the Privy Council, with the utmost
secrecy, a commission by which he could search Hindlip at any time.
This he enforced, which ultimately led to the arrest and imprisonment of
Habington for the suspected harbouring of Edward Oldcorne, although
Habington was eventually freed. In his History of Worcester,
Habington makes more than one reference to searches carried out by
Bromley
at the express permission of the Privy Council. Edwards looks at this
veiled persecution on the Habingtons by Bromley objectively, putting
forward the notion that it was carried out for reasons of personal gain as
well as the returning of favours. "It seemed to Bromley that all he needed to round off his property
was [H]abington's house, together with certain properties adjoining. He did
not doubt that he would be able to acquire these, either as a gift of Queen
Elizabeth or else at a very cheap price indeed if he could ever have the
luck to capture a priest, either in the house or in Mr [H]abington's
company". After the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, and the failed stand by the
conspirators at Holbeche House, Sir Richard Walsh (kinsman to Bromley)
received at Worcester a letter from the Privy Council dated 11 Nov 1605
asking that "such of the traitors as may conveniently without hazard of
their lives, should be presently sent up to London". Walsh replied that
the engagement had left him somewhat disabled in body, and committed the
prisoners to Bromley who travelled with them to the Tower. Because of his obvious knowledge of the premises, Bromley was instructed
by the Privy Council to search Hindlip towards the end of Jan 1606, for
the priests they believed were being sheltered there. It is apparent that
the confession of Humphrey
Littleton had yielded evidence that Oldcorne was residing at Hindlip. In
the early morning of 20 Jan, Bromley and a large contingent of men
numbering almost 200, arrived at Hindlip. Thomas Habington was absent on
business at the time. When he arrived later in the day, he declared that
there were no priests in his house, or even in Worcester. On the fourth day of the search, Thursday, 23 Jan 1606, Sir Henry
Bromley wrote to Sir
Robert Cecil to report progress: "I holding my resolution to keep
watch longer (though I was out of all hope to find any man or any thing),
yet at the last, yesterday being Wednesday, found a number of Popish trash
hid under boards in three or four several places".
Bromley was apparently absent in the afternoon when Nicholas
Owen and Ralph Ashley emerged from a hide in the chimney. That evening,
Bromley again wrote to Cecil: "two are come forth for hunger and cold
that give themselves other names; but surely one of them I trust will prove
[to be] Greenway, and I think the other be Hall. I have yet presumption that
there is yet one or two more in the house; wherefore I have resolved to
continue the guard yet a day or two". After further hectic and
destructive searching, on Monday 27 Jan, Oldcorne and Father
Henry
Garnet themselves emerged. Bromley's first thought on capturing the priests at Hindlip was to take
them to Worcester gaol, but he was persuaded to "bring them to his own
house as well to have them carefully tended, that he might restore them to
strength to enable them for the journey, as also to keep them from
conference with the rest of the prisoners, among whom were two or three
necessary to be examined, for that they would not confess anything
there". Bromley's opinion of Garnet is interesting.
Bromley wrote of the capture
of another priest prior to Garnet "there was brought up to Worcester
yesternight a poor priest apprehended in a poor man's house whose name and
fashion of life appeareth by his own confession....I think him no great,
dangerous man". Garnet however appeared to gain only respect from
Bromley, who even allowed the priest to share in Candlemas celebrations with
his family on 6 Feb. Tesimond's narrative goes further: "Sir Henry Bromley was more
surprised than any, and could not restrain his admiration for Father Henry.
So much so, that when he arrived in London he told many of the leading
gentlemen that he had never before met such a man, and scarcely believed
that he had his like for modesty, prudence and learning. He added that if he
had not been charged in connection with the plot, he would have thrown
himself on his face before the King in order to beg for him every grace and
favour possible". Bromley honoured Garnet as "a learned man and a worthy priest".
The two men (Garnet and Oldcorne) were shown no brutality in their stay at
Holt Castle. This is an interesting display of mixed loyalty by Bromley,
afterall the current consensus of opinion was that the priests were behind
the Gunpowder Plot, and the Sheriff of Worcester had two of the leading
Jesuits in his hands. Sir Henry Bromley married four times, lastly to Anne Beswicke who erected
a monument in the chancel of Holt Church to her husband. He died in 1615 and
was succeeded by his son Thomas from his second marriage. Thomas, who was
knighted, died in 1629 leaving the estates to his son Henry who was also
Sheriff of Worcestershire, and took the Royalist side in the Civil War.
Sources:
Salzman, L.F. ed., The Victorian History of the Counties of England: A History of Worcester Vol. IV, 1945
Edwards, Francis, S.J., Guy Fawkes: the real story of the Gunpowder Plot?, 1969
Edwards, Francis, S.J., The Gunpowder Plot: the narrative of Oswald Tesimond alias Greenway, trans. from the Italian of the Stonyhurst Manuscript, edited and annotated, 1973
Fraser, Antonia, Faith & Treason - The Story of the Gunpowder Plot, 1996
Hodgetts, Michael, Elizabethan Priest Holes: East Anglia, Baddesley Clinton, Hindlip, Recusant History
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