The autobiography of Sir John Bramston, K.B., of Skreens, in the hundred of Chelmsford; now first printed from the original ms. in the possession of his lineal descendant Thomas William Bramston, esq. ..

Front matter

THE

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

OF

Preface

The Camden Publications having invariably contained some account of the work about to be submitted to the Society, together with a short notice of the author, it was not thought proper to deviate from the established usage, otherwise Sir John Bramston might have been left to introduce himself to his readers, and to tell his own story. But, at all events, a few preliminary observations will answer every purpose.

The ancient and respectable family of Bramston, whose history occupies a large portion of the present work, are supposed to have sprung from a place so called in Northamptonshire, but no trace of the name or the circumstance has been discovered in the annals of that county. We are enabled with more confidence to refer their origin to William Bramton, or Bramston, who served the office of Sheriff of London in the eighteenth year of Richard II. John Bramston, a descendant of the Sheriff, living in 1480, acquired some property at Whitechapel in right of his wife Eleanor, one of the daughters and coheirs of Thomas Rookes, of that parish ; and his grandson and namesake, described as a London mercer, died in 15/6, leaving issue Roger, the first settler of the family

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in the county of Essex. He espoused Priscilla, widow of Thomas Rushee, and daughter of Francis CloHle, whose ancestors had long been seated at West Haningfield Hall, in the hundred of Chelmsford, and established himself at Boreham, the residence of her first husband.

We next come to Sir John Bramston, the eldest son of the above marriage, and the father of our Autobiographer. He was born at Maldon, May 18th, 1577;, whilst his parents were on a ^dsit to their relative John Sherman, and educated in the Free School of that town, from whence he removed to Jesus College, Cambridge. Leading the university, he entered of the Middle Temple, and applied himself diligently to the study of the law, and, having been called a serjeant in 1623, soon rose into notice, and after receiving the distinction of knighthood in 1632, he obtained the appointment of King’s Serjeant, and was shortly afterwards advanced to the Chief Justiceship of the King’s Bench, which office he held till 1642. He had purchased the estate of Skreens,* in the parish of Roxwell, in the

* The mansion house took its name from William Skrene, of Writtle, constituted Serjeant-at-Law 10th Henry IV. It passed afterwards to the Farmers, and Sampfords, by one of whom, Richard Sampford, it was alienated to Richard Weston, who became a Justice of the Common Pleas, and whose son, of the same name, afterwards Lord High Treasurer, was created Earl of Portland in 1 632-3.

“The manor of Skreens” (observes Morant, History of Essex, vol. ii. p. 73) “ has been all along in families that have raised themselves by their merit and eminence in the law, a circumstance attaching to no other estate that we know of in this county.” There can be no question that Chief

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Vll year 1635, of Thomas Weston, the second son of the first Earl of Portland, the Lord High Treasurer, which has since been uninterruptedly enjoyed by his posterity as their principal seat and residence. And here it will be proper to mention that the Society is indebted for the use of the MS. Memoir to Thomas William Bramston, Esq., the present possessor of Skreens, and one of the Representatives for his native county, a distinction which

Justice Bramston, who purchased the estate from the Westons, as well as his two brothers, one of whom was a Judge and the other a Master in Chancery, kept up the charter ; but it is only right to state that at a much later period Thomas Gardiner Bramston, Esq., the last possessor of Skreens, so endeared himself to his brother magistrates as a Justice of the Peace and Chairman of the Quarter Sessions, and by his unwearied attention to the interests of the county, that after his lamented death they caused his Bust, executed in marble by Ternouth, to be placed in the Grand Jury Room at Chelmsford, with the following inscription : —

THIS TABLET IS ERECTED BY THE MAGISTRATES OF ESSEX, TO THE MEMORY OF THOMAS GARDINER BRAMSTON, ESQUIRE, OF SKREENS,

WHO DURING TWENTY YEARS

PRESIDED AS ONE OF THE CHAIRMEN OF THEIR QUARTER SESSIONS,

AND IN THAT AND EVERY OFFICE CONNECTED WITH THE GENERAL INTERESTS OF THE COUNTY EVINCED SO CLEAR A JUDGMENT,

A DISPOSITION SO CANDID AND CONCILIATING,

SO UNWEARIED A PERSEVERANCE IN INVESTIGATING THE CLAIMS OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE,

AND SUCH INTEGRITY OF PURPOSE IN MAINTAINING THEM,

AS INSURED TO HIM THE CONFIDENCE OF THOSE WITH WHOM HE SHARED HIS PUBLIC DUTIES,

AND AFFORDED A BRIGHT EXAMPLE OF A CHARACTER GUIDED BY THE PRINCIPLES OF A TRULY CHRISTIAN MIND.

HE DIED THE 3d OF FEBRUARY, 1831,

IN THE 61ST year OF HIS AGE.

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PREFACE, has been conferred upon him and his ancestors in fifteen Parliaments since the days of the Chief Justice.

Sir John Bramston’s patent of judgeship was cancelled October 2d, 1642, on account of his inability to attend the King at York without incurring the risk of displeasing the House of Lords, who had refused him permission to go, and bound him over to appear before them when required, under a heavy penalty. From this time he retired into private life, and, having more than once refused to accept judicial office from Cromwell, who was extremely anxious to obtain his services, he preserved till his death, which took place on September 22d, 1 654, an unblemished reputation as an able lawyer and an honest man, and is spoken of in the highest terms by many of the historians of the times in which he flourished, although he had made himself enemies by too strenuously upholding the prerogative of the Crown. The Chief Justice survived both his wives, the first of whom, Bridget Moundeford, brought him a numerous progeny.

The eldest of these, John Bramston, the Autobiographer, was born at Whitechapel, in September 1611, and, after completing his education at Wadham College, Oxford, embraced the study of the law, having for his chamberfellow, in the Middle Temple, Edward Hyde, afterwards Lord Chancellor Clarendon, with whom he always continued to live in habits of intimacy.* Whilst they were

* Memoir, page 103.

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IX brother students Mr. Hyde gave his portrait to his young friend, which remains at Skreens^ and was engraved for the edition of the History of the Rebellion published in 1816. It is supposed to be the earliest likeness of this truly great man, but the painter’s name has been lost. Mr. Bramston likewise possesses two original pictures of the Chief Justice^ one of which, a whole-length ascribed to Yandyck, was copied for the Collection at Clarendon House. There are also at Skreens portraits of the Autobiographer, the Baron of the Exchequer, and most of the heads of the family.

John Bramston was called to the bar shortly after his father had been placed on the bench, marrying in the same year Alice, daughter of Anthony Abdy, an Aiderman of London, who survived only till February 1647-8.

He continued (as he expresses it) to practise the law

as long as the temper of the times would allow, and till the drums and trumpets blew his gowne over his ears.”* He then sold his chambers, and after his wife’s decease retired to Skreens, where his father seems to have afforded an asylum to the numerous members of his family who had been driven from their homes and deprived of their employments in those days of anarchy and confusion.

But the clouds dispersed, the storm at length passed away, and the monarchy was re-established, and early in the next year Sir John Bramston’s name appeared in the

* Memoir, page 103. h

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list of the Knights of the Bath created at the coronation of Charles II., which distinction no doubt was conferred upon him in consideration of the devotion shown by his family to the royal cause ; he states indeed that he might have been made a Baronet, but he preferred an honour that was not hereditary. He was also chosen to serve as Knight of the Shire for Essex in the Parliament that preceded the Restoration, and was twice afterwards re-elected ; and, at a later period, he again entered the House of Commons as Burgess for Maldon, after the accession of James II.

He appears subsequently to have withdrawn very much from public business, though he was blessed with an unusual length of days, and, so far as we can judge from his Diary, he retained his faculties till within a few days of his death, which took place at Skreens, on the 4th of February, 1699-1/00, in the 89th year of his age.

It is time, however, to turn from the Autobiographer to the book which he has left to his posterity.

The MS., which has been carefully preserved amongst the archives at Skreens, occupies about 169 pages of a small folio volume, and is fairly written, in a neat legible character, and there are numerous references to the text inserted on the margin. The author’s design will be best explained by quoting an entry made by him on the flyleaf opposite the beginning of the volume :

“ Findinge this booke in my brother’s studie after his death, and having then taken into my thoughts to leave some memoires of my father and familie, and myselfc, and having made some entrance thereunto, I tooke the

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XI resolution to transcribe the paper into this book, where was my brother’s Readinge ;* and though our familie be neither antient nor greate, my father, for ought I can find, being the first [knight] of the name, unles the Sheriff in Richard II. his tyme, or the Governor of Wisbech Castle, f were knighted, as was not usual then ; and I find noe thing to move me to the belief thereof ; yet, this being designed merely to privacie, and for acquainting my son and his descendants with the stock he and they are derived from, I have taken the pains to give them this information, which they may dispose of as they please, either to the fier or otherwise to discourse of amongst themselves. John Bramston.”

* The volume does contain the Reading alluded to, described as “ Lectura Francisci Bramston Armigeri in Medio Templo, tertio Augusti 1668, super Statut. de tertio Jacobi, Cap. 4 ; entitled. An Act for the discovering and repressinge of Popish Recusants.” The Autobiographer only means that he wrote in the blank leaves of a book originally prepared for another purpose.

“ Mr. Bramston, my old fellow-traveller (in Italy), now Reader at the Middle Temple, invited me to his feast, which was so very extravagant and greate as the like had not been seene at any time. There were the Duke of Ormond, Privy Seal, Bedford, Belasys, Halifax, and a world more of Earls and Lords.” — Evelyns Diary ^ August 3, 1668.

t Amongst the monuments in the parish church, says Watson, the historian of Wisbech, that of Thomas de Braunstone is the most ancient. He was Constable of the Castle there, and, dying in 1401, was interred in the south aisle, where is a gravestone with his effigy engraved on brass plates. He is represented, under a rich Gothic canopy, in plate armour and painted helmet, with a lion at his feet, and this inscription round the verge of the stone : —

There seems also to have been another monument of Bramstone of Wisbech in the church of Boston or Walpole ; but nothing certain is known as to their being the ancestors of the Skreens family. — History of Wishechy p. 259.

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From this memorandum, and a statement in the it will appear that Sir John Bramston had entered into his 72d year before he commenced his labours ; so that, although he tells us that he referred to notes to refresh his memory, the first portion of the work must be considered as historical, whilst that part that was written after the year 1683 assumes the character of a Diary, the passing events having been recorded from time to time, though, perhaps, less regularly than was the practice of most of the annalists of that day whose journals have been lately brought to light. In one respect, indeed, they all resemble each other, as plain narratives of passing events, noted down without any idea of their being ever made public, and consequently not possessing the slightest pretension to finished style or studied composition. Many of our Diaries, it must be admitted, will be found more entertaining and of greater interest to the general reader ; nor can it be assumed that Sir John Bramston has recorded any historical fact of importance not to be met with in the writings of some of his contemporaries. The Memoir must therefore be regarded as principally of a private and domestic character, containing the annals of an English country gentleman’s family recorded during a most eventful period, and written with an air of truth and honesty not to be mistaken ; whilst the steadiness and devotion of Sir John Bramston and all his house to the royal cause, for which they sacrificed their best

* Memoir, page 3.

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Xlll prospects, and their firm attachment to the Protestant religion in the worst of times, cannot fail to find favour with those who take the trouble to peruse the following pages.

Still there are interspersed throughout the work a great variety of curious incidents relating to bygone times, with reminiscences of many of the Essex families, most of which have been long extinct. We collect also interesting particulars of the manner in which the polls for the county and the borough of Maldon were taken, showing that our forefathers were well versed in electioneering manoeuvres. We have further occasional notices of debates, and parliamentary and judicial proceedings, with specimens of physicians’ consultations, and medical details, and an amusing account of the author’s adventures whilst on an expedition with his father, who went to Dublin to bring home his second wife. The reader too may have an opportunity of learning what happened to James II. whilst hunting the stag in the Essex forests.

We will advert to one other subject only, mentioned by the Autobiographer, the strange persecution that he underwent in 1672, when an attempt was made to prove that he and his two brothers had, some years before, become Papists, and that he was receiving pay from the Pope. Whether the accusation originated from the bad feeling of his political adversaries belonging to the discomfited faction, or, as he himself surmised, it was the result of private pique and malice, cannot now be decided ; but it

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seems extraordinary that Henry Mildmay, of Graces, a gentleman by birth, nearly allied to some of the best families in the county, which he twice represented in subsequent parliaments, should have become the principal agent in so base a transaction. Such, however, was the fact, for he bribed a worthless Portuguese, named Ferdinand de Macedo, to make oath before the Privy Council that he had actually been present with the three brothers at a secret conclave held at Skreens, when they renounced the Protestant religion before Commissioners appointed by the Pope. It is needless to dwell further upon this wicked contrivance, which was signally defeated, as the details are given perhaps too minutely in the memoir. At all events it is remarkable that no mention of the circumstance occurs elsewhere, for Charles II. used to tell the story as the greatest conspiracy and the greatest forgerie that ever he knew against a private gentleman;” and would say, “ after Oates his plot was on foot, that the Popish plot began upon Sir John Bramston.”*

The Editor having on a former occasion experienced the inconvenience of attempting to select portions only of a diary for the press, and observed the jealousy and mistrust with which curtailed or garbled publications are received, had felt strongly inclined from the first, in the present instance, to print the MS. as he found it ; and this resolution was confirmed after he had satisfied him-

* Memoir, p. 158.

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XV self that, whilst the memoir contained many details highly creditable to the family of whom it principally treated, not a single passage occurred that could possibly give pain to their present representatives, or lessen the respect without which the name of Bramston cannot be mentioned. The MS. is therefore presented to the Society in its entire and original form, nothing having been omitted, excepting some king’s speeches and state papers, printed before, and obviously possessing not the slightest interest. A few coarse expressions in the medical details have also been softened, without altering the sense implied, and several mistakes and lacunae rectified by supplying the words, between brackets, supposed to be wanting. Indeed, if we consider the advanced age of the author when he began to write, and that a great portion of the book was the work of an octogenarian, it is extraordinary that so few errors should occur.

In compliance with the modern usage, a few notes have been occasionally introduced at the bottom of the pages ; at the same time, no attempt to trace the history of every individual mentioned could have led to a satisfactory result, neither has it been thought necessary to notice those persons with whom, from their rank and station, the generality of readers cannot fail to be already well acquainted.

Whilst adverting to this part of the subject, the Editor feels it his duty gratefully to acknowledge his obligations to the Rev. Joseph Hunter, who took the

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trouble of perusing* the transcript of the MS., and suggested many remarks, which have been used with advantage in the notes. Nor should it be omitted that Sir Charles G. Young, Garter King at Arms, with his usual courtesy and kindness, made some important corrections and additions to the pedigree of the Bramstons, which w’as considered as a proper appendage to the biography, genealogical facts being so much more easily comprehended when presented in that form than in narration : they are indeed like ^ruq^s as compared with descriptions of countries.

BRAYBROOKE, P.

Audley End, Dec. 24,th, 1844.

PEDIGREE OF BRAMSTON.

SUPPOSED TO BE DESCENDED OUT OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE PROM A PLACE SO CALLED,

From the Records in the College of Arms, Bramston Archt.es, Parish Registers, and Monumental Inscriptions.

R. denotes burial in Roxwell church.

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