BRACKISH, Richard, of Launceston, Cornw.

Members of the Brackish family had lived at Dunheved since the late 13th century, and one of their number, William Brackish, had represented the borough in the Parliament of 1315. By 1365 they had come to hold at least three messuages, four shops and 17 acres of land in or near the town.CAD, iii. C3075; R. and O.B. Peter, Hist. Launceston, 93, 102; Cornw. Feet of Fines (Devon and Cornw. Rec. Soc. 1914), 634. It was probably this Richard Brackish who in 1401 was alleged to have conspired with John Hardwick of Bristol and Hugh de la Lynde of Bath to seize a barge called La Marie of Bilbao at Bridgwater, Somerset, and plunder her cargo of iron worth £400. Certainly, he had dealings with men of Somerset, for in 1416 he was to accuse an esquire from that county in the King’s bench of breaking into his property at Launceston, and of the theft of linen and woollen cloths and household utensils, valued altogether at £40. Otherwise, Brackish only appears in the records as a witness to a deed dated at Dunheved in 1418.CPR, 1399-1401, p. 520; CIMisc. vii. 196; KB27/622 m. 89; Peter, 121.