From his father and namesake, William Brockley, the subject of this biography inherited a modest amount of property in what was probably his native village of Brockley, performing homage for the land to his feudal overlord, the abbot of Bury St. Edmunds, in 1431. It was through his mother, Agnes, a distant kinswoman of Sir John Cockerell (d.1427), that Brockley laid claim to the Suffolk manors of Ickworth and Wanford, although he never succeeded in proving his title against that of a powerful combination of local landowners, backed by William, earl of Suffolk. However frustrating his failure to recover the manors may have been, he could at least console himself in later life by looking back on an otherwise immensely successful career, during the course of which he rose to become one of the richest and most powerful men in early 15th-century London.
William Bertram
† of Bothal, Northumberland,
Sir Henry Fenwick
† of Cockermouth, and John Stanley, a dyer from Northampton, each of whom owed him money.
According to the tax return of 1436, Brockley’s landed income of £40 a year came from property in London, Suffolk, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire. It is now impossible to establish exactly where all these holdings lay, since Brockley was so often called upon to act as a feoffee-to-uses that his own property transactions, particularly in the City, are often indistinguishable from those of his friends and associates. He owned a tenement and shop in the London parish of St. Swithin, Candlewick Street, which he leased to the drapers John and William Southcote. There can be little doubt that he had other possessions in the area, but none of the many conveyances in which he was involved are clear upon this point.
Brockley was, meanwhile, involved in protracted litigation for the recovery of debts owed to John Saykyn, the draper, who appointed him to act as his executor. He performed the same service for John Butler (d.1436), another member of their company, and he was chosen by both the goldsmith, William Rous (d.1433), and his kinswoman Agnes Ickworth (d.1437) to supervise the administration of their estates. Between 1428 and 1437 at least three Londoners made conveyances to him of their goods and chattels as well.
Although his will is not known to have survived, it appears that Brockley died soon after Michaelmas 1444, leaving a bequest of £3,000 to his widow, who also received all his household goods and plate. If a petition submitted to the Parliament of 1447 is to be believed, Brockley set aside the immense sum of over 7,000 marks for works of piety to be performed at the discretion of his executors. Katherine Brockley and her second husband, Nicholas Wyfold (whom she had married by February 1445), refused to part with the money, however, and steps were taken for all the interested parties to be examined before the chancellor of England. No more is heard of the matter after this date, perhaps because it was settled by arbitrators out of court.