Brugge’s parentage is obscure, but he may have been a son of Sir Baldwin Brugge of Bridge Solers, Herefordshire, or of Sir Edmund Brugge, MP for the county in October 1377. His own manors, certainly, were Staunton-on-Wye (to the church of which he presented between 1397 and 1427), Letton and Sapey, all in the Wye valley west of Hereford. He also apparently had landed holdings in Gloucestershire and Shropshire.
Like his relation John Brugge† of Bishop’s Castle, he was a retainer of John Talbot, Lord Furnival (afterwards earl of Shrewsbury), and it was in this capacity that, in 1411, he witnessed the baptism of Talbot’s nephew and godson, John Barret, grandson of Sir Thomas de la Barre. In 1418, moreover, he shared with John Merbury custody of the Herefordshire lands of Gilbert, Lord Talbot, Furnival’s brother, during the minority of his heir. It is probable also that, by the beginning of Henry V’s reign, Brugge was connected with the duchy of Lancaster: in December 1415 he stood surety (again with Merbury) for two senior duchy officials, (Sir) Roger Leche and Hugh Mortimer; and then in 1417 he was granted an annuity of 12 marks from the manor of Alexanderston, Breconshire, and 4d. a day for life from the exchequer of Brecon, a duchy of Lancaster lordship. When, in 1421, Brecon was assigned to Anne, countess of Stafford, Brugge lost his pensions, and his petition in one of Henry VI’s Parliaments that they be restored and made a charge on the city of Worcester proved unsuccessful.
On 27 Aug. 1417, during Brugge’s second term as sheriff of Herefordshire, he happened to be staying with his friend, John Merbury, at Weobley when news came that the fugitive lollard, Sir John Oldcastle, was in hiding at nearby Almeley: Brugge and Merbury failed, however, to capture him. Brugge was closely associated with Merbury in private as well as public matters. In 1419 the two men were joint sureties, and in 1420 they were co-feoffees of Sir William ap Thomas in the manor of Talgarth, Breconshire. Both were trustees of Westbury, Gloucestershire, and Tillington, Herefordshire, the property of Merbury’s stepdaughter, Elizabeth Devereux, and Brugge, with John Russell III, was among the purchasers of Merbury’s estate at Dymock, Gloucestershire. Brugge was also a feoffee of Richard Oldcastle, Merbury’s stepson by his first marriage. Others with whom he was connected included Guy Whittington (with whom he was a co-trustee of the manor of Aspley Guise, Bedfordshire, in 1420), Sir John Skydemore (for whom he was a mainpernor in January 1430) and
Giles Bridges
† of Coberley, Gloucestershire, possibly a close relation.
Brugge witnessed the Herefordshire elections to the Parliaments of 1419, 1421, 1425 and 1433. In May 1434 he was one of the Herefordshire gentry required to take the oath passed by Parliament to prevent maintenance of those who broke the peace. He died on 30 Sept. 1436, his heir being Sir John Baskerville, the son of his daughter Joan.