Brereton came from a cadet branch of the Cheshire family which acquired Borras by marriage in the 15th century. One of them sat for Banbury under Elizabeth as a servant of the Knollys family, and another represented Flintshire in the first Parliament of James I. Brereton’s grandfather was probably a parliamentary sympathizer, since he was appointed to the county committee in 1647. But he died in the following year, and Brereton grew up in a strongly royalist and Anglican atmosphere. His step-father, Humphrey Lloyd, was sequestrated and imprisoned, and rewarded for his sufferings by becoming bishop of Bangor in 1674.4A. H. Dodd, Studies in Stuart Wales, 127; SP29/12/57.
Brereton allied himself with Sir John Trevor in an effort to break the Myddelton interest in Denbighshire at the second election of 1679. He was defeated by Sir John Salusbury in a contest for the borough seat, and his petition was not reported. Richard Myddelton demanded his removal from the commission of the peace, but Secretary Jenkins was unimpressed. And although he failed to attend the meeting of the Denbighshire justices to answer the lord president’s questions on the repeal of the Test Act and Penal Laws, there is no evidence that he was removed.5Dodd, 212; CJ, ix. 639; CSP Dom. 1680-1, pp. 476-7.
Brereton was unopposed at the general election of 1689. He voted to agree with the Lords that the throne was not vacant, but he was not active in the Convention. In its first session he was appointed only to a committee to hear a petition against the East India Company. After the recess he was among those ordered to report on bills depending, to recommend grants from the royal bounty to refugees from Ireland, and to consider a naturalization bill. His mother’s death recalled him from Westminster in December, and he was probably absent from the division on the disabling clause in the bill to restore corporations. He remained a consistent Tory in subsequent Parliaments, refusing to sign the Association in 1696. He died on 10 Jan. 1725 and was buried at Gresford, the last of the Borras family to sit in Parliament.6CJ, x. 303; Griffith, 7.