BROCAS, Arnold

The Brocas family of Compton in Surrey was closely related to that of Brocas of Beaurepaire, whose most distinguished member was Sir Bernard Brocas† (d.1395), one of the richest landowners in Hampshire and a prominent figure at the court of Richard II. Our MP was named after Master Arnold Brocas (d.1395), who possessed considerable influence, both locally as rector of St. Nicholas’s church, Guildford, and at a higher level as master of the King’s works and chamberlain of the Exchequer.3 The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 359-64; O. Manning and W. Bray, Surr. i. 65, 68. The ped. in M. Burrows, Brocas of Beaurepaire, i. 185 is not to be trusted. Having been educated at Winchester College, albeit only briefly, Arnold married before December 1426, at which date William Sydney* conveyed to him and his wife a building known as ‘Downhouse’ in Guildford, along with four gardens, 32 acres of arable land and other holdings in nearby Artington. As these were properties that had formerly belonged to Arnold’s grandfather Simon and father Thomas,4 Surr. Hist. Centre, Woking, Loseley mss, LM 339/26/2-4. this settlement clearly marks his inheritance of some of the Brocas family holdings, which were concentrated in or near Guildford. He may not have acquired the rest of his father’s estate for some time, for Maud Brocas (perhaps his father’s widow) was in possession of the manor of Eastbury in Compton (as a tenant of Richard Windsor) for at least two years longer. However, he certainly acquired the manor before 1451, when he was recorded holding it of Miles Windsor by service of half a knight’s fee.5 VCH Surr. iii. 18; C139/34/46, 145/11; CCR, 1447-54, pp. 301-2. In addition, in 1455 Arnold and his second wife received seisin from Thomas Eliot of six acres of meadow in Shalford, to hold for their lives, in return for a quit-rent of a rose.6 CP25(1)/232/74/15.

The proximity of Brocas’s residence to the county town perhaps accounts for his very frequent appearances at the shire court to attest the indentures recording the outcome of the parliamentary elections. He did so no fewer than 11 times between 1423 and 1460,7 C219/13/2, 3, 14/1-3, 5, 15/1, 4, 6, 7, 16/6. of which seven fell before his appointment as escheator of Surrey and Sussex in 1440. That he acquitted himself well in the office is suggested not only by his election to Parliament shortly after the end of his term, but also by his subsequent appointment as a j.p. for five years. Little is recorded about his more private affairs, save that he was a feoffee of the manor of Broadbridge, Sussex, for John Covert, and that he was a creditor of Sir John Popham*, the treasurer of the Household, as such being reimbursed in May 1443 at the Exchequer for sums noted in Popham’s accounts.8 CCR, 1429-35, p. 123; E403/749, m. 2.

A crisis in Brocas’s life arose over the settlement for his second marriage, to his kinswoman Margaret, which led to conflict with his father-in-law William Brocas of Beaurepaire. In August 1455 William brought an action against the couple in Chancery, by which they were summoned by writ of subpoena in £100. William said the agreement made at the time of the match had specified that Arnold should receive the sum of £40 and together with his wife tenancy for life of William’s lands and tenements in Guildford and the hundred of Godalming, provided that the couple paid him an annual rent of 20 marks. Yet they were now refusing to pay the rent. Arnold and Margaret protested that this allegation was ‘ymagened, contryved and untrewe’.9 C253/35, no. 574; C1/25/205, 116/15. A compromise was reached in the following summer, whereby three messuages, some 360 acres of land and £4 13s. 8d. p.a. in rents were granted by William Brocas to the couple for life, for an annual rent of just ten marks.10 CP25(1)/232/74/21. It is strange that William made no landed provision for any children resulting from the marriage, and this lack of generosity on his part implies that he disapproved of his daughter’s choice of husband.

Arnold Brocas is last recorded, once more attending the parliamentary elections, in 1460. He was succeeded by his son Benedict (called a ‘gentleman’), who was holding the manor of Eastbury in Compton in 1485, and is said to have died three years later.11 CCR, 1447-54, pp. 256, 432; VCH Surr. iii. 18.