BROCKHILL, Nicholas

The Brockhills had held the manor of Brockhill in Saltwood near Hythe since at least the reign of Edward I.5 Hasted, Kent, ed. Drake, viii. 224. In the fourteenth century the family had been one of the leading gentry families of east Kent, and both our MP’s great-grandfather Sir Thomas† and his grandfather Sir John† had served as sheriff and knight of the shire. Sir John’s putative brother, Thomas†, was similarly sheriff in 1383-4 and sat in Parliament as knight of the shire on six occasions between 1382 and 1402.

Nicholas was the elder of the two sons of William Brockhill. William was not involved in the affairs of the county to the same extent as his antecedents, serving neither as sheriff nor on commissions. The exact date of his death is not known, but by 1410 he had divided the family’s property in accordance with the Kentish custom of gavelkind, settling the manor of Brockhill on his younger son, Thomas, while Nicholas was left that at Aldington. Both sons were apparently seised of property in Saltwood.6 Hasted, viii. 225; Harl. 5481, f. 40; Feudal Aids, iii. 65-66. In July 1417 Nicholas mustered as a mounted man-at-arms in the duke of Gloucester’s retinue at Southampton for the forthcoming campaign in Normandy,7 E101/51/2, m. 1. but no other evidence survives of his military career. By the early 1420s he had entered the service of Henry Chichele, archbishop of Canterbury, who in 1423 made him constable of Saltwood castle. In March 1426 he was present at the archbishop’s property at Otford to witness a deed involving William Burys* and other of Chichele’s servants.8 CCR, 1422-9, p. 269. In September Chichele appointed him his bailiff of Hythe and on the last day of that month Brockhill held his first court in the town. Clearly, however, at this stage in his career, Brockhill’s main duties were elsewhere. He appointed Henry Tamworth II* as his deputy and between then and March 1435 he held only four courts in person. On two of these occasions Brockhill himself was a plaintiff, pursuing his debtors.9 Hythe ct. bk. H 1018, ff. 57, 86v, 113, 136. Nevertheless, he and his brother were actively engaged in the affairs of Hythe throughout this period. By 1419 Thomas was paying maltolts as an ‘advocant’, a freeman of Hythe living outside of the liberty of the Port itself.10 Jurats’ acct. bk. 1419, H 1054, f. 34. In Trinity term 1432 Nicholas sued a Saltwood man for debt in the court of common pleas and later that year he brought an allegation of close-breaking against some local men on his property at Lympne near Hythe. In 1434 both brothers took the oath not to maintain peace-breakers.11 CPR, 1429-36, p. 389; CP40/686, rot. 76; 687, rot. 48.

From March 1436 Brockhill’s interest in Hythe matters apparently increased. Thereafter, he usually held courts in person and on 9 Dec. 1437 he attended his first meeting of the Brodhull as one of Hythe’s representatives.12 White and Black Bks. 10. One explanation for this may be the death of his brother earlier that year and the opportunity this presented for the consolidation of the Brockhill estate.13 Mon. Brasses ed. Mill Stephenson, 245. On 10 June 1438 Nicholas made an agreement with Elizabeth, Thomas’s daughter and heir, and her husband, Richard Sellyng, concerning the estate which on Thomas’s death had not been divided between them in gavelkind, but was held jointly, a situation which had led to dispute. The agreement, arranged by the ‘mediation of friends’, settled the manor house of Brockhill and 264 acres of land scattered through 19 different properties on Elizabeth, while Nicholas received at least 178 acres of land similarly dispersed.14 CCR, 1435-41, pp. 275-6. The monetary value and the exact location of these various properties was not specified, but the partition did not succeed in bringing an end to the dispute. A decade later when Sellyng demised part of his property in Hythe to William Clitheroe*, Nicholas apparently still claimed that these lands should have descended to him as Thomas’s brother and heir in gavelkind and duly entered the property allowing his animals to graze there. Clitheroe and Sellyng were forced to defend their title in the local courts.15 Hythe ct. of piepowder, c.1399-1603, H 1028.

Brockhill probably also married in the late 1430s. According to a sixteenth-century visitation, his wife, Katherine, was the daughter of Adam Wood. Nothing is known of the family, but a later Chancery petition revealed that the match was negotiated by Brockhill with Katherine’s stepfather, Robert Watton. Watton promised to pay a dowry of £60, but at the time of Brockhill’s death £16 3s. 4d. remained unpaid. This, it was agreed, should be handed over for the marriage of his eldest daughter, Elizabeth, but this agreement was allegedly renegued upon by the administrator of Watton’s estate.16 C1/15/56; Vis. Kent, 34.

In late 1440 or early 1441 Brockhill was replaced as bailiff of Hythe by Peter Knight, another of Archbishop Chichele’s servants. The two men reached an agreement that Brockhill was to take 2s. 6d., a third of the bailiff’s court’s profits that year, and Knight was to enjoy the remainder.17 Hythe ct. bk. H 1018, f. 170v. By 1444-5 Brockhill had been admitted to the freedom of Hythe, paying maltolts in West Ward,18 Jurats’ acct. bk. H 1055, f. 73v. and in February 1446 he was chosen by the commonalty of Hythe as one of the jurats. He immediately appears to have taken a leading role in the affairs of the town. He attended the Brodhull in July 1446 and thereafter was present at all but one meeting until July 1452. He was also chosen four times as one of the Ports’ bailiffs to look after their interests at the annual herring fair at Yarmouth.19 White and Black Bks. 21-30. He was frequently employed on other extraordinary business. In 1446 along with Richard Rykedon* and the town clerk, Henry Skinner, he rode to the house of John Greenford*, one of Hythe’s retained lawyers and steward of Dover castle. Late that same year he was elected to his first Parliament, initially summoned to meet at Cambridge and then moved to Bury St. Edmunds. It may be a measure of the inconvenience that the location of this Parliament presented that the Portsmen of Hythe chose two of the town’s wealthiest inhabitants to represent them, despite the fact that neither Brockhill nor his colleague, John Honywood*, possessed previous parliamentary experience. It is not clear how long Brockhill remained at Bury as the only payment he appears to have received for his services was one of four marks.20 Jurats’ acct. bk. H 1055, f. 80.

In June 1448 Brockhill was admitted to the bailiffship of Hythe for a second time. The appointment had been made by Archbishop Stafford, perhaps at the request of the Portsmen of Hythe, and the previous year Brockhill had been among those townsmen who had met the archbishop in London and at his palace at Addington. He immediately surrendered his office of jurat and subsequently presided over the town courts, parliamentary elections and other important events in person as bailiff.21 Ibid. ff. 26v, 28v, 108v-10; Hythe ct. bk. H 1023, ff. 1, 8v, 30. It was as bailiff that he was elected to the Parliament which assembled at Westminster in February 1449. During the next year he received £2 6s. 8½d. in parliamentary wages, but it is unclear whether this represented the entirety of his service at Westminster. On top of his duties as a baron in Parliament, 1449 also saw Brockhill riding to Dover to meet Gervase Clifton* and Ralph Toke* on Hythe’s business (probably the parliamentary election of October 1449 which saw the townsmen return Robert Berde* at the behest of Clifton and Toke before learning that he had accepted a seat as one of the barons for Rye), and to discuss matters with Archbishop Stafford.22 Jurats’ acct. bk. H 1055, ff. 123-5.

Brockhill’s grant of the bailiffship lapsed on Stafford’s death and on 25 June 1452 Thomas Hextall* came to the Hythe with a writ from the warden of the Cinque Ports, Humphrey, duke of Buckingham, and was himself duly admitted to the office. Brockhill’s involvement in the town’s affairs continued, despite the fact that he was not re-elected as a jurat, and on the following 16 July he was chosen as one of the Ports’ bailiffs at Yarmouth for a fourth time.23 Ibid. f. 153v. The new archbishop, Cardinal John Kemp, appointed his own man, Henry Fitzjohn, to the bailiffship of Hythe shortly after his translation to Canterbury. The townsmen clearly disliked Fitzjohn and the fact that he was frequently absent. This absence led to delays in the ministering of justice by the bailiff’s court, with the jurats being unable to sit in judgement independent of the bailiff. The townsmen approached Kemp, but seem to have been unable to obtain a reversal of the appointment, probably because Fitzjohn himself was unwilling to surrender the office. Sometime in 1453 they tried a new approach. Brockhill, with the barons and commonalty of the Port of Hythe, petitioned Kemp as chancellor asking for a writ of subpoena to be delivered to Fitzjohn requiring him to surrender the bailiffship so that it might be granted to Brockhill.24 C1/21/12. It seems unlikely Fitzjohn was compelled to surrender his grant ‘as lawe and reson requyryth’ by the equitable jurisdiction of the chancellor. Instead Kemp may have acted in his role as seignurial lord in brokering a deal by which the townsmen agreed to pay him 46s. 8d. to relinquish the office.25 Jurats’ acct. bk. 1458-65, H 1019, f. 56v; appointments of the mayor and bailiffs, H 1078.By July 1454 it was back in the hands of the Portsmen of Hythe, albeit not held by Brockhill but by another local man, William Walton*.

After this dispute had been settled, Brockhill appears to have retired from public office in Hythe. His wealth and experience must have been missed by his fellow Portsmen. In the year he was replaced as bailiff he had paid for repairs to the town’s ordnance and spent 2s. 6d. on the expenses of Hythe’s attorney, John Chenew*, at Westminster. This was the last occasion on which he paid maltolts in Hythe on the sale of livestock, wheat and wood and rents in the town worth 10s. p.a.26 Jurats’ acct. bk. H 1055, ff. 133, 146, 173. Soon afterwards he appears to have returned to his manor of Aldington and was resident there by November 1454 when he was granted exemption from the parliamentary subsidy in Eythorne hundred, and when he took out a royal pardon a year later.27 E179/234/4/118; C67/41, m. 15.

Brockhill made his will on 27 May 1461. He asked to be buried in the parish church of St. Peter’s, Aldington, and left bequests to the high altar and for lamps there. His son, William, received a scarlet robe, his best pewter vessel, a wagon with oxen and a plough as well as cattle and horses. The remainder of his goods and chattels were to be sold and the proceeds given to his widow, who also received his property in Stanford, Horton and Cophurst. Various small properties purchased during his lifetime were to be sold and the profits employed for the marriage of his four daughters. Brockhill named his widow and son as his executors, but the date of probate is not recorded.28 Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone, Canterbury archdeaconry ct. wills, PRC17/1, f. 278. His efforts to provide for his daughters resulted in litigation. The eldest daughter, Elizabeth, and her husband, Thomas Hevere, were forced to pursue the administrator of Katherine Brockhill’s stepfather for the payment of the remainder of her dowry which Nicholas had promised to Elizabeth for her marriage. Some ten years after Brockhill’s death, another daughter, Isabel, and her husband, John Blakburn, sued her late father’s feoffee, Edward Barry, for the profits of certain lands which had been promised for her dowry. Their petition recorded that of the two remaining daughters, Alice had already died and Margaret was still a spinster.29 C1/15/56; 41/161.