BROXOLME, John (1583-1647), of Broxolme Place, St Peter at Gowts, Lincoln, and Barrow upon Humber, Lincs.

Broxolme belonged to a junior branch of a family that had settled at Owersby, north west of Lincoln, by the early Tudor period.28Vis. Lincs 1592 ed. Metcalfe, 15-16; Lincs. Peds. (Harl. Soc. l), 192-3. Broxolme’s father established his main residence in Lincoln, where members of the Broxolme family had been prominent in civic affairs since the mid-sixteenth century.29C142/379/65; Vis. Lincs 1592. ed. Metcalfe, 16; F. Hill, Tudor and Stuart Lincoln (Cambridge, 1956), 53, 64. Little is known about Broxolme’s upbringing, and there is no evidence that he received any formal education. He was named to his first sewers commission in 1619; and by 1625 he was taking recognizances for appearance before the Lindsey quarter sessions, although he was not appointed to the bench until 1641.30C181/2, f. 354; C231/5, p. 436; Lincs. RO, LQS/A/1, nos. 75, 92. In April 1627, Broxolme and the godly Lincolnshire knights Sir Thomas Grantham† (father of Thomas Grantham*), Sir William Armyne* and Edward Ayscoghe* were summoned before the privy council for their refusal to pay the Forced Loan and were ordered to ‘give the like attendance’ until further notice.31SP16/56/39, f. 56; APC 1627, p. 241. Unlike Grantham, Armyne and Ayscoghe, however, Broxolme was not imprisoned for his offence.

Broxolme’s refusal to pay the Forced Loan is the only evidence, prior to 1640, that he was in any way opposed to royal policies. He was named as a sewers commissioner throughout the 1620s and 1630s.32C181/2, f. 354; C181/3, ff. 170, 229v; C181/4, ff. 40v, 84v, 155v; C181/5, ff. 88v, 150v, 224v. Moreover, in 1637, he was named to several sewers commissions for the Ancholme Level, where the future royalist Sir John Monson† and a consortium of local gentlemen were in the process of draining over 5,000 acres of fenland.33C181/5, ff. 67, 88v; SP16/378/75, f. 189; Holmes, Lincs. 127. One of Broxolme’s closest friends among the county’s gentry was another future royalist, Sir William Pelham, the elder brother of the future parliamentarian Henry Pelham*.34PROB11/203, f. 260; C142/453/73; Holmes, Lincs. 151.

With the collapse of the episcopalian interest at Lincoln during the summer of 1640, Broxolme was able to capitalise on his standing as head of the city’s leading gentry family after the Granthams. In the elections to the Long Parliament that autumn, Broxolme was returned for Lincoln, taking the second place behind Thomas Grantham.35Supra, ‘Lincoln’. As the owner of property in and around Lincoln – including The Boar’s Head inn – Broxolme presumably enjoyed a strong proprietorial interest in the city. Several of his early committee appointments in the Long Parliament suggest that he shared the prevailing disenchantment with the policies pursued by the crown during the personal rule. Between November 1640 and the 1641 autumn recess, he was named to 15 committees, at least six of which concerned the reform of Caroline ‘abuses’.36CJ ii. 21a, 34b, 44b, 55a, 60a, 73b, 75a, 84b, 85b, 87b, 92b, 98a, 129b, 186b. Thus he was named to committees to investigate the proceedings of the prerogative courts (23 November, 3 December 1640) and of the customs officers (21 December; for abolishing Star Chamber (29 January 1641); and to prosecute the Commons’ case against the earl of Strafford (Sir Thomas Wentworth†, 6 March).37CJ ii. 34b, 44b, 55a, 75a, 98a. He was also named to a committee set up on 13 February 1641 for eradicating superstition and for the advancement of ‘true religion’ – an appointment which suggests hostility on his part to Laudian religious innovations.38CJ ii. 84b. He was certainly regarded at Westminster as someone who took the threat of a Laudian-inspired popish plot very seriously. On 10 May 1641, a week after taking the Protestation (3 May), Broxolme and Sir John Evelyn of Wiltshire were ordered to search Lambeth Palace and Archbishop Laud’s other residence at Croydon for arms.39CJ ii. 133b, 141a. This was after Evelyn had informed the House that there were more arms in both residences than in any three noblemen’s houses.40Procs. LP iv. 295, 303. Similarly, in August, Broxolme was appointed a commissioner for disarming recusants in Lincolnshire.41CJ ii. 267b; LJ iv. 385a.

Broxolme’s name does not appear in the Journal between August 1641 and the spring of 1642, and it is likely that he was absent from Westminster during this period. He was certainly in Lincolnshire in mid-April, tendering the Protestation to the county’s inhabitants.42Protestation Returns for Lincs. 1641-2 ed. A. Cole, W. Atkin (CD, Lincs. Fam. Hist. Soc. 1996), returns for Goxhill. He may have resumed his seat by 18 May 1642, when he was named to a seven-man committee for assisting and monitoring Sir John Hotham* as parliamentary governor of Hull.43CJ ii. 577b; PJ ii. 341. As the owner of property on the Lincolnshire side of the Humber Estuary opposite Hull, Broxolme had a strong personal interest in ensuring that Hotham remained loyal to Parliament. The composition of this committee was apparently determined by Pym and his allies and reflected their desire to surround Hotham with men they trusted.44Infra, ‘Sir John Hotham’; CJ ii. 584b-585a; Clarendon, Hist. i. 523-4. On 24 May, Parliament ordered Broxolme and the godly Yorkshire MPs Henry Darley and John Alured to depart for Hull immediately.45LJ v. 82b. That same day (24 May), however, Broxolme was named to a committee to be sent into Lincolnshire, ostensibly for the preservation of the county’s peace, but in fact to uphold parliamentarian authority in the region.46CJ ii. 585b. The other members of this committee, which seems to have formed the nucleus of the parliamentary county committee, were the godly Lincolnshire MPs Sir Edward Ayscoghe, Sir John Wray, Sir Christopher Wray, Sir Anthony Irby, Sir William Armyne and Thomas Hatcher. Regardless of any orders to assist Sir John Hotham at Hull, Broxolme joined the Lincolnshire committee in its attempts to secure the county for Parliament.47LJ v. 104, 131b-132a.

Broxolme had returned to Westminster by 16 September 1642, when he was named to a committee for receiving information on any Member who had assisted the king against Parliament.48CJ ii. 769a. Three days later (19 Sept.) he was one of six Lincolnshire MPs (Ayscoghe, Armyne, Irby, Hatcher and Sir Christopher Wray being the other five) who were reported to have brought in money and horses upon the propositions for the maintenance of the earl of Essex’s army.49CJ ii. 772b. On 19 December, Broxolme and the Nottinghamshire MPs Sir Thomas Hutchinson and Gilbert Millington were ordered to attend Essex to solicit his proposals for preventing the earl of Newcastle’s royalist army from over-running Lincolnshire and the northern counties.50CJ ii. 894b. The practicalities of this task devolved largely upon the northern Members themselves, and – following his appointment as a commissioner for the maintenance of Francis Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby of Parham’s parliamentarian army in Lincolnshire on 22 February 1643 – Broxolme spent most of 1643 helping to maintain the county’s forces in their unequal struggle against Newcastle’s army.51Northants. RO, FH133; Bodl. Nalson III, f. 22; LJ v. 611; HMC Portland, i. 712; Abbott, Writings and Speeches i. 240-2. By August of that year, Broxolme was in Boston, where the shattered remnants of Willoughby of Parham’s army had been driven by the victorious royalists.52SP28/265, f. 548. He probably welcomed Lincolnshire’s addition to the Eastern Association in September 1643 and the replacement of the militarily inept Willoughby of Parham by the earl of Manchester. He had returned to the House by 28 September, when he was named second to a committee for the supply of the 2nd Baron Fairfax (Sir Ferdinando Fairfax*) and his forces at Hull.53CJ iii. 257b. The next day (29 Sept.), he took the Solemn League and Covenant in St Margaret’s church, Westminster.54CJ iii. 259a; Rushworth, Hist. Collns. v. 481. On 15 November, he was granted leave of absence for two months and does not appear to have resumed his seat until the spring of 1644.55CJ iii. 311a, 440b.

Broxolme probably spent most of 1644 in Lincolnshire, which the Eastern Association Army under Manchester and Oliver Cromwell* had re-secured for Parliament by the end of 1643. Granted leave of absence on 20 May and 3 September 1644, he was named to only six committees that year, including those for widening the range of goods liable to the excise (11 May) – a measure strongly opposed by the more pacific Members – and for investigating charges of incompetence against Henry Grey*, 1st earl of Stamford, as commander in the west (18 May).56CJ iii. 440b, 489a, 498b, 501b, 591b, 601b, 616b, 618a. His first appointment of 1645 came on 11 March, when he was named to a committee for raising forces to guard Lincolnshire in the absence of the Eastern Association army (which had been merged into the New Model army).57CJ iv. 75a. In all, he received just five committee appointments in 1645 and probably spent much of that year in Lincolnshire. He was granted leave of absence on 25 March and 6 October.58CJ iv. 75a, 89a, 197a, 271a, 286a, 298b, 351b. In his absence, he was awarded the £4 weekly allowance (3 June), his estate having doubtless been plundered by Newcastle’s army and by raiding parties from the royalist garrison at Newark.59CJ iv. 161a. His importance in Lincolnshire affairs was underlined in September 1645, when he was appointed a deputy lieutenant for the county.60CJ iv. 270b; LJ vii. 575b. That same month, he served as a messenger to the Lords, carrying up resolutions for making additions to the county’s sequestration committee.61CJ iv. 281b; LJ vii. 590a. But at Westminster, he remained essentially a minor figure and is known to have attended only one major standing committee – the Committee for Irish Affairs – and then, apparently, on just one occasion (29 July 1645).62Add. 4771, f. 63v. His tally of five committee appointments during 1646 included nomination to the 11 July committee for investigating the ‘scandalous’, proto-Leveller tract, A Remonstrance of Many Thousand Citizens. As in previous years, he took his customary two leaves of absence, on 19 March and 25 September 1646.63CJ iv. 480a, 571a, 603a, 616a, 616b, 658b, 676a.

Broxolme died early in 1647 and was buried in Westminster Abbey on 5 March.64Westminster Abbey Regs. 141. Whether he was accorded such a prestigious burial place simply because he was an MP, or because he had influential friends at Westminster, is not clear. In his will, which he claimed to have written ‘by the motion of God’s Holy Spirit’, he described himself as of Broxolme Place, Lincoln, and of Barrow upon Humber, which was his main residence by 1645. He seems to have settled the bulk of his property upon his eldest son William prior to making his will, for it contains little reference to his estate and none at all to his heir. He also bequeathed very little in cash terms – an annuity of £20 for his second son and legacies which probably amounted to less than £20.65PROB11/202, f. 212. None of Broxolme’s immediate descendants sat in Parliament.