WESTBROOKE, John (1616-66), of Witley, Godalming, Surr. and West Ferring, Suss.

Westbrook was an ancient manor in Godalming, but although members of a family of that name possessed it and other property in the surrounding area between the early fourteenth and early sixteenth centuries, it then passed out of their hands.1Manning, Bray, Surr. i. 606-8, 636-7; VCH Surr. iii. 7, 36, 48. It appears to have been the MP’s grandfather, John Westbrooke (d. 1621), who arrested social decline, establishing himself on lands in Godalming in 1591 and acquiring the manor of Roke before July 1618, when he settled it on his son Caleb.2VCH Surr. iii. 24; Manning, Bray, Surr. ii. 45; Godalming Par. Regs. 233. The latter, when he died in July 1635, also owned three inns in Godalming – the George, the Antelope and the Anchor.3Surr. Arch. Colls. xxi. 122.

His son, this MP, married young like his father; his first child, William Westbrooke†, was baptized in November 1638.4Godalming Par. Regs. 87. With local grandee Sir William Ellyot*, in 1640 he was a signatory to articles lodged against the vicar of Godalming, Nicholas Andrewes, who was chaplain to Matthew Wren, bishop of Ely. Westbrooke especially endorsed clauses complaining that Andrewes had threatened those who went elsewhere to find the preaching unavailable from him, denied the doctrine that ‘the greatest part of the world’ would be damned, and refused to ‘church’ new mothers at home.5Surr. Arch. Colls. ii. 214–5.

Nothing is known of Westbrooke during the first civil war, but it is possible that he was already active in the Surrey militia for the parliamentary cause. When in February 1648 he was named an elder in the Godalming classis, he was referred to as Captain Westbrooke.6Shaw, Hist. Eng. Church, ii. 433. With the coming of the commonwealth his place as a captain of militia horse was confirmed; then, if not before, he became involved in local administration.7A. and O.; SP25/62, f. 509; The Names of the Justices (1650), 56 (E.1238.4); Manning, Bray, Surr. iii. 79. Militia duties brought him close to Sir Richard Onslow*, with whom he was enjoined by the council of state in July 1651 to raise troops in the recalcitrant western division of the county, where they were considered to have influence.8CSP Dom. 1651, p. 285.

When in August 1654 the election of Robert Wood II* – a former colonel of the Surrey trained bands – as a knight of the shire to the first protectorate Parliament provoked protest among the Kingston parliamentarians who were his neighbours, it was Westbrooke who supplied a certificate vouching for Wood’s support for the army in 1651. Afflicted by a swollen foot which made it impossible to get his boots on (as he explained), and thus to answer a summons from the council of state, he effected it via his brother Caleb Westbrooke, who had also suffered at the hands of a radical faction on the Kingston corporation.9SP18/74, f. 202. Caleb and others were restored to their places on the corporation late in 1655.10Sutton Local Studies Centre, KB16/7/14–17.

In January 1659 Westbrooke was a candidate at the parliamentary elections at Haslemere, about six miles south west of his home at Witley. He received two votes fewer than his rival, John Hooke*, but, probably emboldened by his reputation as ‘Lord [Richard] Onslow’s friend’ lodged a petition contesting the result which came before committee on 17 February.11Burton's Diary, iii. 325. On 3 March the House agreed with the recommendation that freeholders who were not also inhabitants were disenfranchised and thus that some of Hooke’s votes were disallowed.12CJ vii. 618b. Westbrooke was admitted to the House on 23 March and Hooke’s name finally erased on the 31st.13Burton's Diary, iv. 243; CJ vii. 622a. However, Westbrooke made no visible contribution to proceedings.

Westbrooke was re-elected to the Convention, but was likewise invisible.14HP Commons 1660-1690. After the restoration he retired to the estate at West Ferring in Sussex which his wife had inherited from her brother. Sick when he made his will on 2 May 1666, he died soon after, having made provision for his four sons and a daughter.15PROB11/210/50; PROB11/323/592. His eldest son William, an Inner Temple barrister, was MP for Arundel in 1685 and Bramber in 1692.16HP Commons 1660-1690.