Family and Education

b. 1525/26, 1st s. of George Bromley of Hodnet by Jane, da. of Sir Thomas Lacon of Willey; bro. of Thomas II. educ. I. Temple, called. m. by 1555, Joan, da. and h. of John Wannerton of Worfield, 4s. inc. Edward^† and Francis^† 3da. suc. fa. 7 July 1533. Kntd. 3 June 1580.1

Offices Held

Bencher, I. Temple 1559, Autumn reader 1561, Lent 1569, treasurer 1567-70.

Steward, crown lands, Salop by Mar. 1554; feodary, Salop by Feb. 1559; member, council in the marches of Wales by 1560; j.p. Cheshire, Denb. from 1561, Salop c.1574, Warws. c.1583; attorney-gen. duchy of Lancaster 1566-80; justice, Anglesey circuit Feb. 1567-80, Chester May 1580; eccles. commr. 1572; custos rot. Salop c.1574; recorder, Worcester 1580-7,Shrewsbury June 1580, Bridgnorth by 1583.2

Biography

George Bromley was the third of his family to achieve distinction in the law. His father had been a reader at the Inner Temple and recorder of Shrewsbury early in Henry VIII’s reign, and his cousin (Sir) Thomas Bromley I died in 1555 while chief justice of the King’s bench; both father and cousin had been legal officers of the council in the marches.3

Bromley was only seven years old when his father died in 1533. It is not known to whom his wardship was granted, but his career was probably shaped by the influence of Sir Thomas Bromley, who had no son of his own, and of his mother’s family, the Lacons of Willey. Like his father, he was trained at the Inner Temple and then took service with the council in the marches. He is known to have been a member of the council by 1560, but as he was steward of crown lands in Shropshire by 1554 he may have been appointed several years earlier. Although he had inherited a house and considerable land at Hawkstone in north Shropshire, he married about 1555 into a rather obscure family from Hallon, near Willey, and went to live on his wife’s property.4

The Lacons wielded great influence at Wenlock, and it was doubtless exercised to secure Bromley’s return to the Parliament of 1558 along with another of their kinsmen, Sir George Blount, head of the leading family of south-east Shropshire. Bromley was joined in the Commons by his younger brother Thomas, who had barely begun the career which was to lead him to the woolsack. The brothers must also have benefited from their relationship to the sheriff at the time of their return, Richard Newport, an Inner Templar who had married the daughter of Sir Thomas Bromley. In the next reign George Bromley received several important judicial offices, mostly in the north-west, but his fame was overshadowed by his brother’s. He died on 2 Mar. 1589.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Alan Harding

Notes

• 1. Aged 63 at death, Vis. Salop (Harl. Soc. xxviii), 78, 492; C142/56/2; E150/855/4.
• 2. R. Flenley, Cal. Reg. Council, Marches of Wales, 49; HMC De L’Isle and Dudley, i. 323; CPR, 1558-60, p. 148; 1569-72, p. 440; P. H. Williams, Council in Marches of Wales, 344-5; Lansd. 683, f. 28; Somerville, Duchy, i. 409; Ormerod, Cheshire, i. 62; A. D. Dyer, Worcester in 16th Cent. 201; H. Owen and J. B. Blakeway, Shrewsbury, i. 538; Bridgnorth recs. 9/3, f. 2.
• 3. Owen and Blakeway, i. 273; Bodl. Blakeway 8, f. 285; ECP, v. 233, 604; LP Hen. VIII, xii.
• 4. Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 2), i. 13.
• 5. Ibid. (ser. 3), ii. 314-15.