BROCK, William (1566-1611), of the Inner Temple, London and Longwood, Hants.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. 1566, 1st s. of Robert Brock of Chester by Jane, da. of John Cotgrave of Edmunds Cotton, Cheshire. educ. Brasenose, Oxf. 1583; Clifford’s Inn; I. Temple 1584, called 1592. m. Anne, da. of Sir Benjamin Tichborne of Tichborne, Hants, 1da. suc. fa. c.1588.1

Offices Held

Alderman, Chester 1603; bencher, I. Temple 1605, Autumn reader 1608.

Biography

Brock was a practising lawyer, elected to Parliament for Chester shortly after he had been retained by the city as counsel at an annual fee of 53s.4d. He was one of many London lawyers in this period elected by his native town, an arrangement economical to the borough authorities and no doubt gratifying to the man. As burgess for Chester he was appointed to a committee concerning bread on 13 Jan. 1598. After his marriage, Brock settled in Hampshire, where he made his will 1 Sept. 1611. From his emphasis in the preamble on hopes of salvation through the death and passion of Jesus Christ alone, ‘without any works of mine’, he appears to have been a convinced protestant, which might explain why he had been fined, many years earlier at the Inner Temple, for attending church with his hat on. He left the care of his nine-year-old daughter and heiress to his executors, Sir Thomas Savage, Sir Thomas Lake, Dr. Thomas Singleton and John Daccombe, asking that Lady Mary Mylle should take charge of her education. His wife was left the tenancy of Longwood and £40 a year from the manor of Marden that he had purchased in 1606. He granted an annuity of £10 from his lands at Tarvin in Cheshire to his nephew John Savage, whom he had been supporting at the Inner Temple. After other minor bequests, including £100 to the new chapel at Brasenose College, all his law books to another nephew, and all his history books, ‘except Camden’, to Dr. Singleton, Brock left the residue of his property to his daughter. He appointed ‘my good lord’ Sir Thomas Flemyng and Sir Edward Phelips overseers and asked that his lands in Cheshire and at Hartley Wintney in Hampshire should be accepted as the King’s third, due with the wardship of his daughter.

As Chamberlain reported, ‘lawyer Brook’ died 16 Nov. 1611. His will was proved 13 Dec. and a further probate was granted to his daughter, by then married to John Arundell, 20 Nov. 1622.2

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: Patricia Hyde

Notes

  • 1. Lancs. and Cheshire Hist. Soc. n.s. xxvi. 124; xxvii. 182; Vis. Hants (Harl. Soc. lxiv), 126; Brasenose Reg. (Oxford Hist. Soc. lv), 65.
  • 2. Chester Wills 1545-1620 (Lancs. and Cheshire Rec. Soc. ii), 29; Chester RO, ass. bk. 1, ff. 246d, 277; D’Ewes, 579; PCC 101 Wood; VCH Hants, iii. 419, 541; iv. 541; Wards 7/35/65; CSP Dom. 1611-18, p. 95.