Family and Education

?s. of Robert Brome or Brown and prob. e. bro. of Bartholomew Brome. m. 2 June 1561, Mildred Courthope (d.1581), at least 7s. 1da. (5 d.v.p.).

Offices Held

Freeman, Canterbury 1559, sheriff 1565-6, alderman 1571, mayor 1573-4, 1576-7, 1587-8, 1601-2.

Biography

Brome was a grocer. In addition to his mayoralties, each of which carried a salary of £40, he was chosen in September 1586 and 1593 to assist the mayors then in office. During his last mayoralty Brome was in trouble with the archbishop of Canterbury, who was beginning quo warranto proceedings against the city council for incursions into his liberties. ‘Upon speech with Mr. Brome’, however, and upon promise that ‘the error which had been committed’ should be reformed, the archbishop stayed his hand.

In 1586, when Brome had already represented his city in one Parliament, it was agreed that £10 should be paid towards his expenses ‘already past’, but that no ‘cess’ should be made of the inhabitants until the charges for the whole Parliament were known. He was churchwarden of his own parish in 1563-4, and in later years frequently helped audit the accounts. He died 29 Nov. 1603. According to his inquisition post mortem, he held the site of the dissolved Augustinian priory at Canterbury, with its appurtenances in the parish of St. George the Martyr, four messuages in the parish of St. Andrew, and two messuages and some land in the parishes of St. Michael, Harbledown, and St. Dunstan. His heir was his eldest son Robert, of Ringwould, Kent, a clerk aged 36, to whom he left the site of the priory, and lands in all these parishes. The second surviving son Thomas, an apothecary, was to have property, including the house in St. Andrew’s parish which Brome himself had occupied, while Joseph, the youngest son, was to have other property there.

Freemen of Canterbury, ed. Cowper, 12, 188, 200, 213; Reg. St. Dunstan, Canterbury ed. Cowper, 70; Reg. St. George, Canterbury ed. Cowper, 174, 175, 177, 179; Wards 7/28/148; Canterbury burmote bks. passim; Arch. Cant. xii. 41; xxxv. 55 et passim; xxxvi. 83; Canterbury, Railton mss.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: J.E.M.

Notes