Family and Education

bap. 3 Apr. 1679, 1st s. of William Brigstocke of Llechdwnni by Winifred, da. and coh. of Robert Byrt of Llwydyrys, Card.  educ. Eton bef. 1695; Jesus, Oxf. 1695; M. Temple 1697, called 1705; travelled abroad (Holland, France) 1700.  m. Anne (d. 1746), da. of Edward Browne, MD, of Northfleet, Kent and h. to her bro. Thomas Browne, MD, of Northfleet, s.p.  suc. fa. 1713.1

Offices Held

FRS 1710.2

Biography

Brigstocke, whose ancestors, formerly based in Surrey, had acquired a Carmarthenshire estate early in the 17th century, was returned for Cardigan Boroughs at a by-election in 1712 on the Tory interest of his relations the Pryses. His contribution to the remainder of the 1711–12 session was slight, though in June he carried to the Lords a bill to allow the easier recovery of small debts and legacies given to ‘pious and charitable uses’, and another concerning the estate of Lord Bellew [I] (Richard*). His antiquarian pursuits brought him into the orbit of Lord Treasurer Oxford (Robert Harley*), who in November 1712 encouraged him to apply for a minor customs place for a kinsman. In May 1713 Brigstocke was nominated to draft, and subsequently reported, a naturalization bill. Though dropped at the election of that year, he was nominated by Lewis Pryse* as knight of the shire in 1717, after Pryse had himself been expelled the House, but again seems to have been no more than a stop-gap. He voted in 1719 against the repeal of the Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts and stood down in 1722, never to put up for election again. By 1731 he was describing himself, in a letter to Sir Hans Sloane, as ‘an old rusticated acquaintance’. Towards the end of his life he approached (Sir) Robert Walpole II* for a crumb of patronage for a nephew, recalling his and Walpole’s schooldays together, and ‘the frequent civilities you have shown me since’. Brigstocke died on 4 May 1746, and was buried at Kidwelly. His nephew succeeded him.3

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: D. W. Hayton

Notes

• 1. Carmarthen Antiquary, i. 40; SPCK Corresp. (Univ. of Wales Bd. of Celtic Studies, Hist. and Law ser. x), 45; CSP Dom. 1699–1700, p. 364; DNB (Browne, Thomas).
• 2. Recs. R. Soc. 391.
• 3. Ceredigion, v. 402–4; Harl. 3777, ff. 243–4; Add. 70213, Brigstocke to Ld. Oxford, 1 Nov. 1712; Sloane 4052, f. 52; Camb. Univ. Lib. Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss, Brigstocke to Walpole, 11 May [?1744]; SPCK Corresp. 45.