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Gentleman's Magazine 1848 part 2 p.32
the only person who has written upon Brougham Hall as an
ancient residence. In the "Baronial Halls," published by
Chapman and Hall, from drawings by J. D. Harding, George
Cattermole, and others, there is a lengthened account of the
place accompanied by prints; also in Fisher's Northern
Counties, &c. and in other similar works.
It would occupy too much of your valuale space to follow
your correspondents through all their assertions; though I
have no doubt, if it were necessary, that I could
substantiate every material fact I have stated.
If the writers re-read my letter, they will find that the
fiction, as they term it, of St. Wilfred's Well I myself
disapprove of, and object to in the very article in which
they say it is first heard of, but which more extensive
reading would have shown them was ascribed in S. C. Hall's
"Baronial Halls."
How facetious they grow about the armour, and then boldly
say it all came from Wardour Street; and yet in a will dated
1565, Henry Brougham leaves his arms and armour,
&c. ("hearst thou, Mars!") to his son and heir Thomas
(with Brougham) as heirlooms. How do your daring
correspondents know that the armour came from Wardour
Street?
Their rampant assertion, to use their own words, about the
Crusader's grave and the prick-spur, &c. I leave in the
hands of Mr. Albert Way and the other gentlemen connected
with the Journal of the Archaeological Institute, in which
work what they term "the most puerile creation ever set up,"
was first given to the public.
The genealogical part of the question appears also to be
regarded as equally spurious with the hall, notwithstanding
Mr. Justice Wightman's remarks at the trial which took place
at Appleby assizes in August 1843 to the contrary. At this
trial every feature of consequence which I have mentioned in
the descent was proved before a special jury by the
production of deeds and records, and the observation of the
judge was, "that he never had in his experience seen a
pedigree carried back so far, and with such clear
proof." As to the manor, in the Rolls Chapel is
preserved a roll headed "Le Bownder de Burgham," which ends
thus: "And so thys ambulacyon was viewyd and merkett in the
preserved in the Chapter House, Westminster, in the book
endorsed Inquisitions post Mortem in 9, 10, and 11
Elizabeth, taken after the death of Henry Brougham, who died
6th Dec. 11th Eliz. the jurors find that he died seised of
various lands, &c.; and, amongst others, "quod predictus
Henricus Brougham fuit seisitus in Domenico suo et de feodo
de et in manerio de Brougham, et la demeyne lands de manerio
predicto," &c. and that he held this manor of the
sheriff of Westmoreland (i.e. of the King) by
knight's service. The father of this Henry is found to have
died 18th Nov. 6th Edw. VI. and that he was the King's
tenant by knight's service. This record is also in the
Chapter House, Court of Wards and Liveries, 1st Mary to 1st
Eliz.
In an Act of Parliament passed in the year 1776 for
inclosing Brougham Moor, Henry Brougham is described as lord
of the manor of Brougham, and in that character the
principal allotment is made to him. If he had not been lord
of the manor his claim would have been opposed before the
commissioners. This Henry was Lord Brougham's grandfather,
and died in Dec. 1782. Burn in his History of Westmoreland,
p.391, says that the third part of the manor was held "by
cornage," and, notwithstanding the sneers at the "old
cow-horn," I should like to hear your correspondents'
disproval of the antiquity of this tenure.
The fact of the family having been seated at Brougham from
the Hep-
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