John Brome was a lawyer of the town of Warwick, England about 1410, son of John Brome the elder. John Brome Junior became wealthy enough to acquire land and eventually became Lord of the Manor of Baddesley Clinton in Warwickshire, England. He married Beatrice Shirley, daughter of Sir Ralph Shirley, of Eatington.
As a young man and throughout his life, John Brome began his process of accumulating title to a variety of property in Warwickshire. The record of deeds, and transfer of rights are so complex that space in this brief history would not allow a detailed summary. He purchased the estate of Woodlow near Warwick on 27 Apr 1436. In 1436 he obtained from Thomas Cokkes all his lands in Lapworth. These had apparently previously belonged to another John Brome, perhaps a relative, who had died in 1410 at Warwick. Later he obtained rights to lands in Lapworth, Packwood, Kingswood and elsewhere from Ralph of Cromwell. Brome Hall in Lapworth may have been in the possession of the family for many years, so adding additional land holdings in the area was logical.
The legal process by which John Brome junior came into possession of the manor of Baddesley Clinton is complicated and confusing. In 1434 John Brome of Warwick was said to be possessed of some lands and tenements formerly held by William Rody (his wife’s family) in Baddesley Clinton. John Brome, junior is also recorded as holding lands there.
In 1434 Joan Burdet, the widow of Robert Burdet possessed the manor of Baddesley Clinton. She granted it to her nephew Nicholas Metley, but he died in 1437. His 1437 will indicated that it should be sold in order to pay for 4 priests to say mass for his soul and those of his ancestors for an extended period of time. John Brome Junior, along with John Sperman and John Baxter apparently purchased the manor lands in Baddesley Clinton from Joan Burdet 26 Jan 1438/1439. For some time afterwards there was doubt among the heirs about the validity of the will of Nicholas Metley, but an affidavit by one of the witnesses eventually confirmed Metley’s intent to sell the property.
From 1438 the manor courts have been described as being of John Brome, junior, “Lord of this vill”. There is some confusion, though about who owned or lived in the Baddesley Clinton Manor Hall. Joan Burdet certainly stayed there for a time and there is record of others occupying the house after her. It is likely that the ownership of the manor lands and that of the Hall had been separated. John Brome had another residence at Bromesplace (or Brome Hall) in Lapworth and a house in Warwick and may have had other residences in the Baddesley Clinton area. Documents have him “of Warwick in 1436 and of Baddesley Clinton in 1454-55 and afterwards, so it seems that he may have resided in Baddesley Clinton for up to thirty years.
During this time period England operated under the Feudal Manorial System. In theory all of the land belonged to the king who assigned it to a hierarchy of nobles subordinate to the king. The basic unit of this system was the manor, in which the Lord of the Manor held lands by fief, acquired by a formal ceremony of investiture. The Lord of the Manor would then allow other local men to rent lands of the manor in return for rent or promise of service. The church also owned land in sort of a parallel feudal system, sometimes leading to conflict with the civil government. The manor of Baddesley Clinton was typical of the system. The manor could be purchased or inherited, even by a commoner, but was still legally invested with a higher nobleman who had to approve the transfer and who collected rents and services from the manor. In the case of Baddesley Clinton, this higher Lord was often the Earl of Norfolk. The system broke down in the 16th century with the growth of towns and cities, the growth of the middle class and the gradual switch to a capitalistic system of finance.
In 1440 James, Lord Clinton and Say resigned his claim to the advowson of the church to John Sperman, clericus, John Baxter, capellanus, and John Brome of Warwick, the same individuals to whom Joan Burdet made her grant in 1438. The term “advowson” means “the right in English law of presenting a nominee to an ecclesiastical benefice.” In this case, it meant the right to appoint the Parish priest.
John Brome Junior also obtained the Manor of Woodlow from Alice de Woodlow. Her first husband was Thomas Ruding or Rody, and her second John Maynel. She made her grant to John Brome on 13 Jan 1448, when she was a widow.
According to a complaint filed by John Brome Junior, on Saturday the 11th of June 1450, certain persons came riotously and broke down his wall and entered his house in Warwick, and took away money, deeds and other papers. On the same night this group went to Baddesley “another place of the said John Brome,” where his wife was then staying and “there laide the place about for to have broken ynne at the oppennying of the durres.” The mob then went to the house of John Underwood, a tenant of John Brome. Underwood was beaten and left for dead. John Brome Junior was then clearly Lord of the Manor of Baddesley Clinton, but we do not know if the house the mob wanted to assault there was Baddesley Clinton Hall or some other house. Baddesley Clinton Hall was a fortified building surrounded by a moat, so might have prevented the attackers from breaking in. Thus they had to wait and hope someone inside might open the door, as described in the complaint.
Although not addressed in the complaint, it seems possible that the attack was either politically motivated, possibly part of the national dispute that led to the War of the Roses in 1455 or that it was a result of his contested acquisition of some of his property. This is supported by the allegation that the mob was led by two bailiffs of the Earl of Warwick.
John Brome was the Under Treasurer of the Exchequer of England under King Henry VI, In 1435-1436 he was on a commission for assessing a subsidy and for treating with the people about a loan of money to the king. From 1451 until the end of the reign of Henry VI he was in commission for conservation of Peace in Warwickshire. In 1459-60 he was one of the Commissioner of Array. (Basically in charge of organizing things like juries)
John Brome Junior was, though, a supporter of the Lancastrian House during the War of the Roses. This put him in direct opposition to Richard Neville, “The Kingmaker,” the Earl of Warwick, who was at first, an ardent supporter of the House of York. When the Yorkist claimant Edward IV deposed King Henry VI in 1460, Brome lost all of his court appointments.
In 1467 John Brome obtained from Richard Waterton and John Bothe the lands and tenements in Lapworth, Kingswood and Henley, formerly belonging to John Brome of Lapworth. This may have been some of the same land he obtained in 1436 and perhaps had leased out to others in the interval. About this time he seems to have included wording in his land documents to insure the inheritance of his children, his brother William and his nephew Robert Brome. On 6 May 1468, John Brome conveyed his estates in trust to Thomas Burdet and others. This trust apparently insured his inheritance because, after the death of John Brome, these lands were passed to Thomas and Nicholas Brome, two of his sons.
About this time John Brome quarreled with John Herthill, steward to Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. The dispute concerned the manor of Woodlow in Warwick. Herthill appears to have come into possession of the manor and then mortgaged it with certain lands called Readings to John Brome, who afterwards refused to return them to Herthill even though Herthill had the money to redeem the land. On 6 May 1468 John Brome made an enfeoffment of all his lands including Woodlow, which probably exasperated Herthill even more. To enfoeff essentially meant, under the feudal system, to be declared the official holder of the land.
The following November 9, 1468 John Brome was assisting at Mass in the church of the Whitefriars in London on Fleet Street. He was “called out” by Herthill who fatally stabbed him in the porch of the church. John Brome’s son Thomas Brome was a witness to the attack and smiled when he saw it. His father lived long enough to make his will, or perhaps add a codicil to a will already written. In the codicil he declared: “I do forgive my son Thomas, who, when he sawe me runne through in ye Whitefriers church porch, laughed and smiled att itt.”
John Brome Junior was laid to rest at the Whitefriars Church with an epitaph inscribed on his tomb in Latin. Translated it reads: “Lo! Here lies as dust the body of John Brome, a noble and learned man, skilled in the law of the Realm, a child of genius, witness of the County of Warwick, who fell by the sword in this church, slain at the time of the mass at the hands of wicked men. He was buried in tomb November 5, 1468. Kindly father, it is better for him to have eternal rest.”
An inquisition post mortem was held upon the estate of John Brome, of Baddesley Clinton on 7 Sep 1486. The report of the jury was that he held “as of fee” four parcels of land with a total of 300 acres as well as 200 acres of pasture, 40 acres of meadow and 100 acres in Lapworth, called “Bromes Lands”. The jury also stated that William Catesby, Esquire had dispossessed him of these lands and was found guilty of treason. At the time of the inquisition these lands were in the hands of Nicholas Brome, the son of John Brome. John Brome had possessed right to lands in other areas, but apparently these were not in dispute and thus not part of the inquest.
Beatrice Brome continued to live in the manor of Baddesley Clinton probably for the rest of her life. On 1 Jan 1473/74 she released by indenture to her son Nicholas all her title in the manors of Wotton Hall or Wodcote in the Parish of Wotton, and all other lands in the towns and fields of Warwick, Myton, le lee, Woodlow, Budbroke, Hampton Curley, Bewsale, Offchurch, Eythrope and Honyngham as long as she was permitted to live in the manor of Baddesley Clinton and enjoy the benefits of the manor lands. She was given possession of that manor by Nicholas Brome 12 Jan 1473/74 but she gave it to Nicholas when he married later in 1474. She died in 1483 and was buried in the chancel of the church at Baddesley.