Beachborough Manor

Beachborough Manor was a manor in Beachborough, Kent, UK purchased by Sir William's great-grandfather Father Henry Brockman ca. 1500 and subsequently passed through various squires in the English Brockman family. Like many buildings in the UK, it found use in World War II by the Allies, as an American hospital. It later became Stowe College and served in that capacity for several years. Prime Minister David Lloyd-George lived there in the early 20th century. The property now serves as a Bed and Breakfast. [http://www.cornerpubs.ndo.co.uk/beachborough/index.html 1]

Heraldry of some of the early English Brockmans

The origins and evolution of the Brockman arms are not completely documented. English arms are given to specific individuals; sons (and daughters) have to be given their own. Any person may display the arms of any lineal ancestor so long as one is honest about whose arms they were.

Brief history and sketch of Arms of the Beachborough squires

Sir William Brockman (1595 – 1654) was an English military leader, politician, and land owner, and a notable combatant in the English civil war, wherein he fought against Oliver Cromwell's Republican forces.

James Brockman, was the son of William of Newington, Kent. He martriculated into Corpus Christi College on 10 December 1641, aged 15. He was born in Beachborough, Kent. He died in February, 1683.

William Brockman was a descendant (the third in a line) of Sir William Brockman of Kent. He married Anne Glydd, elder daughter of Richardd Glydd, Esq, of Pendhill, in Surrey. They had three sons, William, James and John. His son William pre-deceased him. John died in 1739. James, his second son, became heir. William Brockman Esq. served as a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons. Notes relating to his activities show him to be active in this capacity from about 1691 to 1693. These activities can be researched via the name "Brockman" at [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/ British History Online]

James Brockman Esq. (died 1767) was the last male heir of the Brockmans of Kent, Beachborough. He died unmarried in 1767 and bequeathed his estates to his cousin, the great nephew of his mother, the Rev. Ralph Drake. (Vide App. VIII). Thus came the double name of Drake-Brockman, for it was on condition that Rev. Ralph Drake took the Arms and Surname of Brockman that the estates were left to him. (It is interesting to note that according to the Register of Alumni Oxoniensis, by Foster, vide App. V, it states that as “R. D. Brockman, which latter name he had assumed in addition to his patronymic.”) Concerning this point of the double name, see App. IX and Will of Rev. Ralph Drake-Brockman. The Drake-Brockmans produced several notable descendants in England and Australia (see the English Brockman family summary).

Rev. Ralph Drake-Brockman died at the age of 57, on 11 November, 1781. He continued the Brockman succession from Sir William via a maternal line as described above. The Rev. Ralph Drake thus took the Arms and Surname of Brockman and the estates were left to him.

Several notable Australians are descended from Ralph Drake-Brockman (see Brockman surname disambiguation page) or [http://www.brockman.net.au various external links] .

A brief history of the Beachborough Brockmans

The Beachborough family has figured prominently in the social and public life of Kent, two of the Brockmans, Sir William Brockman and James Drake-Brockman, having served in the office of sheriff of Kent, and all those who inherited the Beachborough Estate were in the Commission of Peace for East Kent. Several Brockmans in Kent were armigerous gentry and used the "esquire" title.

The first record of the family dates from the reign of King Richard II. Lands which had become vested in the Crown on the attainder of Sir Robert Belknap, were granted to John Brokeman in the 13^th year of that monarch's reign, i.e., in 1390, and consisted of the Manor of Pirrie, extending to Old Romney and Medley, with other lands in Stowting and Crundale, by a patent which was enrolled in the Tower in that year.

, Richard's chief adversary in England, was getting major support from France. The family was allowed to maintain the motto "Esse Quam Videri" -- "To be, rather than to appear to be." The Brokeman name spelling became "Brockman" within one generation.

An interesting side note of the Kentish Brockmans is their relationship with the St. Leger family, who also have an interesting genealogy and history. John's grandson John Brockman married Helen St. Leger Clifford, a young widow. As a St. Leger by birth, she is descended from a Norman knight who accompanied William the Conqueror from Normandy to England. The St. Legers settled at Ulcombe, Kent, where a "brass" memorial to Helen's father John St. Leger still exists in the church floor. A descendant of John St. Leger through another child, Warham St. Leger, came to Jamestown, Virginia early, but apparently left (as a number of Cavaliers did) when the Cromwellian Puritans came to power in England and made Claiborne the governor of Virginia. Warham had returned to England about 20 years before the ancestor of most USA English Brockmans, Henry Brockman, came to St. Mary's County, Maryland.

Paintings by Edward Haytley

Edward Haytley, a lesser-known English master, was hired to paint "conversation pieces" featuring the Brockman family at Beachborough. These pieces show the family indulging in various activities with the various views of Beachborough highlighted. The paintings are now housed at the National Gallery Victoria in Australia.

External links

* [http://www.cornerpubs.ndo.co.uk/beachborough/index.html Bed & Breakfast in Beachborough Park]
* [http://www.brockman.net.au English and Australian Brockman & Drake-Brockman Family Page]

ources

*"Burke's Landed Gentry" Burke's Peerage Ltd; Jubilee edition, Mr. Bernard Burke, Mr. Gordon Pirrie (author/compiler)
*"Hasted's History of Kent,: Corrected, enlarged, and continued to the present time, from the manuscript collection of the late Rev. Thomas Streatfeild and ... the public records, and other sources", ASIN: B000874L4G
* "Harris's History of Kent".
*"The history and antiquities of the county of Essex,: Compiled from the best and most ancient historians"; Philip Morant, reprinted and sold by Meggy and Chalk (January 1, 1816), ISBN 0-7158-1301-3, Another republishing, 1978.
*The Brockman Papers (records in the British Museum).
*The Brockman scrapbook;: Bell, Bledsoe, Brockman, Burrus, Dickson, James, Pedan, Putman, Sims, Tatum, Woolfolk, and related families (unknown binding) by William Everett Brockman, ASIN: B0007E8Y48 (out of print), this information provided courtesy of Paul Brockman (Virginia)
*Record of the Brockman and Drake-Brockman family (privately published) by Brigadier-General David Henry Drake-Brockman C.M.G. 1936 provided courtesy of Hugh-Drake Brockman (UK), ASIN: B00089U71U (out of print)
*"Brockman & Drake-Brockman Family Tree : the Australian Branch 1830-1993". (Menora, Western Australia : Alan Jackson, 1993) ISBN 0-646-18200-5
*"Orange County Virginia families": Volume III (unknown binding) by William Everett Brockman, Publisher: W.E. Brockman (January 1, 1959), English, ASIN: B0007G5G0Q