Brograve Baronets

There have been two Brograve Baronetcies, the first, created in the Baronetage of England, and the second in the Baronetage of Great Britain.

Brograve of Hamells, Hertfordshire

Created in the Baronetage of England, 18 March 1663
*Thomas Brograve, 1st Baronet (d. 4 June 1670)
*John Brograve, 2nd Baronet (1664 -1691)
*Thomas Brograve, 3rd Baronet (1670- 1707)

"Baronetcy extinct"

Brograve of Worstead, Norfolk

Created in the Baronetage of Great Britain, 28 July 1791

*Sir Berney Brograve, 1st Baronet (10 October 1726 – 23 February 1797). Brograve was the eldest son and heir of Thomas Brograve (1691–1753) of Great Baddow, Essex, and his wife Juliana Berney, and a descendant of Sir John Brograve (d. 1613), Attorney-General to the Duchy of Lancaster. Juliana Berney was descended from Sir Richard Berney, 1st Baronet of Parkhall. In 1733 Thomas Brograve purchased the manors of Waxham and Horsey in Norfolk, and so began the "notorious" Brograve family of Waxham. Initially they lived at Waxham Hall which was built in the 16th Century by the Woodhouse family. Brograve built the Brograve Mill and Stubb Mill to drain the land at Brograve Level, where he is said to have hidden from the devil, and he is also reputed to have had a mowing match for his soul with the devil at Worstead. ['Wild Waxham', Norfolk Historic Buildings Trust. C. Davison & R. Pestell, 2004.] In 1761 Brograve married Jane, eldest daughter of Edward Hawker of Great Baddow, Essex. They had four children, only two of whom survived, including Ann who married Dr John Rye, the founder of The Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners' Royal Benevolent Society. After his first wife's death Brograve married secondly, in 1769, Jane Halcott, sole heiress of Matthew Halcott of Litcham. Most of their eleven children died in infancy, and their son George "(see below)" succeeded as 2nd Baronet in 1797. A granddaughter married Sir William Beauchamp-Proctor, 3rd Baronet, in whose family the name of Brograve descended as a given name. Worstead House, designed by James Wyatt for Sir Berney Brograve, was eventually demolished in 1937, "a fine red brick mansion, situated within a noble park of 400 acres, which contains a lake covering 8¼ acres". [History and Antiquities of the County of Norfolk. Norwich, Armstrong, Mostyn John, 1781] . After building his mansion-house at Worstead he was described as occasionally inhabiting the manor house at Waxham. An account written in 1854 describes the manner in which Brograve lived at Waxham Hall: "He farmed his own land and had about a hundred workmen lodging in his house; these all dined in the great hall together, and Sir Berney every now and then 'knocked down' a bullock for them to live upon." He was reputedly one of the last gentlemen in Norfolk who kept a jester for his own amusement. Unpopular with the locals, a false report of his death appeared in several London newspapers in 1779, claiming he had left "considerable benefactions" to local charities, [Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser (London, England), Wednesday, September 8, 1779; Issue 3215.] and the following year several shots from a cannon were fired from a vessel as it passed Waxham Hall, which was built close to the Norfolk coast. It was believed at the time to have been smugglers saluting Brograve as they passed, for his "zeal in suppressing an illicit trade." [London Chronicle (London, England), Thursday, January 20, 1780; Issue 3610.] Brograve was created a Baronet in 1791 and died intestate in 1797. His second wife, Lady Jane, died in 1793 at Waxham, followed the next day by the death of their 18 year-old son, Thomas. According to local legend, like his ancestors, Brograve is still around and can be seen on wild and stormy nights galloping between Worstead and Waxham. ['Wild Waxham', Norfolk Historic Buildings Trust. C. Davison & R. Pestell, 2004.]

*Sir George Berney Brograve, 2nd Baronet (4 February 1772 – 1 June 1828). Brograve was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Norfolk Militia and High Sheriff of Norfolk in 1802. He lived at Worstead House near Norwich, Norfolk. Sole survivor of eleven children from his father Sir Berney Brograve, 1st Baronet's second marriage, he succeeded to the title and his father's estates in 1797. He was trained as a lawyer. His nine year marriage to Emma Louisa Whitwell was dissolved by an Act of Parliament on 28 April 1809. Captain Masham Elwin was put on trial for criminal conversation with Brograve's wife, before the Right Hon. Lord Ellenborough in the court of the King's Bench, Guildhall on 8 July 1807; with the intercepted letters. Lady Brograve, who was described to the court as "a woman of fashion & consequence", stated she had never loved her husband, nor had she wanted the marriage, but it had been an arrangement made between her father and Brograve. Elwin was found guilty and ordered to pay damages to Brograve of two thousand pounds. Lady Brograve and Capt. Elwin were married three days after her divorce. Brograve had canceled his will immediately on discovering his wife's infidelity, and like his father before him, died intestate, the last in the direct male line of this ancient family. His heir at law was a distant relative, Henry John Conyers of Copped Hall, Essex. Worstead House and most of the other estates were put up for sale shortly after Brograve's death in 1828, although Conyers appears to have kept Waxham Hall for a time. A younger brother, Roger Brograve, described as "of competent, if not splendid fortune" had inherited money and estates from their uncle Thomas Brograve, a lawyer of Springfield, Essex in 1811. Roger was a serious gambler, and in 1813 lost ₤10,000 at the Derby race at Newmarket. He then "found himself unable to answer his engagements" and shot himself two days later with a duelling pistol inserted in his mouth while sitting up in bed. The jury brought in a verdict of insanity. [The History of Gambling in England p.191 - John Ashton 1898]

"Baronetcy extinct"

George Augustus Rye, nephew of the second Baronet (son of his half-sister Ann Brograve), changed his last name to Brograve by Royal Licence three years after Sir George's death, in the hope of having the baronetcy revived in his person, but his application was denied in 1831.

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* Obituary, Sir G.B Brograve, Annual Register p.236 - Charles William Wason 1828

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