q.10. Jane, geb. c. 1574, oorl. c. 1606/7 x Robert BRANDLING of Felling co Durham, s.v. William Brandling en Anne Helye
Jane was die dogter van Francis Wortley en Mary Swift.
Jane was die dogter van Francis Wortley en Mary Swift.
William Brandling, esq. of Felling, who m. Anne, dau. of George Helye, esq, and by her (who wedded for her second husband, Charles Hall, esq.) he left at his decease in 1575, a daughter, Jane,' wife of John Hodworth, esq. of Chester Deanery, and a son, Robert Brandling, esq. "heire of theFelling, baptized 23rd January, 1574-5. This gentleman was high-sheriff of Northumberland in 1617. He married first, Jane (who d. in 1606-7), daughter of Francis Wortley. esq. of Wortley, in the county of York, by whom (who d. in 1606-7) he had issue. Mr. Brandling espoused secondly, Mary, daughter of Thomas Hilton, esq. Lord of Hilton. (Burke, John, Esq.: History of the British landed gentry, embellished with the armorial bearings of each family)
He married twice—his first wife was Jane, daughter of Sir Francis Wortley, Knight. Among their children, Sir Francis Brandling, Knight, was the eldest and the heir. John Brandling was raised by his half-uncle, William Brandling, the youngest son by the first marriage of Sir Robert Brandling, Knight, and Jane Wortley, and the younger brother of Sir Francis Brandling, Knight. Both resumed the old family name of Brandford or Bransford. (Our Bransford Family history http://www.angelfire.com/mac/bransford/bransford.html)
(Burke, John; Burke, Bernard: The
Royal Families of England, Scotland, and Wales: With Their ..., Volume 2)
Visitations of Yorkshire (http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moa/AHE1867.0001.001/52?rgn=full+text;view=image;q1=wortley)
(Dugdale’s Visitation
of Yorkshire with additions edited by J.W. Clay, F.S.A. Volume II Exeter: William Pollard & Co. Ltd. The printing
works 1907)
Constituency Dates
MORPETH 1621
Family and
Education
bap. 23 Jan. 1575, 1st s. of William Brandling of Felling, co. Dur.
and North Gosforth, Northumb. and Anne Helye. m. (1) by 1594,
Jane (bur. 17 Jan.
1606/7), da. of Francis Wortley of Wortley, Yorks., 6s. (2 d.v.p.),
2da. (1 d.v.p.); (2) Mary,
da. of Thomas Hilton of Hilton, co. Dur. 2s.; 1ch. illegit with Jane Shaw;
1-2ch. illegit. with Jane Kirsopp. suc. fa. 1575.d.
29 June 1634.
Offices Held
Freeman,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumb. 1600; member, Hostmen’s Co.,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1601-?d.; j.p. co. Dur. by 1602-?d. sheriff, Northumb. 1617-18, 1630-1;surveyor,
Crown mines, co. Dur. and Northumb. 1620; commr.
inquiry, Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1618-20, survey Crown manors, Northumb. and co.
Dur. 1621, sewers, co. Dur. 1630.
Biography
Brandling’s
great-grandfather, a Northumberland man, made his fortune as a merchant
adventurer at Newcastle at the end of the fifteenth century. His eldest son,
Sir Robert Brandling, represented the borough five times in Parliament; his
business and lands in Jesmond and North Gosforth, Northumberland were inherited
by his nephew William, who also acquired the manor of Felling, co. Durham, a
mining area which yielded huge profits as the Tyneside coal trade boomed over
the next generation. William died in 1575, when his son,
the future MP, was only an infant; the family was therefore not involved in two
key developments of the late Elizabethan period, the acquisition of the Grand
Lease of Durham coalmines in 1583, and the foundation of the Newcastle
Hostmen’s Company in 1600. Several of Brandling’s
Newcastle cousins shared his first name, but it was probably the future MP who
became a freeman of Newcastle in 1600 and paid £10 to join the Hostmen in the
following year. Though not a member of the cartels which took control of coal
shipments from 1603, he clearly profited hugely from the trade, claiming to be
worth £2,000 a year towards the end of his life. He invested heavily in land,
paying £1,001 for the site of Newminster Priory, Northumberland in 1609, and
later acquiring a larger property at Alnwick Abbey, Northumberland; he also
bought up leases of Crown mines with the assistance of Sir William Smith of
London, although the two men eventually fell out over the spoils of a
particularly lucrative deal. Clearly a volatile individual,
Brandling constantly picked quarrels with rivals, neighbours and even his own
family. In 1610 Alderman William Jenison*, who had questioned Brandling’s title
to the manor of North Gosforth, was so offended by Brandling’s ‘uncivil and
unreasonable speeches’ at a legal hearing that he challenged him to a duel, a
gesture which cost him a fine of 1,000 marks. In 1627 Brandling was arrested by
his eldest son Sir Francis*, then sheriff of Northumberland, in a dispute over
the portions he had provided for his younger children. In August 1620
Brandling protested to the king about the activities of Sir Peter Riddell*,
then mayor of Newcastle, and his brother Sir Thomas*. The grievances he cited
included the levying of primage, a duty collected by the Newcastle Trinity
House, and the corporation’s ban on the construction of coal wharves along the
Tyne by private landowners, who were forbidden to ship coal by the Hostmen’s
monopoly. Brandling also observed that the Riddells made a fortune from leasing
Crown mines at rents which were only a fraction of their true worth, and
suggested that this also applied to the mines comprised in the Grand Lease.
These claims were true - many mine owners (including Brandling himself)
benefited from such leases - but calling attention to this fact constituted
extreme provocation; the corporation’s initial reaction to these complaints was
to accuse Brandling of failure to repair his wharf at Felling. Brandling widened his
assault on the inner circle of the Hostmen’s Company following his return as
Member for Morpeth at the general election of December 1620. Presumably the
sponsor of a bill to overturn the Hostmen’s monopoly of the shipment of coal,
which was rejected by the Commons at its first reading on 27 Feb. 1621, he
returned to the attack on the afternoon of 26 Mar., the day before the Easter
recess, moving ‘that the [Hostmen’s] patent for Newcastle coals may be brought
in’. He criticized the duty of 12d.
per chaldron the Hostmen had conceded to the Crown in return for their
monopoly, but solicitor general Sir Robert Heath warned that the Crown would
not tolerate an attack upon its revenues, while Christopher Brooke of York,
noting that the Newcastle MPs had already left town, moved to postpone the
investigation until the session resumed. In the face of such powerful
opposition, it is hardly surprising that nothing more was heard of this
complaint. After Easter, the Northumberland MPs
lobbied hard to have Berwick exempted from the bill to bar the export of woolfells,
but Brandling was conspicuously absent from this caucus; he was, however, named
to the committee for the Durham enfranchisement bill (6 Mar.), and another to
confirm the 1610 Act regulating moor-burning in the north (26 May). He left no
trace upon the records of the autumn sitting. The fuss Brandling
caused in the Commons in 1621 apparently persuaded the Hostmen to cut a deal.
He retired from business and by April 1622 his eldest son had joined one of the
Hostmen’s cartels for the shipment of coal. A year later Sir Francis took
control of the family estates. Despite his retirement, in 1629
Brandling was apparently chosen for a second term as sheriff of Northumberland;
he refused and sought refuge across the border in Scotland, but eventually
served in the following year. Before he took up this office he was arrested by
the Privy Council for ‘insolent and scornful behaviour’ towards the Newcastle
corporation in a dispute over his construction of a coal wharf on the banks of
the Tyne. This matter had no sooner been
resolved than fresh complaints were received from his neighbours at Alnwick; he
was summoned before the Council again, notwithstanding his service as sheriff,
but after two weeks the cause was referred to the Council in the North. The
dispute was eventually tried before the Durham High Commission, which recorded
a succession of outrages against local ministers and the diocesan authorities.
On 14 May 1634 Brandling was fined £3,000 and ordered to be imprisoned at royal
pleasure; he may still have been in gaol when he died only six weeks later, on
29 June. No will or administration has been
found.
(http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/brandling-robert-1575-1634)
Kinders:
r.1. Francis BRANDLING (Sir), his heir x 18/05/1618 met Elizabeth Grey, d.v. Sir Ralph Grey of Chillingham Castle, northumb., xx 04/02/1638 met Elizabeth Pitt, d.v. Sir William Pitt of Stratfield Saye, hants, wid. of Richard Wheeler of Datchet, Bucks.
Constituency dates: northumberland 1624; Northumberland 1625..
Constituency dates: northumberland 1624; Northumberland 1625..
r.2. Richard BRANDLING, living in 1633, then of the county of Northumberland.
r.3. John BRANDLING, of Newcastle, who died in 1635. leaving issue by his wife, Troth (who m. secondly, Richard Vincent, wsq of Great Smeaton)
r.4. Ralph BRANDLING, who died unmarried.
r.5. William BRANDLING, who died young.
r.6. Mary BRANDLING
r.7. Elizabeth BRANDLING, m. to George Wray, esq. of Beamish, in Durham.
r.8. Thomas BRANDLING, b. 24/02/1605/6
