.14 .9 245 247 .2 210 872 ..6 Stoney Strat. 3 Newport ..4 F. Stratford..5 BRADPOLE. inter their dead at Bridport; but by a composition entered into between the inhabitants and the rector of Bridport in 1527, they were allowed to bury in their own church-yard, on paying a small acknowledgment to the above parish annually. In King John's time the manor was the seat of John de Moreville, a person of considerable note in his time, and descended from the Barons de Moreville; he was a military man, and held this manor by sergeantry, of finding an armed esquire when war should happen, for forty days, at his own cost. Its rise at tributed to numerous pilgrims travelling through it. Plays once acted in the church. * BRAINTREE, formerly Great Raine, is situated in the hundred of Hinckford. It is an extensive straggling place, on a rising ground, connected, on the north, with Bocking. Originally a hamlet to Raines, it became a distinct parish about the commencement of the 13th century; and through the interest of William de St. Maria, Bishop of London, it was constituted a market-town, by King John. The manor, it should be observed, was held by the Bishops of London, till the time of Edward VI. The old manor-house, or palace of the bishops, has long been destroyed. The rise of Braintree has been attributed to the convenience of its situation on the high road from London into Suffolk and Norfolk, and to the building of inns, &c. for the accommodation of the numerous pilgrims from the south, who, in the days of Catholic superstition, were continually travelling to the shrines of our Lady of Walsingham, and St. Edmund. Subsequently to the Reformation, the town was comparatively deserted; but, in the reign of Elizabeth, the Protestants, who fled from the persecution of the Duke D'Alva, came for refuge to England, and many of them settled here, where they carried on a considerable trade in the manufacturing of baize, and other sorts of woollen cloth, by which the place again became | rich and flourishing. Of late years this place has greatly decreased. The government of the town is in a select vestry, composed of twenty-four parishioners, who were styled governors of the town, and town magistrates, as early as the year 1584. On the south side of the town stands Braintree church, a spacious structure, occupying a high spot of ground, apparently the site of a camp. It has a lofty spire rising from a tower at the west end, cased with slate; the body of the edifice is mostly flint. This church was founded in the reign of Edward III.; but it has since. been greatly enlarged, particularly in the reign of Henry VIII., when the roof was heightened, and the south aisle built. The expense of these alterations was partly defrayed by receipts arising from the performance of three plays acted in the church; the first of which intitled St. Swithen, was acted in 1523; the second, St. Andrew, on the Sunday before Relique Sunday, in 1525; and the third, Placy Dacy, alias St. Ewestacy, in 1534. After the reformation, the players' robes were sold by the churchwardens for fifty shillings, and the play-books for twenty shillings. In the chancel is an inscription to the memory of Dr. Samuel Collins, who was 36 Braiseworth 3 Braithwaite 45 Braithwell.. 17 Brakes 38 Bramber 38 Bramber *. 30 Bramcote 39 Bramcote. County. Suffolk pa pa & to rape or div W. R. York ..to Hereford ... Sussex .bo & pa ..to & Sussex pa .2 50 .1 Eve .ham Warwick 39 Bramcote. 16 Bramdean 27 Bramerton]. pa Hants pa Norfolk pa Suffolk 36 Bramford. pa Suffolk 45 Bramham. .pa & to 7 Bramhall 36 Bramfield 45 Bramhope here. the son of a minister of this parish, and for some years principal BRAINTREE physician to Peter the Great. The streets are mostly narrow and incommodious; and many of the buildings are of timber, and very old. Numerous bequests have been made for the service of the poor; the most celebrated of which was that of Henry Smith, Esq., Alderman, and Salter, of London; who, in the reign of Charles I., left £2,800. to purchase an estate in this county: the proceeds to be distributed among the poor of the five parishes of Braintree, Terling, Tolleshunt-D'Arcy, Dover-court, and Henham. At his patrimonial estate of Lyons, in this parish, was born the Rev. Sir William Dawes, Bart., D.D., younger son of Sir John Dawes, Bart., September 12, 1671. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' Sir William school; was scholar of St. John's College, Oxford, 1687; and afterwards Dawes born fellow; from here he removed to Cambridge; and in 1696, he was elected to the mastership of Catherine Hall; then Vice-chancellor of Cambridge, and chaplain in ordinary to King William III.; in 1698, Prebend of Worcester, the same year being collated by Archbishop Tennison to the rectory of Bocking, and to the deanery of that place; then chaplain to Queen Anne; and Bishop of Chester in 1707-8; and finally, Archbishop of York in 1714. He was a man of great learning and piety, and having enjoyed the last mentioned dignity ten years, he died, April 30, 1724, and was buried with his lady (also a native of this parish), in the chapel of Catherine Hall, Cambridge. His collected works were published in three vols. 8vo. 1733; all of them excellent, forcible, and religious subjects, particularly his "Anatomy of Atheism." Market, Wednesday.-Fairs, May 3, October 2 and 3, for cattle, butter, cheese, &c.Bankers, Sparrow and Co.; draw on Barclay and Co.-Inn, the Horn. Disfran chised. * BRAMBER. The rape of Bramber extends from north to south, across the county, and is bounded on the east by Lewes, and on the west by Arundel; having Surrey on the north, and the sea on the south. The ten hundreds, of which it is composed, contain forty-two parishes including the boroughs of Bramber, Horsham, New Shoreham, and Steyning. Albourne-place in the parish of Albourne, formerly belonged to the Saxon family of that name, from whom it descended to the Fagges, and afterwards, by marriage, to Sir Charles Goring, Bart. Bramber, now a small village, containing scarcely more than twenty houses, was once a place of considerable importance, and did return two representatives to parliament, the right of electing being vested in thirty-six persons paying scot and lot, and inhabiting houses built on ancient foundations. The electors were notoriously influenced by the Duke of Rutland and Lord Calthorpe. Among them however, were some men of integrity, as was gloriously Integrity of evinced during the contest of 1786, when a cottager rejected a proffered a cottage bride of a £1000.; it was however disfranchised by the reform bill in 1832. The manor belongs to the Duke of Norfolk. The castle, of which some remains exist, belonged, after the conquest, to William de Braose, whose elector. BRAMBER. The celebrated Samuel here. last male heir gave his daughter and estate to Roger de Mowbray. By the death of the last Mowbray, at the field of Bosworth, the estate escheated to the crown, and was soon afterwards granted to Thomas Lord de la Warre. The fragments of this edifice are enormously thick, and from the slow progress of decay which they exhibit, it is almost certain that the castle was demolished by violence; when, or by whom, history says not. The church is evidently a Saxon erection, and having been given to the monastery of Saumur in France, was, at the suppression of alien priories, granted by Henry V. to Magdalen College, Oxford, to which it still belongs. Over the entrance, and on each side of the tower, are large circular Saxon arches; and at the east end, is another overgrown with luxuriant ivy. * BRAMPTON. In the chancel of the church, which is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is a monument of Sir John Barnard, bart., who died in 1679. The mansion in Brampton Park, was nearly rebuilt in 1820. It contains some valuable paintings, and a very fine one of Oliver St. John, first Earl of Bolingbroke, and many more of the St. John family. Sir John Barnard, bart., of Brampton Park, M.P. for Huntingdon in that parliament which restored King Charles II., married Elizabeth, daughter of Oliver St. John, Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. This place gave birth to Samuel Pepys, secretary to the admiralty, in the reigns of Charles II. and James II. He was of a branch of an ancient Pepys born family of the same name, of Cottenham, in Cambridgeshire, who was educated at St. Paul's School, in the metropolis, whence he was removed to Magdalen College, Cambridge. He early acquired the patronage of Montagu, afterwards Earl of Sandwich, who employed him as secretary in the expedition for bringing Charles II. from Holland. On his return, he was immediately appointed one of the principal officers of the navy, which post he maintained during those memorable events, the plague, the fire of London, and the Dutch war. In 1673, when the king took the admiralty in his own hands, he appointed Mr. Pepys secretary to that office; and being an excellent man of business, it is generally allowed that he first introduced regularity and order into that important department. In 1684, he was falsely accused of being a papist, but without a shadow of proof; and soon after, the admiralty being put into commission, he for some time lost his place of secretary. He was still however employed under Lord Dartmouth, in the expedition against Tangier, and often accompanied the Duke of York in his naval visits to Scotland, and coasting cruises. When Charles II. resumed the office of Lord High Admiral, he was again appointed secretary, and held the office from that time to the revolution, strictly confining himself, during the reign of James II. to the duties of his office. On the accession of William and Mary he resigned, and published his " Memoirs," relating to the navy for ten years preceding, a well written and valuable work. He led a very retired life from this time; and having survived his lady, by whom he had no offspring, he retired for two years before his death to the seat of a naval friend at Clapham, where he died, May 26th, 1703. With his great skill and experience in naval affairs, he was otherwise widely informed; and besides being a good critic in painting, sculpture, and architecture, was versed in history and philosophy; such indeed 27 Brandon, Little ....pa 21 Brandred .ham Kent 5 Brandsice Bucks 16 Bransbury 24 Bransby 11 Branscombe 42 Bransford 23 Branston 24 Branston 46 Brandsburton..pa & to 43 Bransby ......to & pa 43 Bransdale, E. Side.... 43 Bransdale, W. Side, to .chap Leicester E. R. York. 24 Brampton 27 Brampton 28 Brampton 40 Brampton 36 Brampton County. .to Lincoln .pa Norfolk pa 17 Brampton Abbots, pa 45 Brampton Bierlow to 45 Brampton en le Morthen 58 Brampton Bryan.... ...pa 19 Brampton Hut. 46 Brampton .ham 35 Bramshall .....pa & to 41 Bramshaw pa Wilts 16 Bramshill, Great ..ti Hants Number of Miles from Gainsborough 7 Lincoln... 12 Marton 16 Bramshill, Little. Hants 16 Bramshott. 46 Bramwith Sand...ham W. R. York 27 Brancaster ...pa Norfolk 13 Brancepeth pa & to Durham 41 Branch and Dole..hun Wilts 27 Brandestone. 36 Brandeston. 13 Brandon 24: Brandon 29 Brandon pa Norfolk .pa .to Northumb. 36 Brandon .m. t. & pa 39 Brandon .ham Warwick Dover was his reputation, that in 1684, he was elected president of the Royal Society, which office he held for ten years. He left a large collection of MSS. to Magdalen College, Oxford, consisting of naval memoirs, prints, and five large folio volumes of ancient English poetry, begun by Selden, and carried down to 1700, from which the "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry," by Dr. Percy, are for the most part selected. Mr. Pepys became still more known by the publication of his very amusing and interesting diary, by Mr. Pepys' Lord Braybrooke, which journal, besides illustrating his own prudent and publications wary character with extreme fidelity and naiveté, affords a most curious and instructive picture of the operation of the restoration, and the dissolute court of Charles II., on the habits, manners, and conduct of the people at large. His frequent involuntary contrast of the careless mis-government, and consequent decline of the country in foreign estimation under Charles, with the preceding vigorous management of Cromwell, is peculiarly striking; nor can the journalist always hide the contagious nature of court example, even in his own conduct; and, as it is evident that this diary was never intended for general perusal, it probably amounts to one of the most authentic as well as amusing records of the description that ever was published. —Pepys's Diary. Granger. Nichols's Lit. Anec. ....2 Seven Oaks..4 Westerham. .2 203 75 Eden-bridge. 4 pa Somerset pa & to pa 11 Bratton Fleming. Wilts Devon.. pa Devon. pa Herts 2) Braun ton pa & to Leicester 28 Baunston Gainsboro' .13 787 1380 BRAY. This place is by some considered to occupy the site of the Roman station, "Bibracte." A custom prevails in the principal manor at Bray, agreeably to which, in default of male heirs, lands are not divided among females of the same degree of kindred, but descend only to the eldest. Bray now forms part of the royal demesne, being included within the liberty of Windsor Forest; and among other privileges, enjoys an exemption from toll at Windsor. Jesus Hospital was founded here in 1627, by Goddard, Esq., for forty poor persons, six of whom must be free of the Fishmongers' Company, under whose governorship it is placed. Each of the inmates is allowed eight shillings per month. Attached to this hospital is a chapel, in which divine service is regularly performed. Sir John Norris gave eighteen tenements, which are assigned rent-free to the poor. Bray is celebrated for its vivacious vicar, who lived during the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth. He was first a Papist, but in the second mentioned reign, turned Protestant. On the death of the young king, and the Catholics again coming into power, he resumed his former opinions; and lastly, when Mary was succeeded by Elizabeth, renewed once more the Protestant faith. The vicar being taxed with the title of turn-coat, answered, “Not so, for I have always kept my principle, which is this, to live and die Vicar of Bray." A humorous song is formed upon the circumstance, which it is said, succeeding vicars have sung with much spirit and good humour. About three quarters of a mile from the village, is a picturesque spot, situated in the middle of the river Thames, called Monkey Island. It was purchased and decorated for the enjoyment of fishing parties, by the third Duke of Marlborough. Upon its fine sward he erected a rustic building, to which he gave the appellation of Monkey Hall, from the decorations of its interior being in part, fancifully painted with a number of monkeys, dressed in human apparel, and imitating human actions. Some are represented amusing themselves with fishing, others with hunting, &c. One is drawn, gravely sitting in a boat, smoking, while a female is engaged at the oar, rowing him across a river. On the island is another building, called the Temple; it is an elegant saloon, superbly ornamented and decorated with figures, representing mermaids, sea lions, fish, shells, &c. The establishment of this fanciful place is said to have cost 10,000 guineas. |