William of Hitchin II Yeoman ?c 1528-1563

Elder son of William I of Hitchin—and Maltster like him—William was head of the only Broket family in Hitchin in the 1560s. William's father appears to have apprenticed William to his friend Robert Nicholls, Merchant Taylor and Citizen of London. The career ended perhaps by William I's death in 1556. The Merchant Taylor's Company's Index to Freeman recorded William Brocket the younger freed 16 Jul 1557 by master Robert Incott (sic—a mistranscription for Nicholl—Guildhall Library microfilm 324). Freedom was usually planned to coincide with the age of 21, but William may have been about 28/29. No other contemporary William the younger is known.

The parish records date from 1562 and record only the baptism of William's son Edward the same year and his own burial on 5 Sep 1563. His will however shows that he also had an elder son William alive 1563—who spent his life in Hitchin as a Yeoman and Maltster in turn. But after his own father's will of 1556/7 William II's younger brother Edward was only recorded again in 1594.

The following copyhold transaction of 8 Jun 1555 at Hitchin Manor court (HALS 60313 Hychyn Foren) admitting 'Margaret his wife' to the Bery Barns—a field in Hitchin—shows that William married twice, for his will mentioned wife Alice Papwurthe.

Latin original with interlineated English translation:

Why William should transfer property to his wife, when wives did not usually own property and it devolved to them by law on their husbands' death, is not known.

Laslett (1983 p 82) calculated the mean age of bridegrooms in the Diocese of Canterbury 1619-60 at 26.65. Assuming then that William married Margaret just before this copyhold transaction aged about 26, he may have been born c 1528.

   Margaret m1 William Brockett II m2 Alice PAPWURTHE
 
     ...        of Hitchin Yeoman  |
                                   |
                 b c 1528 d 1563   |
                                   |
          _________________________| 
          |                        |
          |                        |
 
   William III of Hitchin     Edward of Dunton Yeoman
 
   Yeoman m 1593 Katherine    bap 1562 d 1598 m Parnell
 
          |      HANSCOMBE                    | TANNER
          |                                   |
   _______|________                   ________|_______ 
   |              |                   |              |
   |              |                   |              |
 
       Edward                            Elizabeth
 
       William                           Edward
 
       Hanscombe                         John
 
       John                              Robert
 
       Alice                           all of Dunton
 
       Thomas
 
       George
 
       Matthew
 
       Agnes
 
    all of Hitchin

On the octave of Michaelmas 1561 William Brokett and Richard Bydyll sold 160 acres of land, 20 acres of meadow and 40 acres of pasture in Weston and Clothall—c 4 m E of Hitchin—to William Hyde jnr Gent (CP25/2/155/2102 ll 7-10).

William rightly called himself 'yeman' (yeoman). He left 2 houses in Hitchin, both with land attaching and both his sons after him were substantial yeomen. One was the house in Bridge Street he had inherited from his father in 1558—along with its table and querne [a circular stone or pair of stones for grinding corn by hand (Hey 1998 p 386)]—and the other house he had perhaps bought or built in exchange for the lands in Wratton his father had left him. William also left legacies in cash of £43 6s 8d plus some valuable individual items. A messuage in neighbouring Guilden Morden in the 1820s could cost less than £40, but William was not as wealthy as his father had been.

Children: Sons William and Edward were both infants in 1563. He willed his wife 'to sette and keape my twoo sonnys at schole' (l 49). Edward was only about a year old—bap Hitchin 1562—so William would have only been a couple of years older. It seems there were no daughters.

Overseers:

1. William Papwurthe was wife Alice's father. The Papworths were woolstaplers in Hitchin (Hine 1929 vol 2 p 526).
2. Laurence Manfelde was another relation of William by marriage, but a much younger man. He was a witness to the will of William's son Edward of Millow in Dunton in 1598, in which Edward called Laurence's youngest daughter Johanna 'cosen'. Johanna was about 18 at the time and was the only legatee outside Edward's immediate family. If cosen meant 1st cousin then Laurence would have married a sister of William II. Laurence died in 1602 in Ashwell. His will was nuncupative and mentioned little other than the name of his wife Joane, and that he had 3 daughters, the youngest of whom should receive most. Wife Joane could have been one of William I's unnamed other daughters under 20 in 1556. But although the baptisms of Laurence and Joane's children are in the Hitchin records, their marriage is not.

                William I of Hitchin
 
      _________________|______________ 
      |                |             |
      |                |            ?|
 
 William II          other         Joane  m Laurence MANFELDE
 
 of Hitchin         children     ?under 20| overseer of William II's will
                                          |
 will pr 1563                     in 1556 | witness to Edward of Dunton's will
                                          |
      |                                   | d Ashwell 1602
      |                                   |
      |_____________          ____________|_____________________ 
      |            |          |           |        |           |
      |            |          |           |        |           |
 
 William III    Edward      Rafe        Alis     Mary      Johanna bap 1580
 
 of Hitchin    of Dunton    bap 1568  bap 1571  bap 1577   'cosen' in Edward
 
               will pr 1598 bur 1580                       of Dunton's will
 
                                  All baptisms in Hitchin  m 1609 George NASH

Alternatively, if cosen is taken to mean a 2nd cousin, Laurence's mother could have been a sister of William I.

Witnesses to the will:

• Thomas Chambers was probably the husband of William's sister Elizabeth.
• John Gaddesden had been an executor of William I's will, and all that that entailed.
• Ralph Tunstall MA was vicar of the Parish Church 10 June 1563 until he resigned in 1570 (Hine 1929 vol 2 p 445).