Sir Thomas Bromley (died 1555) was an English judge of Shropshirelanded gentry origins who came to prominence during theMid-Tudor period. After occupying important judicial posts in theWelsh Marches, he won the favour ofHenry VIII and was a member ofEdward VI's regency council. He was appointedChief Justice of the King's Bench byMary I.

Bromley was of a Shropshire gentry family, which traced its origins toEccleshall in the neighbouring county ofStaffordshire^[2] and the family had acquired land through marriage in other neighbouring counties. In the mid-15th century, Thomas's grandfather married an heiress fromMalpas, Cheshire.^[3] Their allies, the Hills, had married apparently into the same family,^[4] not disdaining marriage for gain, although the family concerned had declined from the medieval nobility^[5] to merelyyeoman status.^[6] Thomas's uncle William was married to a Hill and the two families were to prosper together in the 16th century.

A number of the Bromleys attained note as lawyers and politicians in the 16th century: Thomas's cousin George was a distinguished member of theInner Temple:^[7] the laterLord Chancellor, SirThomas Bromley (1530–1587), andSir George Bromley (c.1526–89), the justice of Chester,^[8] were Thomas's first cousins, once removed.^[9]

However, Thomas Bromley's own beginnings were not auspicious, as his family was a cadet branch of a then relatively minor family. The dates of his legal training suggest he was born in the early years of the 16th century, probably at the Shropshire home of his parents. He was the second son of

• Roger Bromley, third son of Roger Bromley of Mitley, Shropshire
• Jane Jennings, daughter of Thomas Jennings of Walliborne Hall,Church Pulverbatch.

The relationship between the Bromley politicians and lawyers of the 16th century, and between them and their allies in the Hill,Corbet and Newport families, is illustrated in the family tree, c.1450–1650. Based primarily on the Heraldic Visitations of Shropshire and Cheshire, with assistance from the History of Parliament Online.

The Bromleys were already involved with the Law. George Bromley, Thomas's elder cousin, was an important member of theInner Temple and had been appointedAutumn Reader for 1508^[10] and Lent Reader for 1509,^[11] although he recused himself when so honoured for Lent 1515.^[12] The first evidence of Thomas Bromley's legal career dates from May 1519, when he was suspended by the parliament of the Inner Temple for offensive behaviour toward the chief governor:

"Order that Widdon and Brumley, the younger, be sent out of commons because they evilly behaved themselves towards Master Sutton, the chief governor, at the time of the last vacation."^[13]

His penitence was duly recorded in theLaw French still widely employed by lawyers at the time:

"Thomas Bromele permitte et graunte all compeney de le Inner Tempell de paier mes commons et auteres duetes en le dit Tempell, et de etre goveryn et redresse par les governers et par le dit compeney, et de obaier et performer totes maners ordnaunces de le compeney de le dit Tempell, sur payne detre oust a tous jourz. Pleg, John Whiddon, Thomas Newton"^[14]

This was followed by a similar undertaking from Whiddon.

Despite his "youthful indiscretion",^[2] Bromley rose fairly quickly to positions of trust and responsibility at the Inn, while presumably making a living primarily from private practice and, increasingly, public appointments to judicial posts. In 1526 the parliament of theInn appointed him one of the auditors for the building of a wall by theRiver Thames.^[15] In November 1528, as Whiddon, his former accomplice, was reappointed Reader for the following Lent, Bromley was appointed as one of the auditors to the Treasurer of the Inner Temple.^[16] After attending the Lent Reader for two successive years,^[17][18] in May 1533 Bromley was at last elected Reader for the following autumn.^[19] By February 1534 his standing was such that the Inn admitted one William Walter on his recommendation, free of all charges apart from the cost of his wine.^[20] In June 1539 Bromley was appointedserjeant-at-law byHenry VIII. He was immediately declared the next Autumn Reader, as was the custom. The records of the Inner Temple show that he refused the honour and was fined £10.^[21] However the entry recording this is crossed out, and it is not recorded whether Bromley retracted and performed the office or was pardoned. In November 1539, he was appointed Reader for Lent 1540, but two others were nominated as reserves.^[22] All three were honoured in this way in recognition of their appointment as serjeants-at-law. In the event, Bromley did not lecture for the full term but was replaced by one of his attendants after the second week,

"in consideracion that it apperyd suche debylete in the seyde Thomas Bromley that he was not lyke too have keppyd owte the hole redyng in the seyde vacacion of Lente."^[23]

The precise nature of his "debility" is unknown but it appears to have affected him often.^[2]

Throughout his time of gradual academic and administrative advancement at the Inner Temple, Bromley was also advancing his political and judicial career.

It seems likely that Bromley served as an MP in theEnglish Reformation Parliament of 1529–36.^[2] This was first suggested by the historianAlbert Pollard. The History of Parliament Online suggests that he might even have served in the succeeding parliaments, a view made plausible by the scantiness of records on the identity of members. The main evidence for his sitting in theEnglish House of Commons is a list of MPs drawn up by Thomas Cromwell, the powerful chief minister and parliamentary fixer ofHenry VIII, in 1533. It is headed bySir George Throckmorton, a prominent religious conservative, and those on it were either of similar opinions or heavily committed to the wool trade, both groups being generally opposed to a break with thePapacy.^[24] Hence it probably lists those likely to oppose theStatute in Restraint of Appeals, a key piece of Reformation legislation. Bromley is listed twice: an entry near the head has been crossed out and he is named again at the foot of the list. His presence on the list means that he had displeased Cromwell. It is also fairly certain evidence that he did sit as an MP for at least some of the parliament after being returned in a by-election. His constituency is unknown butLostwithiel andLancaster have been suggested.^[2]

However, Parliament was not to be the main theatre of Bromley's political life. His own native county offered opportunities for gaining political advantage. As there was no residentaristocracy, the Shropshire gentry were the main power in the county and also exercised considerable influence in the cloth town ofShrewsbury, where merchants and lawyers ruled.^[25] Once again, his cousin George had beaten the path, becomingRecorder of Shrewsbury^[2] andHigh Sheriff of Shropshire in 1522.^[26]

Thomas Bromley secured thefreedom of Shrewsbury in 1528 and in 1529 admission to theDrapers' Company of Shrewsbury.^[2]Chartered byEdward IV in 1461,^[27] it was one of the twoguilds that dominated this cloth town (the other being theMercers).^[28] Around 1532 he became Warden of the Company,^[2] and at about the same time he was made analderman – one of the council of 12 that assisted the twobailiffs in running the town.^[28][29] – a post he was to hold until his death. In 1536 he was appointed aJustice of the Peace in Shropshire. By 1537 he had been appointed Recorder of Shrewsbury:^[2] its senior legal and judicial officer. As this carried a heavy responsibility for representing the interests of the town in London, it fitted well with his activities at the Inner Temple, requiring him to spend only a little time in Shrewsbury itself.

Bromley was a close friend ofRowland Hill, who was an uncle of George Bromley. Hill's career ran parallel to Bromley's but with even greater success, pairing a regional power base in Shropshire with a spectacular career as a mercer in London: by 1541, the year before he was knighted, he was paying at least5000 marks a year in tax and in 1549 became the firstProtestantMayor of London.^[30] Between 1539 and 1547, Hill invested a substantial part of his commercial wealth in great quantities of landed property in Shropshire and the neighbouring counties that had been made available by thedissolution of the monasteries^[31] or theabolition of chantries andcolleges. Bromley speculated in some of Hill's deals^[2] and, like other prominent lawyers, built up considerable estates in his native county, including land atWroxeter, which became his seat. Among properties he purchased in the area wereEyton on Severn andAston, both manors formerly belonging toShrewsbury Abbey.^[31] On its sale to Bromley by the Crown in 1540, Aston was attached as a member of Eyton and was passed on along with it to his heirs.^[32] Similarly, nearStanton Long, he bought Oxenbold, partly in the parish of Monkhopton, and a former manor ofWenlock Priory, from John Jennings,^[33] and in 1545 added to it the neighbouring estate of Patton.^[34]

As his status nationally rose through judicial preferment, Bromley was able to shift and consolidate his regional power. He became a Justice of the Peace in the Marcher counties ofGloucestershire, Worcestershire andHerefordshire during 1540–1.^[2] At the succession of Edward VI his importance in government reached a stage where the recordership of Shrewsbury was no longer appropriate and he relinquished it toReginald Corbet, another Hill ally. By this time he had been appointedCustos Rotulorum of Shropshire, the senior post in the county's civil government. By 1552 he had joined the Council in the Marches, the regional representative of central government in much of Wales and the border counties.

From 1534 Bromley wasJustice in Eyre for South Wales. At about the same time,Thomas Cromwell installedRowland Lee, theBishop of Coventry and Lichfield, as Lord President of theCouncil in the Marches of Wales.^[35] Lee was a ruthless reformer, determined to stamp out corruption and to establish a reputation for the organs of justice in his region. Seeing Bromley as a natural ally, he wrote to Cromwell in 1536 and 1537, recommending him for promotion.^[2] Lee was the former tutor of Cromwell's children and had considerable influence with him but could not win his support for Bromley, so his continued preferment came only with the loosening of Cromwell's grip on power.

Bromley received hiscall to the coif, i.e. hiswrit to become a serjeant-at-law, in the summer of 1539, although it was not to take effect until the day after theNativity of St. John the Baptist, i.e. 25 June, in 1540. Significantly, another Inner Templar so-honoured at the same time wasWilliam Coningsby, an older lawyer who had also earned the hostility of Cromwell and had recently spent ten days in prison.^[36] The parliament of the Inner Temple decreed a traditional ceremony of leave-taking for them.

"Memorandum that att this parlement it is orderyd that Master Conysby and Master Bromley, wiche procedit serjant crastino Johannis, shall have, every off them, fyve pounde and a pere off glovys off iijd., accordynge too the ancient use, wiche wer delyveryd unto them, etc., att ther departynges att the hall dore of Temple, after ther proposission and leve takyn att the fyer."^[37]

Coningsby was dead within three-month but Bromley was promoted still further, toKing's Serjeant, by November of the same year.^[2] He was made Justice of the Peace across five more Midland counties and inNorfolk andSuffolk, his responsibilities now literally spanning the country. On 4 November 1544 he succeeded Sir John Spelman as a judge of theKing's Bench.^[38]

Bromley was held in favour by Henry VIII, who made him one of the executors ofhis will, and bequeathed him a legacy of £300. Hence he was one of the council of regency to Edward VI and aPrivy Counsellor; but, although he succeeded in avoiding political entanglements for some time, at the close of the reign he became implicated inNorthumberland's scheme for the succession ofLady Jane Grey. The duke summoned to courtMontagu, chief justice of thecommon pleas, Bromley, Sir John Baker, and the attorney- and solicitor-general, and informed them of the king's desire to settle the crown onLady Jane. They replied that it would be illegal, and prayed an adjournment, and next day expressed an opinion that all parties to such a settlement would be guilty of high treason.Northumberland's violence then became so great that both Bromley andMontagu were in bodily fear; and two days later, when a similar scene took place, and theking ordered them on their allegiance to despatch the matter, they consented to settle the deed, receiving an express commission under thegreat seal to do so and a general pardon. Bromley, however, adroitly avoided witnessing the deed.

Consequently, whenMary sent thelord chief justice to gaol, she made Bromleychief justice of the King's Bench, in place of SirRoger Cholmeley, on 4 October 1553. Burnet says of him that he was 'a papist at heart,'^[39] contrasting his treatment with that of Montagu, who was imprisoned and fined, although he had sent an armed force to support Mary's uprising. The statement is repeated by Foss^[40] and by theDictionary of National Biography (DNB), but it is pointedly absent from the recent Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and is specifically contradicted by the History of Parliament.

Bromley presided over the trials of a number of those implicated inWyatt's rebellion.^[2] On 17 April 1554 SirNicholas Throckmorton and others were indicted^[40] for a plot and treason atBaynard's Castle on 23 November 1553, and for a rising and march towards London withSir Henry Isley and two thousand men. Bromley presided at the trial, and allowed the prisoner such unusual freedom of speech as to provoke complaints from the queen's attorney, and threats of retiring from the prosecution. Yet Bromley was not throughout impartial, but even refused the prisoner leave to call a witness, though he was in court, and denied him inspection of a statute on which he relied. His summing up was so defective, 'for want of memory or goodwill,' that the prisoner supplied its defects, as if he had been an uninterested spectator. Yet the prisoner was acquitted: so much toMary's annoyance that the jury were punished for their verdict. Foss comments that "Sir Thomas Bromley cannot escape from the charge of undue severity, though probably he was complained of at the time for giving too great license to the prisoner."^[41]

SirWilliam Portman succeeded Bromley as chief justice on 11 June 1555. The exact date, even the year, of Bromley's death was not known when the DNB account of his life was written, leaving the impression that the Queen's displeasure might have led to his disgrace and dismissal. However, recent sources concur in dating his about four before Portman's succession,^[2][42] making this supposition unnecessary.

Bromley's death occurred on 15 May 1555. In his will, admittedly dating from 1552, in the reign of Edward VI, he names as executors his wife and Sir Rowland Hill, his friend and business partner, a noted Protestant. He commends himself to God's care, "by the merits of the blood and passion of our Saviour Jesu Christ" and there are no specifically Catholic provisions, undermining Burnet's assessment of his religious beliefs.^[2] He left considerable sums to provide for the poor in and around Shrewsbury. He left just a gold piece for Hill as a keepsake of the "olde love and amytie" between them.^[42] There were also bequests to relatives, including 40 shillings a year for ten years for the young Thomas Bromley, the future Lord Chancellor, on condition that he continued his legal studies. The remainder was divided between his widow and daughter.

Bromley was buried in St Andrew's Church, Wroxeter. Analabaster monument was constructed there, portraying him in judicial robes alongside his wife.

The Visitation of Shropshire gives Elizabeth Dodd as Bromley's first wife.^[9] She was the daughter of John Dodd of Chorley, also given as Cloverley,^[2] which is a short distance south-east ofCalverhall in north Shropshire. Nothing further is known of the marriage and some sources question its existence.^[2]

By 1526 he was married to Isabel Lyster or Lister, daughter of Richard Lyster ofRowton, Shropshire. She survived him and acted as an executor of his will, inheriting half of his residual property. Thomas and Isabel Bromley left one daughter, Margaret. As there was no male heir the greater part of Bromley's property ultimately passed to Margaret.

Margaret Bromley marriedSir Richard Newport, an important local landowner whose seat atHigh Ercall Hall lay just to the north-east of Wroxeter, in sight ofthe Wrekin. Margaret and Richard Newport had four sons, of whom two died in infancy, and three or four daughters.

• Sir Francis Newport, the eldest son and heir, married Beatrix Lacon. Their son and heir was

• Richard Newport, 1st Baron Newport, whose title was a reward fromCharles I for his financial support at the beginning of theEnglish Civil War. His heir was:

• Francis Newport, 1st Earl of Bradford, an important regional enforcer forCharles II and aWhig politician. Through him Bromley became ancestor of subsequentEarls of Bradford, although the title later passed through the female line to the Bridgeman family.

• Andrew Newport, the fourth son, was MP forShrewsbury
• Mary Newport, married William Gratewood, nephew of Rowland Hill. However, the entry for the Newports in the Visitation of Shropshire features Mary twice, initially as a sister of Sir Richard, and only afterwards as a daughter. Moreover, there has been understandable confusion between Mary and Magdalen, her sister or niece. Placing her as a sister of Sir Richard seems more plausible chronologically, but the issue is uncertain. She is omitted from the family tree below.
• Isabel Newport married Sir Charles Foxe, whose father of the same name was an Inner Templar, MP forLudlow and Much Wenlock and secretary to the Council in the Marches. The elder Sir Charles tried to provide for the sons of his second marriage and illegitimate son in his will and the younger contested the will unsuccessfully.^[43]
• Elizabeth Newport married first Francis Lawley and later his cousin, Thomas Lawley. The former marriage produced the line ofLawley baronets.
• Magdalen Newport, marriedRichard Herbert (d.1597), and was a friend of the poetJohn Donne, as well as mother of the poetGeorge Herbert.^[44][42]

The main lines of descent from Thomas Bromley and Isabel Lyster through their daughter Margaret are shown on the following family tree. Based on the Newport pedigree in the Visitation of Shropshire,^[45] with details from History of Parliament Online.

• Baker, J.H. (2004).Bromley, Sir Thomas (d. 1555).Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved19 November 2013.(subscription required)

• Bindoff, S.T., ed. (1982).The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509–1558. Boydell and Brewer. Retrieved10 March 2014.

• G C Baugh, C R Elrington (Editors), A P Baggs, D C Cox, Jessie McFall, P A Stamper, A J L Winchester (1985).A History of the County of Shropshire: Volume 11 – Telford, accessed 14 March 2014 atBritish History Online.
• G C Baugh, C R Elrington (Editors), D C Cox, J R Edwards, R C Hill, Ann J Kettle, R Perren, Trevor Rowley, P A Stamper (1989).A History of the County of Shropshire: Volume 4 – Agriculture, accessed 14 March 2014 at British History Online.
• Gilbert Burnet (1837). E. Nares (ed.).The History of the Reformation of the Church of England, Volume 2. Scott, Webster and Geary. Retrieved12 March 2014.

• Coulton, Barbara (2010).Regime and Religion: Shrewsbury 1400–1700, Logaston PressISBN 978 1 906663 47 6.
• C R J Currie (Editor), A P Baggs, G C Baugh, D C Cox, Jessie McFall, P A Stamper (1998).A History of the County of Shropshire: Volume 10 – Munslow Hundred (part), The Liberty and Borough of Wenlock, accessed 14 March 2014 at British History Online.
• Edward Foss (1857).The Judges of England, with Sketches of their Lives, Volume 5. Longman. Retrieved12 March 2014.

• George Grazebrook andJohn Paul Rylands (editors) (1889).The Visitation of Shropshire, taken in the year 1623: Part I by Robert Tresswell,Somerset Herald, andAugustine Vincent,Rouge Croix Pursuivant of arms; marshals and deputies toWilliam Camden,Clarenceux king of arms. With additions from the pedigrees of Shropshire gentry taken by the heralds in the years 1569 and 1584, and other sources,Harleian Society. Accessed 6 March 2014 atInternet Archive.
• George Grazebrook andJohn Paul Rylands (editors) (1889).The Visitation of Shropshire, taken in the year 1623: Part II. Harleian Society. Accessed 14 March 2014 atInternet Archive.
• Hasler, P.W., ed. (1981).The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558–1603. Boydell and Brewer. Retrieved10 March 2014.

• Frederick Andrew Inderwick (editor) (1896).A Calendar of the Inner Temple Records, Volume 1, Inner Temple. Accessed 10 March 2014 at Internet Archive.
• Gareth Elwyn Jones (1994).Modern Wales: a Concise History (2nd Edition), Cambridge University Press,ISBN 0 521 46945 7
• Keen, Alan and Roger Lubbock (1954).The Annotator. London: Putnam. p. 31.

• John Paul Rylands (editor), 1882:The Visitation of Cheshire in the year 1580 made byRobert Glover, Somerset herald, forWilliam Flower,Norroy king of arms, with numerous additions and continuations, including those from the visitation of Cheshire made in the year 1566, by the same herald. With an appendix, containing The visitation of a part of Cheshire in the year 1533, made by William Fellows,Lancaster Herald, forThomas Benolte, Clarenceux king of arms. And a fragment of the visitation of the city of Chester in the year 1591, made by Thomas Chaloner, deputy to the Office of arms, Harleian Society. Accessed 10 March 2014 at Internet Archive.
• J S Barrow; J D Herson; A H Lawes; P J Riden; M V J Seaborne (2005)."Economic infrastructure and institutions: Mills and fisheries". In A T Thacker; C P Lewis (eds.).A History of the County of Chester. Vol. 5 pt 2: The City of Chester: Culture, Buildings, Institutions. Institute of Historical Research. Archived fromthe original on 10 March 2014. Retrieved10 March 2014 – via British History Online.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: "Bromley, Thomas (d.1555?)".Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

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