Yorkshire, England

Broughs of Yorkshire, England

The lineages of the Broughs of Yorkshire, England, extends back to Medieval times--and their descendants can be found today in the British Isles, Australia and the United States.

Interestingly, a number of Brough families of Yorkshire used the same Brough arms and shield containing "five swans" as did the Broughs of Staffordshire and Lincolnshire on their Brough Shield and Coat of Arms. In May 2010, Ann Brough Hind of England (a well-known Brough historian) stated: "We can't dismiss anyone who has the five swans of the field on their Arms as so many of the Houses of Broughs offshoot from the basics. The bearers of different Arms were granted their own for their accomplishments, but the bloodline is for the most part descended." These family relationships may be based on blood, adoption, inheritance, occupation, land ownership or something else.

Broughs of Brough Hall near Catterick, Yorkshire

Broughs of Brough and Brough Hall near Catterick, Yorkshire

John de Burgh, b.1182, of Burrow, Westmorland, England

John de Burgh, b.1220, of Burrow, Westmorland, England

William de Burgh, b.1243, of Nether Burrow, Westmorland, England

William de Burgh, b.1267, of Westmorland and Yorkshire, England

Willielmi Borough, b.1293, of Brough near Catterick, Yorkshire, England

Elizabetham Borough, b.1324, of Brough near Catterick, Yorkshire, England

Johannes Borough, b.1347, of Brough near Catterick, Yorkshire, England

Willielmus Borough, b.1371, of Brough near Catterick, Yorkshire, England, built St. Anne's in 1412.

William Borough, b.1395, of Brough near Catterick, Yorkshire, England

Robert Borough, b.1432, of Brough near Catterick, Yorkshire: Robert Borough moved to Lincolnshire in the 1400's, and his descendants now live in England and the United States.

William Borough, b.1428, of Brough near Catterick, Yorkshire, England

Margaret Borough, b.1460, of Brough near Catterick, Yorkshire, England: Margaret Borough married John Saltmarsh in about 1483. Their Arms are displayed in the Saltmarshe Chapel of Howden Minster church in Yorkshire.

William Borough, b.1450, of Brough near Catterick, Yorkshire, England

George Borough, b.1481, of Brough near Catterick, Yorkshire, England

Roger Brough, b.1502, of Brough Hall near Catterick, Yorkshire, England

Roger Brough, b.1522, of Brough Hall near Catterick, Yorkshire, England

Elizabeth Brough, b.1547, of Brough Hall near Catterick, Yorkshire, England

Elizabeth married Ralph Lawson of Northumberland, whose descendants held Brough Hall until 1979.

The ancestors and descendants of the "Borough" family of "Brough" and "Brough Hall" near Catterick, Yorkshire, are listed in the Family Pedigree of "Borough" that appears in the book The Visitation of Yorkshire, in the Years 1563 and 1564 by William Flower (FHL Book # British, 942, B4h, v.16, pages 26-27, 113, 315). The "Borough" family "Arms" consisted of: "A.[Argent] on a saltire sable five swans of the first".

Also, the following information about Brough Hall near Catterick, Yorkshire, comes from the book Victoria County History: A History of the County of York North Riding, by William Page, Editor, 1914, Volume 1, pages 301-313.

BROUGH (Burgh, till xvii cent.) was held by Tor before the Conquest and by Enisan of Count Alan in 1086. Enisan's successors, the lords of Constable Burton (q.v.), had a mesne lordship here.

Among the tenants in 1286, when Brough was held in 'divers fees,' was evidently William de Burgh, who was party to an agreement concerning 7 oxgangs here in 1296 and was the principal tenant in 1301. He or his son William settled the manor in 1348 on himself in tail-male, with remainder to his daughter Elizabeth wife of Richard de Richmond, whose heirs took the name of Burgh. They were succeeded by a son John who died in 1412. His son William rebuilt Catterick Church. He died in 1442 and his son Christopher succeeded him. On his death without male issue the manor passed to the heirs of his younger brother William. William had two sons, William and George. The former left at his death sons William and Christopher. Their line, however, ended in heiresses and the manor passed to the heirs of George. Roger Burgh, his grandson, died seised in 1574; he seems to have broken the entail, for the manor was inherited by his daughter and heir Elizabeth wife of Sir Ralph Lawson. Ralph died in 1623, and was succeeded by his grandson Henry. He died in 1636, leaving a son and heir Roger. Roger was succeeded by his brother John, whose lands were sequestered in 1653, and sold by the treason trustees to John Rushworth. They were restored by Charles II, who made John Lawson a baronet in 1665. He was succeeded by his son Henry, who left a son John. John was succeeded by another Henry, who also had a son John. This Sir John died without issue, and the estate and baronetcy passed to his brother Henry, who was succeeded in 1834 by his nephew William Wright, son of his sister Elizabeth. William took the name of Lawson, and was made a baronet in 1841. His grandson Sir Henry Joseph Lawson is the present baronet.

In addition, the following information about Brough Hall near Catterick, Yorkshire, appeared in the publication Country Life by John Cornforth, October 12, 1967, pages 894-898:

Brough, lies about a mile to the south-west [of Catterick], and makes it more difficult for a stranger to grasp the Lawson family's ancient connection with the village. For centuries they and their medieval and Tudor predecessors, the de Brughs or Broughs, maintained the bridge []known as Catterick Bridge] and were buried in the church that Katherine de Brugh and heirs on built in 1412.

…It is necessary to explain how the Lawsons came to Brough in the second half of the 16th century. Henry (Maire) Lawson, who inherited in 1811, traced his ancestors back to the Leonard Lawson of Burwell, alias Bywell, 13 generations back from the Ralph Lawson who acquired Brough. This Leonard Lawson appears to be the same man as Lawrence of Corbridge, whom H. H. E. Craster identifies as the first of the family: he appears in a subsidy roll of 1336, and was a burgess of Newcastle and a householder in Corbridge. Craster accepts that William Lawson, who married Agnes Cramlington about 1425, was a closely related descendant of his. Through this marriage Cramlington came to the Lawsons, and the senior branch continued to hold part of it until they died out in 1791.

One of William Lawson's youngest great-grandsons, James, was a Newcastle merchant and mayor of the town in 1529 and 1540. He bought property at Byker, just to the east of Gateshead on the Tyne, and at West Wetfen. Ralph Lawson was James' grandson, and acquired Brough through his marriage in 1565 to Elizabeth Brough, the heiress. The Broughs were a family as old as the Lawsons, and seem to have held the property at least since the reign of Edward II [1307-1327].

It is not clear when Elizabeth Brough's father died and Brough came to the young couple, but Ralph and Elizabeth Lawson were certainly the builders of the middle part of the present house. Ralph Lawson was only 15 in 1561-62 and at Douai in 1568, and so it is unlikely that they started to build until after that, probably in the 1570s or 1580s. The reason for attributing the house to them is heraldic evidence on all three floors. Both the ceilings in the great hall and the present kitchen on the first floor bear their arms: two achievements occur, one showing the arms of the Lawsons quartered with those of the Cramlingtons and the Swinnows, Ralph Lawson's mother's family, together with the Lawson crest; and the other showing the arms of the Lawsons impaled with those of the Broughs, the Lawson arms quartered as before, and the Brough arms quartered with a coat I have not identified. In subsidiary panels appear the Lawson martlet, the Lawson rising sun, the Swinnow boar, and the Brough swan. Fragments of a frieze on the top floor also incorporate the complete Lawson crest, a rising sun supported by two flexed arms on a wreath.

Broughs of Saltmarshe, Yorkshire

The Broughs of Saltmarshe, Yorkshire, descend from the Broughs of Brough and Brough Hall near Catterick, Yorkshire. For example, Margaret Borough (b.abt.1460) of Brough near Catterick, married John Saltmarshe (1455-1513) of Saltmarshe in 1483 in Yorkshire, and Margaret's ancestry goes back to the Broughs of Catterick in the 1200's. Saltmarshe and Brough arms are still visible today (as shown below) in a beautiful glass window pane located in the Saltmarshe Chapel in the Minster Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Howden, Yorkshire.

The following three composite pictures show and describe some of associations and descendants of the Broughs and Saltmarshe families of Saltmarshe, Yorkshire.

In 2015, the Brough Family Organization produced a descendants list of the "The Saltmarshe and Brough Families of Yorkshire, England"--which includes a readable copy of the "Key Pedigree of the Senior Branch of the [Saltmarshe] Family" (pictured below). This report is available here.

Broughs of North Cowton Manor, Yorkshire

The following image comes from the book "A History of Yorkshire North Riding: The Victoria History of the Counties of England" (by William Page, London, England, 1968, Volume 1, page 75; FHL Book # 942, H2vyn), and states the following (as shown below):

In 1435-1436, John Brough was returned as holding one knight's fee in North and South Cowton. From him the manor [of Gilling] descended through his son William, his grandson and great-grandson of the same name to his great-great-grandson William Brough, who left daughters and co-heirs Anne and Elizabeth. Anne was married to Thomas Tempest, who died seised of North Cowton Manor about 1544, leaving a daughter and heir Anne wife of Sir Ralph Bulmer. Sir Ralph Bulmer died seised in 1558 in right of his wife, leaving daughters and heirs Joan, Frances and Millicent, Joan being married to Francis Cholmley in her father's lifetime. In 1564, 1565 and 1566 the co-heirs and their husbands granted severally one-eighth of the manor to Sir George Bowes, to whose son Sir William the whole manor came at his death.

Broughs of North Cowton Manor, Yorkshire