Family and Education

b. c.1610, 1st s. of Arthur Bromfield^† of Southampton by Lucy, da. and h. of Edward Quinby of South Stoneham. educ. G. Inn 1627; travelled abroad (France) 1632. m. lic. 6 June 1635, Frances, da. of Thomas Kemp of Ginnes, Beaulieu, and coh. to her bro. John Kemp, 2s. 5da. suc. fa. c.1651.1

Offices Held

Freeman, Southampton 1634; commr. for defence, Hants 1643, execution of ordinances 1644-5, assessment 1644-52, 1657, Jan. 1660-3, 1664-80; j.p. Hants 1646-bef. 1680, Wilts. and Dorset 1675-80; commr. for militia, Hants 1648, Mar. 1660, poor prisoners 1653; freeman, Lymington 1653; commr. for scandalous ministers, Hants 1658; verderer, New Forest ?1675-80.2

Biography

Bromfield’s great-grandfather was lieutenant of the Ordnance to Queen Elizabeth. The family is not known to have had any Hampshire connexion before his father married a local heiress and sat for Yarmouth in the first and second Parliaments of James I. During the Civil War both Bromfield and his father supported Parliament, though his father complained in his will that he had been ‘much disabled’ by ‘these distracted times’. Bromfield continued to hold county office throughout the Interregnum. By his marriage he acquired Heywood, two miles from Lymington, and was returned for the borough at the general election of 1660. His name was left unmarked on Lord Wharton’s list, and in the Convention he was appointed to no committees and made no speeches; but he probably voted with the Presbyterian Opposition. Although he conformed to the Church, he is unlikely to have stood again. Presumably he supported exclusion, as he was removed from the commission of the peace by 1680. He was buried at South Stoneham on 19 Feb. 1683, the last member of his family to enter Parliament.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: M. W. Helms / John. P. Ferris

Notes

• 1. Vis. Hants. ed. Phillipps, 8; Royalist’s Notebk. ed. Bamford 74; Hants Mar. Lic. 100; F. H. Kemp, Kemp Fams. iv. 52; PCC 98 Bowyer, 80 Drax.
• 2. Information from Miss S. D. Thomson, Southampton City Archivist; E. King, Old Times Revisited, 184, 189; CSP Dom. 1658-9, p. 42; VCH Hants. iv. 618; Vis. Hants, 8; Cal. Treas. Bks. iii. 981.
• 3. Bk. of Exams. and Deps. (Soton Rec. Soc. xxxiv), 52; Hants RO, 5M50/874; VCH Hants, iv. 618; v. 200; South Stoneham par. reg.