Family and Education

b. c.1620, 1st s. of William Brouncker of Erlestoke by Anne, da. of Sir John Dauntsey of Bishop’s Lavington. m. lic. 24 Sept. 1644, Katherine (d. 3 Jan. 1680), da. of Thomas Moore of Hawkchurch, Devon, 3s. 2da. suc. fa. bef. 1650.1

Offices Held

J.p. Wilts. 1652-3, Mar. 1660-c.63, commr. for assessment Aug. 1660-d., maj. of militia ft. by 1661-?d.2

Biography

Brouncker was head of the senior line of the family, which had leased Erlestoke, seven miles from Westbury, since the reign of Henry VIII, but sustained a major financial disaster about the turn of the century. He was a distant cousin of Henry Brouncker and of the 2nd Viscount, who has been wrongly identified by most authorities as the Member for Westbury in the Convention. Neither Brouncker nor his father took part in the Civil Wars. He was briefly a j.p. during the Interregnum, but held no other local office. He was marked on Lord Wharton’s list as a friend, perhaps because his father-in-law was a Presbyterian. He was named to no committees and made no speeches. It was probably embarrassed circumstances that caused him to be struck off the commission of the peace soon afterwards, and in 1677 he sold his estate to Sir Richard Mason, reserving to himself only the use of the manor house. He died on 6 Mar. 1680 and was buried at Erlestoke. His son Dauntsey stood for Heytesbury as a Tory in 1689, but no other member of this branch of the family entered Parliament.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Basil Duke Henning

Notes

• 1. Wilts. Vis. Peds. (Harl. Soc. cv), 32; Wilts. N. and Q. vi. 219; viii. 41-43; Sir T. Phillipps, Wilts. Mon. Inscriptions, ii. 257; PCC 122 Hare.
• 2. Add. 32324, f. 125.
• 3. Wilts. N. and Q. iv. 195, 242-3; VCH Wilts. vii. 83.