Bramall Hall, Cheshire

Many people with Bramhill and similar surnames will be descended from the family that once held the manor of Bromale. Today, that is Bramall Hall, near Stockport, Cheshire.

Descriptions of Bromhall manor may be found in "A Visitation of the Seats and Arms of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain", by Burke (1852, Vol. 1), the "Works of John Bramhall, D.D., Archbishop of Armagh, Ireland" (1677) and "Genealogy of the Bramhall Family", by Frank L. Bramhall (1903) (See US link).

In Saxon times, the estates of Bromale, Brokenfeld and Baguley were held by Brun and Hacun.

They passed in 1086 to Hamo de Mascy, the brother-in-law of William the Conqueror, whose power base was at Dunham Massey. Bromale was mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086: "The same Hamo holds Bromale. Brun and Hacun held it for two manors and were freemen. There is 1 hide rateable to the gilt. The land is 6 carucates*; 1 radman, and 2 villeins, and 2 bordars there have 1 carucate. There is a wood half a league long and the same broad, and half a hay and acre of meadow. In King Edward's [the Confessor's] time it was worth 32 shillings, now 5 shillings. [The Earl of Chester] found it waste."

Earwaker records in his History of East Cheshire that, in the late 1100s, Matthew de Bromale had a confirmation of his lands from Hamo de Masci, the second baron of Dunham Massey: "Hamo de Masci, to all his friends, both clerical and lay, as well present as to come, sends greeting. Know ye all that I have granted, et cetera, to Matthew de Bromale, Bromale and Dokenfeld and two parts of Baguley, which his father held of me and my heirs in fee (by the service) of a breastplate {in feodo lorica) to him and his heirs, to hold of me and my heirs freely and quietly, et cetera, making to me and my heirs the free service in fee of one breastplate; and know ye that I have quitclaimed the said Matthew and his heirs and the aforesaid lands, to me and my heirs, of the service and custom which I, the said Hamo, used to demand from them, namely, of ploughing, mucking and sowing corn, and of making hay, and of doing homage of estovers and pannage and— (et de salicis) and of all other service except the service of the fee of one breastplate. These being witnesses; Roger de Massie, Wm. de Carington, Robt. de Massie and Richard de Witton, and very many others, both seeing and hearing the same."

The mention of Wm de Carington is evidence of a connection between the Bramhills and Carringtons, many of whom are DNA cousins.

Download a PDF about the genealogy of Hamo de Masci.

Earwaker goes on to state from the old records that "In the 6th Edward I (1277-78) Richard de Bromale, probably the grandson of Matthew de Bromale, obtained permission from Hamo de Mascy that his tenants in Bromhall, Dokenfeld and Baguley, should not be impleaded in the Baron's court at Dunham. This Richard had a wife, Margery, and in the early Bramhall deeds he is frequently referred to ... He had a son and successor, Richard de Bromale, who was living in 1326 and 1341 and who married Ellen, the daughter of William de Modburlegh, and sister of Sir Ralph de Modburlegh, Knt. He had two sons, Richaed de Bromale who died without issue, and Geoffrey de Bromale, who succeeded his brother and married Margery, daughter, and ultimately co-heiress, of Sir John de Wetenhals, Knt. By this marriage he had two daughters and co-heiresses, Alice de Bromale and Ellen de Bromale; the former of whom married John de Davenport, second son ot Thomas de Davenport, ot Wheltrough, and so carried the Bramhall estates into that family."

The male line became extinct with Geoffrey de Bromale, and Bramall Hall passed into the Davenport family.

* A carucate was about 120 acres, or the area that an ox could plough in a year; Bromale had 720 acres of arable land. A radman was a foreman, more military than agricultural. Villeins were labourers who doubled as soldiers when needed. Bordars were below villeins but above serfs in the social hierarchy; they held about five acres, just enough land to feed a family.