The Brereton Family - Genealogy

This page is an introduction to the genealogy of the Norfolk Brereton family.

But first here are links to other pages on this site which cover specific aspects:

3 Victorian Brereton engineers whose work has lasted to this day. (Robert Pearson Brereton, Robert Maitland Brereton, Cuthbert Arthur Brereton)

The Canadian Branch descended from Abel Brereton, twin brother of John Brereton of Brinton

There are five starting points for a study of the Norfolk Brereton genealogy. I start with the most recent.

1. Duncan Brereton compiled a family tree of the some known living descendants of John Brereton of Brinton (1752 -1823). This tree contained only the descendants of two of John Brereton's sons: Charles David of Little Massingham and Shovell of Birningham. There may also be possible living descendants of two other sons: William John of Brinton and Randle of Blakeney. Duncan's record was based on two earlier studies 2 and 3 below supplemented with current information from family members. At the Grand Brereton Reunion Duncan distributed this family tree in the form of 3 printed A4 sheets joined together. We plan to place the contents on this site in due course.

2. The next most recent source are 4 A3 charts prepared by Charles David Lloyd Brereton ( 1910 -1996). These sheets are as follows:

Norfolk Branch family Tree showing descent from John Brereton ( - 1542) and Alicia. This John Brereton was rector Malpas, Astbury, Bebington, and St Mary's Chester.
The descent of various branches of the Brereton family from Ralph de Brereton (living c. 1100). This identifies the links between the following branches: NORFOLK, Holte, BEDFORD, Ashley, ACCLESTONE & WETTENHALL, CUDDINGTON, Egerton, Cholmondeley, Mainwaring, General Sir William Brereton. In general the lines on this chart are recorded until dates between 1500 and 1724.
the descent of the Frances Martin, wife of Joseph Lloyd Brereton from William Martin ( -1603) mayor of Evesham. This chart also contains many parallel branches with people born in the 1950s to 1980s. It identifies the Bromely- Martin branch and the Holland-Martin branch.
The various lines of descent from Edward III, King of England, of the recent members of the Norfolk Breretons.

Charles's charts were distributed to family members during or very shortly after 1984, since 1984 is the last date recorded. I received a photocopy of these charts from my mother in about 1985. I had however seen early version of Charles's work when I visited their house at Bottisham in 1960 for Sunday lunch during my first year at Cambridge. .I remember especially Charles showing me a chart, which was probably a precursor of that which he eventually distributed. The only part that I remember today was the descent from the Royal family,

It appears to me that much of Charles's work was based on the notebooks of his Uncle, Philip Harington Lloyd Brereton (1877 - 1960) who was my grandfather. I speculate that he had in 1960 recently borrowed Philip's notebooks following Philip's death. I hope his children may have some recollection of additional details of his work on the family history.

3. By far the most extensive body of work I have studied is that of my grandfather, Philip Harington Lloyd Brereton (1877- 1960).

Philip Harington Lloyd Brereton (poorly scanned at present I am afraid)

The records from PHLB consist of two notebooks and some loose papers which he left on his son John Brereton ( (1917-1996). These notebooks are presently held by Nona. I have a photocopy made for me by Rosemary.

The Green Note Book contains 180 numbered pages. Pages 1 to 117 contain details of families numbered from 1 to 466. For each family the ancestors are given in reverse order with Philip's mother and father labeled generation 1. his grandparents labeled generation 2, and so on as far as generation 20. He started with a logical sequence for family numbering. Family 1 is the male Brereton descent of his father Joseph Lloyd Brereton from Sir Ralph Brereton (living 1275). Family two was his mother's descent (again the male line) from William Martin (Mayor of Evesham). However in this case there are only 8 generations recorded, before his knowledge of the line ended. Having dealt with his parents male lines, he next addressed his two grandmothers. Family 3 was that of Frances Wilson his paternal grandmother., which only goes back 5 generations. Family 5 was Jane Champernowne whose paternal grandfather was actually a Harington and changed the family name from Harington to that of his wife Champernowne. This line thus continues back with Harrington and is carried all the way to 20 generations. Families 5 to 8 those of his great grandmothers, and 9 to 16 of his great great grandmothers. The Maitlands (7), the Bullers(8) and the Champenownes(12) are all shown back to 20 generations. The important conclusion I have drawn is that this green notebook was not the first written list that he had prepared. He must have been working from other notes or more likely an earlier notebook plus notes which he combined to start the green book. These earlier notes must have been completely transferred to the green book which is why the early notes were not retained. I do not have pages 118 to 135. They are presumably blank. Page 136 is blank. Page 137 is headed ADDENDA. and contains "5. Lloyd (contd) see page 3" followed by generation 12 to 20, thus completing the extension of this line back to Cadwar of Dinawelof Gilach & Castle Howel. There follow various extensions of other families at first in family order ie 22, 30, 42a, 44, 46, 47, 49a, 50, 57, 57a, 61a, 67, 80, 86a, 87b, 90, 90a, 91, 98a, 109a, 111, 111a, 125a, 127a, 148, 175, 160(out of order), 173, 196a, 227. the order now seriously breaks down with 70, 77 92, 113, 118, 116a, 127b, 259a, 164a, 208a, 271a, 170a, 216a, and so on for a further 8 pages to page 167. I interpret this sequence as follows. Where the families are initially in order Granfa was either transcribing a set pile of notes on separate families, or he was methodically researching exhaustively each family in order before writing down the data. I tend to think that the former was more likely, and this is confirmed when we study the contents of the Blue Book. Eventually however when the order breaks down he enters the families directly in the Green Book as soon as he has complete data on them. The last pages of the Green Book 176 to 180 contain what must be examples of his working notes. Page 180 is a list of dates of the Kings and Queens of England - probably used as a reference.
The Blue Note Book is headed Book II,. This contains the extensions which were added as addenda in the Green Book. The family order is here no longer the numerical order but must be the order in which he worked on separate families . The order is 5, 57a, 30, 79, 81, 44, 50, 57, 88, 109, 131, 89, 143, 153, 181, 127a, 189, 163, 46, 90, 67, 90a, 111a, 111, 22, 47, 98a,125a, 91, 127a, 61a. At this point there are 10 more pages of families most of which are not numbered. The last part of the blue book consists of some 18 ancient European families of Nobility. These start with his 14th great grandmother, Jaqueline of Luxemburg which goes back to generation 28. Jaqueline is linked to the Lloyd (family5) and the Courtenay family 34. Several of the other Noble families go back to 33 or even 34 generations. A link to Robert I of France who married the daughter of Hugh, the natural son of Charlemagne (=generation 33), is especially notable, since it is fashionable amongst those wishing to claim famous forbearers to claim descent from Charlemagne, which the Brereton descendants of Francis Martin (and Joseph Lloyd Brereton) can do with some justification!
The final major set of documents are some unbound papers. These seemed to have been prepared after the writing of the green book. The first sheath consists of listings by generation. ie the first generation contains just Joseph Lloyd (family 1) and Frances Martin (family 2)These continue to generation 17 which contains approximately 222 names as shown in the following list where the generation numbers are shown as Roman numerals:
- I 2
- II 4
- III 8
- IV 16
- V 24
- VI 29
- VII 34
- VIII 38
- IX 44
- X 53
- XI 66
- XII 93
- XIII 118
- XIV 146
- XV 178
- XVI 196
- XVII 222

During his lifetime I never knew of Granfa's work. My first sight of the notebooks was around 1985 after I had seen Charles's charts. When on a visit to Little Massingham, Uncle John showed me the notebooks. At that time I did not realise exactly how I could make use of the information contained therein. The numerous details of distant ancestors it seemed to me could only be handled and appreciated if entered into a genealogical computer program. I had at that time just acquired a Sinclair QL computed and had typed in a genealogical program and was using it to enter details from Charles's charts. I can remember saying that I should need to return on a future occasion to enter details from Granfa's notebooks.

A worthwhile project would be to publish the results of this most painstaking research undertaken by Granfa. The first step in such publication could be placing the material on the Web. Here then is that first step, the male Brereton line of the ancestors of Philip.

4. The fourth document is the book, The Brereton Family of Cheshire 1100-1904 by Robert Maitland Brereton (1834-1911), who was PHLB's Uncle. He was born at Little Massingham and emigrated to the USA. He published the book early in the C20. I first looked at he copy held a Glebelands, Little Massingham during the Grand Brereton Reunion 2000. Unfortunately there was insufficient time to determine its contents. However this book is quoted on Charles's charts at one point as being a source for the genealogy of the Norfolk Breretons. The book must have been available to Philip, in fact the copy at Glebelands is presumably Philip's. An assessment of this source of information should be made, to in order to understand how it may have supplied data for the work of Philip and Charles.

In June 2003 I was able to make contact with the great grandson of Robert Maitland Brereton, Ted Hollister Pope who lives in California. We have exchanged family information and he has sent me a scanned CD copy of Robert Maitland's Brereton's Book. This confirms that this was a most important source available to my grandfather PHLB and his nephew CDLB, since it deals extensively with the pedigree of the Norfolk Breretons and many other branches, and traces these back to 1100. Very Interestingly, RMB refers to the unfinished work of his second cousin Robert Pearson Brereton (1819-1894), who had done extensive work but died before maturing and arranging it. I believe that RPB's papers and letters have been inherited by a descendant. If I can confirm this, then these will form a fifth collection of genealogical research by and about the Norfolk Breretons, and being the earliest will be of great interest.

Both RPB and RMB were victorian engineers whose works last to this day. See this page for a brief account.

5. The fifth source is the vast family collection of papers, letters (1800-1950s) and the genealogical notes prepared by PHLBrereton during the 1940s and 1950s as he researched and produced the items mentioned at 3. I have only recently gained access and started to study these. They add a comparatively small amount to the genealogy since almost all has been summarised in the items above. The interest of these papers is more in the detailed light it throws on the lives of the Little Massingham Breretons and their kinsfolk. I expect I will have substantial information ready to place on this site during 2004.

For the moment we note the significant anniversary in 2004 on the 20 June which is exactly 160 years since Joseph Lloyd Brereton recited his poem "The Battle on the Nile", which had won the Oxford University Newdigate Prize, in the Sheldonian Theatre.

Page last updated 9 November 2008 by Michael Sandford