It seems that the name comes from a settlement near Woolpit in Suffolk, and meant “village in the broom”. A feoffment document from around 1211 puts it somewhere between Drinkstone, Hegeset (Hessett) and Longchippinglond. It has been said that the first known member of the family was Aylmer de Westbron, recorded in 1086. There were certainly people with the name in the early 13th century. The Phillipps records mention Agnes de Westbrom, who had land next to “a field called Bradelond”; Almer de Westbrom whose land was “in fields of Hegesete”; and Odo de Westbron, who was a witness to a feoffment document in the same area. The places where the Wesbroom name and its variants were recorded were almost all part of the estates of the Priory of St Osyth near Clacton in Essex. These lands were surrendered to the crown in 1539, and were later sold by Edward VI to Sir Thomas Darcy, who became Lord Darcy of Chich. An account roll of his son John lists the manors owned as Great and Little Clacton; Weeley; Great and Little Oakley; Fingringhoe; Peet Hall in Peldon; West Mersea; Southminster; Thorpe, Kirby and Walton within the Soken; Great Holland, Old Hall and New Hall in Beaumont; Mose; Lawford; and the manors of Elmswell, Woolpit and Norton in West Suffolk.
A certain Robert Westbrom gained fame, or notoriety, during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. He was a servant of Prior John of Bury St Edmunds and a lieutenant of John Wraw, a priest who led the revolt in Suffolk. At his trial Wraw said that the people had offered him the crown, but because he was a priest he left the title to Westbrom. In John Strype's "A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster" (1720) this becomes "At Mildenhall, and Bury in Suffolk, was Robert Westbrome, that made himself a King". Prior John was murdered on Mildenhall Heath and his head stuck up on a pole in Bury. Wraw gave evidence that Robert Wesbrom was one of the three murderers, but he was amnestied in April 1385. At around this time the monks of Bury petitioned the King saying that Westbrom and others had levied tallage (taxes) on the people illegally. They were also said to “owe a large sum of money to the king as surety of their good behaviour towards the monks” and should forfeit this.
Sources: The Iveagh (Phillips) Suffolk Manuscripts, catalogue ref. HD 1538/257/19: National Archives catalogue ref. SC8/20/983
The next reference to a Westbroom is in a deed of 31 Oct 1464 in Wetherden, Suffolk. A grant was made by John Hessete to six men including John Westbroom of a piece of land in the parish called Townland.
Source: Wetherden Parish Records file ref. FB 222/L1/1/4
THE ESSEX CONNECTION
The International Genealogical Index shows a number of Westbroomes in 16th century Essex; but these are member submissions rather than extracts from parish registers, and cannot be verified. However, they appear to be based on fact. Thimble Westbroom owned land in Layer de la Haye, south of Colchester, in 1636, for which he paid ship money. He and his wife Mary witnessed the will of Thomas Partridge MA, vicar of Layer de la Haye, who died in 1629.
The next reference to a Westbroom is in a deed of 31 Oct 1464 in Wetherden, Suffolk. A grant was made by John Hessete to six men including John Westbroom of a piece of land in the parish called Townland.
Source : Wetherden Parish Records file ref. FB 222/L1/1/4
These three generations lived in Layer de la Haye and in nearby Abberton. A son of the Thimble Westbroome born in 1582 was called Thomas, and he was admitted, in his 11th year, to Colchester School on 27 July 1640. We find, on the IGI, Anne Westbroome, born c.1550 in Colchester, marrying Sibert Crowe in 1570, but cannot connect her to the Layer family. A Thimble Wesbroom died in 1705 and was buried in Little Clacton. A Mary Wesbrome died in 1686 and was also buried in Little Clacton.
Various descendents of Thomas Rogers (1588 - 1638), one of the Pilgrim Fathers, have traced their ancestry back to Thomas Westbrome, reportedly born c. 1526 in Amber, Essex. Whether this is the same Thomas as in the above tree is not clear, but they claim that a daughter, Katherine, married Tobias Makin, and became the mother-in-law of Rogers.
It seems that one branch went to London. Grace Westbroome was born there in 1600 and married Thomas Lowe in 1624. A Phillip Wesbroom was the father of Phillip, 1606, and Thomas, 1609, in Stepney. It may be this Thomas who married Maria and had a son, also Thomas, who was buried on 30 January 1634/35 in St Martin in the Fields.
There are variants of the name - Westbrown(e) and Wesbrown - which are found in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, in London and Essex.
YEAR |
FORENAME |
SURNAME |
EVENT |
PEOPLE |
PLACE |
1563 |
Elizabeth |
Westbrowne |
marriage |
John Nightingale |
Kersey |
1565 |
Elizabeth |
Westbrowne |
marriage |
John Glover |
Great Clacton |
1584 |
Philip |
Westbrown |
in writ |
Walton | |
1584 |
Agnes |
Westbrown |
in gaol |
||
1599 |
John |
Westbrown |
stood surety |
Ipswich | |
1609 |
Grace |
Westbrowne |
marriage |
John White |
Marks Tey |
1626 |
Katherine |
Westbrowne |
in deeds |
Layer-de-la-Haye | |
1662 |
Thomas |
Westbrowne |
in deeds |
Abberton | |
1684 |
Robert |
Westbrowne |
will |
Maldon | |
1690 |
Mary |
Westbrown |
marriage |
Maddeson Hunt |
Great Oakley |
1693 |
Alice |
Wesbrown |
marriage |
Great Oakley | |
1695 |
Elizabeth |
Wesbrown |
marriage |
Henry Cole |
Great Oakley |
1706 |
Elizabeth |
Westbrown |
baptism |
dau. of Thomas |
Stepney, London |
1709 |
Thomas |
Westbrowne |
baptism |
son of Thomas |
Stepney, London |
1745 |
Elizabeth |
Westbrowne |
marriage |
Thomas Harris |
London |
The Robert Westbrowne who left a will in 1684 had sons Robert and Thomas and daughters Elizabeth and Sarah. All his children were under 20 in 1684. His wife was Sarah and he had a nephew and niece, John and Sarah Westbrowne.