The Madresfield Muniments and the Braceys
Madresfield
Muniments may be defined as "title deeds or evidence of rights or privileges."1 They may constitute a large collection of family records for landed families. The following account of the Braceys of Madresfield is compiled from the Madresfield muniments.2
"The Bracys were established at Madresfield early in the twelfth century. A Richard de Braci of Worcestershire occurs in 1168 and a William de Braci in 1176-77. In 1196 Robert de Braci of Madrefeld held one Knight’s fee;3 in the Book of Fees he is recorded as holding 1 hide4 in Holfast, half a hide in Eston and 2 hides in Wormedon in 1208-9. A Robert de Braci was justice of assize in a plea of novel disseisin at Dunstable in 1228; but whether he was a member of the Worcestershire family does not appear.
"The first Bracy who is mentioned in the Muniments is Humphrey de Bracy of Eldfield about 1250; his exact relationship to the Madresfield Branch is, however, obscure and a the Deed in which he is named did not originally form part of the family papers. The Robert de Bracy, who accompanied Maud de Cantelupe to Scotland in 1252 was, however, in all likelihood a member of the Madresfield family. He may be identified with the Robert de Bracy who in 1265 held 1/3 of a carucate5 at Aston in the Hundred of Oswaldelawe; he had been in the company of John Esturmy, who was a rebel, and his land was in consequence taken into the King’s hands.
"This Robert was probably the father of William de Bracy, lord of Madresfield, who made a grant of land in the Manor to Gilbert Fremon of Clevelode; this was in the last years of the reign of Henry III and is the earliest mention of Bracy of Madresfield in the Muniments. A positive date for William de Bracy is afforded by the grant to Richard, son of Adam Chut, in 1280.
"In 1283 William de Bracy and Robert de Bracy were witnesses to a charter of Great Malvern Priory. William de Bracy’s wife was Maud, daughter of William de Blauminster, who is mentioned in 1281. William de Bracy probably died before 1290, when there is mention of the Lady Maud in the Muniments. His son Robert de Bracy was witness to a charter of the bishop of Worcester in 1291, and is frequently mentioned in the Patent Rolls as a conservator of the peace and as a commissioner for various purposes between 1297 and 1321. In the Madresfield Muniments his name occurs in eight deeds; the earliest for which there is a positive date is on 17 June 1302, and the latest in 1316. In 1316 Robert de Bracy held three Knights fees in Wermyndon, Maderesfeld and Leye, and Peter de Salso Marisco (Saltmarsh) held a messuage6 of him in Hagberewe by the service of a half of a Knight’s fee and rendering a pair of gloves yearly. His wife’s name is given in 1302 as Maud.
"Eleanor, wife of Fulk le Estraunge in 1306, was perhaps a daughter of Robert and Maud de Bracy. The Henry de Bracy, who appears in the grant to Maud de Bracy, wife of William, was probably her younger son; he and his wife Alice were parties to a Fine concerning land in Clevelode in 1323; this Henry de Bracy was father of Robert who is witness to a charter of his cousin in 1345.
"In 1317 Robert de Bracy made a settlement of the manors of Madresfield, Warmyndon and Leigh on Robert de Bracy, son of William de Bracy, and Joan his wife. The younger Robert de Bracy was clearly a grandson, and the settlement was probably made on the occasion of his marriage. When the elder Robert de Bracy died does not appear, but it was probably after 1321 when Sir Robert de Bracy occurs as a witness.
"The first definite mention of the younger Robert de Bracy after 1317 is in June 1333, when Sir Robert de Bracy and his brother Richard were accused of hunting unlawfully in Malvern Chace. Robert de Bracy was clearly a great huntsman; in 1334 there was a complaint against him for breaking the bishop’s park at Blockley; in 1347 Sir Robert accompanied by his brother Richard and Walter de Bradeles, the parson of Madresfield, was again trespassing in Malvern Chase; there was a like charge against Sir Robert in 1354. However, this did not interfere with his appointment to act on a variety of commissions in the county or with his service as a justice of the peace.
"In the deeds at Madresfield Robert II de Bracy appears only between 1344 and 1357. But he may be identified with the Robert de Bracy who was on the commission of peace for Worcestershire in 1362, and was a commissioner of array in that county in 1366. He cannot of course be the Robert de Bracy, who was keeper of Salcey Forest, Northants., in 1378-89, forester of Dean in 1384, and warden of the Marshalsea in 1383. This Robert may perhaps have been a younger son of Robert II.
"Robert II was succeeded by his son William, who is first mentioned in the Deeds in 1377. But there is reference to William Bracy, son of Robert, in 1346 when he accounted for one-fifth of a Knight’s fee in Holdfast, which Robert de Bracy formerly held. On 6 May, 1385, William de Bracy, as Lord of Warmedon, joined with his wife Joan in a grant to John Henry of Smyghte; this Deed is the earliest of which a Bracy seal showing the arms (a fess, in chief two mullets) has been preserved. William Bracy, lord of Madresfield, occurs in deeds between 1388 and 1390, and William Bracy, lord of Warmedon and Madresfield in 1395; but whether these deeds refer to the father or to the son is uncertain. But the William Bracy of 1404 must almost certainly be the son, who married Isabel and had an only daughter Joan, by whose marriage to Thomas Lygon before 1423 Madresfield passed to a new line. On 20 January 1423 the manor of Warmedon was settled by William and Isabel Bracy on Thomas and John Lygon. William de Bracy is described in 1431 as holding Madresfield by the service of half a Knight’s fee. In September 1432 he and his wife joined in a lease of a Messuage called Holond in Madresfield.
"William Bracy was witness to a deed relating to land at Madresfield on 10 January 1435; He must have died before 6 February 1450, when Isabel demised7 the Manor of Madresfield to her grandson William Lygon, reserving to her use the Gatehouse with the upper and lower chambers and two chimneys attached thereto. There is no later reference to Isabel, who must have been close on 70 years of age in 1450 and probably died not long after."
The extensive muniments at Madresfield relate mostly to the descendants and successors of the Braceys. However, after the account of the family as given above, we follow with an account of the Bracey lands.8
"In the absence of any Inquisitions the best general information is afforded by the statements that in 1196 Robert de Braci of Madrefeld held one Knight’s fee; that in 1265 Robert de Bracy held 1/3 of a carucate in Aston; that in 1316 Robert de Bracy held three Knight’s fees in Wermyndon, Maderesfeld and Leye, and that a messuage in Hagberewe was held of him by the service of half a Knight’s fee; and that in 1431 Madresfield was held by William de Bracy by the service of half a Knight’s fee.
"These statements are supplemented by Robert de Bracy’s settlement in 1317 of the Manors of Madresfeld, Warmyndon and Leigh. In the Muniments we find that in 1260 William de Bracy as lord of Madersfeld granted land in the Manor to Gilbert Fremon of Clevelode, and in 1280 granted two crofts in the vill of Madresfeld to Richard, son of Adam Chut. About 1300 there is reference to a messuage between ‘Brewegodes bruge’ and ‘Bottes bruge’, in the Manor of Madresfeld.
"In 1302 Robert de Bracy acquired land in Wordesfeld of Thomas de Botteleye. In 1344 Sir Robert de Bracy acquired land in Wordesfeld, and in 1345 made a grant for lives of lands in Madesfelde. Between 1381 and 1385 there are references to the lands of William de Bracy in Warmyndon. In1389 William de Bracy acquired by exchange Badycroft in Madresfelde, and in 1390 made a grant for lives of a messuage in Madesfelde called Osburnesplace. In 1395 as lord of Warmedon and Madresfelde he demised ‘Whythouses place’ in Madresfelde to Thomas Heyweye. In 1404 he made a grant to John Douse of a tenement and lands in Madresfeld, part of which land adjoined Brodecroft and part lay in Merschefyld. In 1407 Richard Douce had a grant of the messuage called Westmaresparruk with crofts called Westmaresrudyng, Parleyscroft, Shuygacre and land in Denefeld. In 1417 comes a grant of the same tenement to Richard Hathyel. And in 1432 John Douse had a grant of Westmeryparrok and land in a field called Wylkewarpyn. In 1432 percival Otur had a grant of a messuage in Madresfield called Holund.
"The above seem to be all the deeds relating definitely to Bracy lands. But his does not exhaust the deeds of like date relating to lands which then or afterwards belonged to the lords of Madresfield."
"There are no early references in the Muniments to Bracy Leigh, but it is mentioned as a manor of William Lygon in 1464."9
Footnotes
1Terrick V.H. Fitzhugh, The Dictionary of Genealogy (London: A&C Black Ltd., 1994), 4th edition, p. 195.
2The Madresfield Muniments, with an Account of the Family and the Estates (Worcester: Echo Office, 1929), pp. 7-10.
3Under the feudal system after the Norman Conquest all land in England was owned by the king, who granted it to the nobles, who then granted it to knights in return for knight’s service, or military service. A knight’s fee consisted of enough land to support the knight, his family, servants, and retinue. There were about five to six thousand knight’s fees in England.
4A hide was an area of land sufficient to support a family and which a team of eight oxen could plow in a year. It was usually about 120 acres.
5A carucate was used in the Danelaw and was a unit of taxation similar to a hide.
6A messuage is a term used to signify a dwelling house, the outbuildings and surrounding property.
7Demised, or conveyed property by will.
8Muniments, pp. 64-66.
9Muniments, p. 66.