Sir John Bramston, the younger (September 1611 – 4 February 1700), was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

from 1660 to 1679. The son of Sir John Bramston, the elder and his first wife Bridget Moundeford, daughter of

Thomas Moundeford Thomas Moundeford M.D. (1550–1630) was an English academic and physician, President of the London College of Physicians for three periods. Life The fourth son of Sir Edmund Moundeford and his wife Bridget, daughter of Sir John Spelman of Narbo ...

, he was educated at

Wadham College Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...

, Oxford, and called to bar at

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

in 1635. In 1660 he was elected to the Convention Parliament for the county of

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

and again in the

Cavalier Parliament The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from 8 May 1661 until 24 January 1679. It was the longest English Parliament, and longer than any Great British or UK Parliament to date, enduring for nearly 18 years of the quarter-century reign of C ...

of 1661 (a year he was also knighted ( KB)). He frequently acted as chairman of committees of the whole

House of Commons of England The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England (which incorporated Wales) from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of ...

and was returned to parliament for

Maldon Maldon (, locally ) is a town and civil parish on the River Blackwater, Essex, Blackwater estuary in Essex, England. It is the seat of the Maldon District and starting point of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. It is known for Maldon Sea ...

in 1679 and 1685. He left an autobiography (published in 1845).

Early life

Bramston, the son of Sir John Bramston and Bridget, daughter of Thomas Moundeford, M.D., of London, was born in September 1611, at

Whitechapel Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...

, Middlesex, in a house which for several generations had been in possession of the family. His mother died at thirty-six; her son was devoted to her memory, although he was also fond of his stepmother Elizabeth Brabazon, who had been an early sweetheart of his father's. After attending

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...

, he entered the Middle Temple, where he had as chamber fellow Edward Hyde, afterwards Earl of Clarendon. Throughout his life, he continued on terms of intimate friendship with Hyde, who presented him with his portrait, the earliest of him now known to exist, and engraved for the edition of the "''History of the Rebellion''" published in 1816.

Civil War and Interregnum

Bramston was called to the bar in 1635, and began to practise law with considerable success, until, in his own words, "the drums and trumpets blew his gown over his ears". He stood for parliament at the second general election of 1640 as a burgess for

Bodmin Bodmin () is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated south-west of Bodmin Moor. The extent of the civil parish corresponds fairly closely to that of the town so is mostly urban in character. It is bordere ...

in Cornwall, but failed to secure the seat in the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

. On his father's advice, he sold his chambers in the Temple at the outbreak of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, and he removed with his family to his father's house at Skreens. At his father's death in 1654 he succeeded to the property. After the dismissal of

Richard Cromwell Richard Cromwell (4 October 162612 July 1712) was an English statesman who was the second and last Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland and son of the first Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell. On his father's death ...

and

George Monck George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle JP KG PC (6 December 1608 – 3 January 1670) was an English soldier, who fought on both sides during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A prominent military figure under the Commonwealth, his support was cruc ...

s march to London, he served as

Knight of the Shire Knight of the shire ( la, milites comitatus) was the formal title for a member of parliament (MP) representing a county constituency in the British House of Commons, from its origins in the medieval Parliament of England until the Redistributio ...

for Essex in the Convention Parliament, and supported the motion for the

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After the Restoration

On 23 April 1661, at the coronation of Charles II, Bramston was created a

Knight of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as one ...

, after refusing a baronetcy on account of his dislike of hereditary honours. The same year Bramston was re-elected MP for Essex in the

. Subsequently, he frequently acted as chairman of committees of the whole house. In 1672 an accusation was brought by

Henry Mildmay Sir Henry Mildmay (ca. 1593–1668) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1621 and 1659. He supported the Parliamentarian cause in the English Civil War and was one of the Regicides of Charles I of ...

(1619–1692), before the council against him and

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, his younger brother, of being papists, and receiving payment from the pope to promote his interests. The chief witness was a Portuguese, Ferdinand de Macedo, whose evidence bore unmistakable signs of falsehood. Charles II is said to have remarked concerning the affair, that it was "the greatest conspiracy and greatest forgerie that ever he knew against a private gentleman". Bramston was returned to

Habeas Corpus Parliament The Habeas Corpus Parliament, also known as the First Exclusion Parliament, was a short-lived English Parliament which assembled on 6 March 1679 (or 1678, Old Style) during the reign of Charles II of England, the third parliament of the King's re ...

of 1679 for the constituency of

, but did not sit in the

Exclusion Bill Parliament The Exclusion Bill Parliament was a Parliament of England during the reign of Charles II of England, named after the long saga of the Exclusion Bill. Summoned on 24 July 1679, but prorogued by the king so that it did not assemble until 21 Octob ...

later the same year or in the Oxford Parliament that assembled for a week in 1681. He sat for Maldon in the first and only parliament of James II in 1685, but failed to secure a seat in a subsequent election. After the Restoration between 1660 and 1688 Bramston was active in other public offices: he was a justice of the peace, deputy lieutenant and vice-admiral of Essex, high steward of Maldon, and a committee member for parliamentary tax assessment. He died 4 February 1700, leaving his estate to Anthony his third son and heir.Died 4 February 1700, (

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—Julian calendar with the year starting on 1 January)

Family

In 1635, (the year he was called to the bar) Bramston married Alice, eldest daughter of Anthony Abdy, alderman of London, and took a house in Charterhouse Yard. She preceded him dying in 1647. She was buried in

Roxwell Roxwell is a village and civil parish in the Chelmsford district of Essex, England. The village is approximately west from the centre of the county town of Chelmsford, and to the south of the A1060 road, on which are the parish hamlets of Boyto ...

parish church close to her father-in-law, and on his death in 1700 he was buried near to them. They had six sons and four daughters although not all of them outlived their parents.

Bibliography

The Autobiography of Sir John Bramston, preserved in the archives at Skreens, was published by the Camden Society in 1845. It begins with an account of his early years, and is continued to within a few weeks before his death. Thomas Henderson states in the DNB that "Although it casts no important light on historical events, it is of great interest as a record of the social and domestic life of the period".

Notes

References

* *
History of Parliament Online – Bramston, John
;Attribution * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bramston, John 1611 births 1700 deaths Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford English lawyers English knights Members of Parliament for Maldon English MPs 1660 English MPs 1661–1679 English MPs 1679 English MPs 1685–1687 English autobiographers Deputy Lieutenants of Essex 17th-century English writers 17th-century English male writers