Brantingham family

Coat of arms

An early Brantingham coat of arms may be preserved in one of two seals attached to document WYL639/191 of the West Yorkshire Archive Services. The document is a grant of land, dated 18 September 1369, by Nicholas de Brantingham and Richard Bonefaunt to Robert Bonefaunt, vicar of Otley, and Nicholas, vicar of Weston. Two seals in red wax attached to the grant are (i) a design of five burs, with no legend, and (ii) a bird, with an indistinct legend. However, in the absence of distinct legends, it remains uncertain whether either of the seals belongs to Nicholas de Brantingham.

Later in the same century, Thomas de Brantingham, bishop of Exeter and Lord Treasurer, bore arms sable, a fess crenelle, between three Catherine wheels, or.

Political influence

During the fourteenth century, and in particular during the reign of Edward III, several de Brantinghams held great offices of the state, including Ralph de Brantingham, King's Chamberlain to Edward III from 1349, and Thomas de Brantingham (died 1394), Lord Treasurer from 1369 to 1371 and Bishop of Exeter from 1370 until his death.

The Brantinghams had close relationships with many of the leading families of the North East. Ralph de Brantingham was granted two shops in Penrith, Cumbria, by Ralph de Neville, second Baron Neville de Raby, and his daughter, Thomasina, married Thomas de Salcock of a noble family from Sawcock. Anne Fletame of Stockton, an ancestor of Sir Samuel Garth, in her will of 24 April 1562, bequeathed a linen kerchief, an apron and a pair of hose to Jane Brantingham. Nathaniel Brantingham married Anne, daughter of Matthew White of Redheugh, a gentleman connected to the Lambtons, later Earls of Durham, and was bequeathed 40 shillings in White's will of 29 December 1586.

Scandals

The de Brantinghams were implicated in several scandals of the period: Sir William de Brantingham, a knight, was found to have used "chicaneries" to re-assign property on the death of his ward; and Simon de Brantingham was dismissed as steward of the Hospital of St John the Baptist in Dorchester, Dorset, for having sold off the hospital's land and carried away linens and bedding from the hospital.

Several Brantinghams found themselves in brushes with the law:

Descent into penury

However, by the sixteenth century, at least one branch of the family seems to have fallen from grace. One John Brantingham is mentioned in the will of John Benley Prest, dated 20 December 1564, as having taken on William Prentis (a beneficiary of the will) as an indentured servant. From Prentis' second indenture, as an apprentice to a tailor, it may be that Brantingham was also in the same trade. Six years later, the will of one Margery Brantingham of the parish of St Andrew's, Auckland, dated 30 September 1570, states that she was working as a servant to John Robinson of Myddleston. The inventory of her possessions is not abundant, and that her presumed relations, Leonard and Edward Brantingham, owed her money suggests that the family as a whole had fallen on hard times.

This branch of the family seems to have continued to try several trades: the burial register of St Nicholas' Church, Durham records the burial of Elizabeth Brantingham, a daughter of Jarard Brantingham, a "rough mason".

Influence in the clergy

The Brantinghams maintained a presence in the religious life of North East England. John de Brantingham was empowered by Pope John XXII himself in June 1318 to take up the rectory of Huggate in the diocese of York, in addition to the rectory of Askeby and a prebend of Derby Cathedral. He is later recorded as vicar of Otley in Yorkshire. Thomas Sparke, Bishop of Berwick, in his will of July 1572, records among his illustrious debtors (who also included Charles Neville, sixth Earl of Westmoreland) William Brantingham, "priest" (although not to be confused with William Brantingham, seneschal of the prior of Durham, who died in 1548).

List of notable Brantinghams