# Robert Broughton (MP)

Sir Robert Broughton (died 17 August 1506) was a landowner, soldier, and Member of Parliament for Suffolk. He was knighted at the Battle of Stoke, where he fought on the Lancastrian side under John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford. He was a close associate of the Earl, and is said to have married the Earl's illegitimate daughter, Katherine.

## Family

Robert Broughton was the son of John Broughton (d.1479) of Denston, and Anne Denston (d.1481), daughter and heir of John Denston (d.1473) by Katherine Clopton, daughter of Sir William Clopton (d.1446) of Long Melford. Portraits of Robert Broughton's parents are preserved in the stained glass windows of Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford, Suffolk, while the 'cadaver tomb' of his maternal grandparents is in the church of St Nicholas at Denston.
The Broughton family, of Broughton in Buckinghamshire, is said to have acquired its wealth through marriage with an heiress in the early fifteenth century. Mary Pever, the daughter of Thomas Pever (d. 22 September 1429) by Margaret Loring, one of the two daughters and coheirs of Sir Nigel Loring (d. 13 March 1386), a founding member of the Order of the Garter, married firstly Sir Richard St. Maur (d. 6 January 1409), and secondly John Broughton, by whom she had a son, John Broughton (d.1489), Sheriff of Bedfordshire, whose son, John Broughton (d.1479), married Anne Denston (d.1481) and predeceased his father by ten years, leaving a son, Robert, to inherit the Broughton estates.
Broughton had two brothers, William and Edward, and a sister, Elizabeth, married to Edmund Cornwall.
The Broughton arms are given as 'Argent, a chevron between three mullets gules'.

## Career

Broughton was appointed Knight of the Order of the Bath when the four-year-old Richard, Duke of York, second son to King Edward IV, one of the two princes later said to have been murdered in the Tower of London, married Anne de Mowbray on 15 January 1478.
He was a close associate of John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, and a feudal tenant of the Earl in Ashdon, Essex and Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire. He fought under the Earl's banner at the Battle of Stoke in June 1487, and was knighted on the battlefield together with John Paston II and George Hopton. According to Richmond, a record of the knighting of Broughton, Paston and Hopton is found in a copy of William Caxton's Game and Playe of the Chesse once owned by John Paston III, and now in the British Library. Broughton's name is also found on a list in the royal household books of those in the 13th Earl's affinity who were to raise forces in July 1487 at the King's and the Earl's costs and charges.
In January 1488 Broughton was a witness to a recognizance in the amount of £2000 taken by the 13th Earl from Sir Edmund Hastings to guarantee Hastings' continuing loyalty to Henry VII.
In 1489 he was elected Member of Parliament for Suffolk, likely as a result of the 13th Earl's influence.
In January 1496 Broughton served as deputy to the 13th Earl as Constable of Clare Castle, Suffolk.
In October 1501 he was among those who participated in an entertainment on a grand scale to welcome to England Katherine of Aragon, the bride of Henry VII's eldest son and heir, Arthur, Prince of Wales. After journeying on the Thames to the Tower of London, Katherine was met by King Henry VII's second son, the future Henry VIII, accompanied by the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of Durham, the Earls of Suffolk and Shrewsbury, several barons, and a number of knights, including Broughton.
Broughton made his will on 20 June 1504, requesting burial in Denston church, and appointing his wife, Katherine, as one of his executors, and the 13th Earl of Oxford as supervisor. He died on 17 August 1506. His will was proved 10 July 1507. The inquisition post mortem taken after Broughton's death assessed his annual income at £600, making him 'one of the richest non-baronial landowners in England'.
Broughton's two sons received legacies in the 13th Earl's will when the Earl died in 1513. The elder son, John, was bequeathed two silver flagons, while the younger, Robert, was given £40. Robert appears to have been in the 13th Earl's service, as he was also granted an annuity of 53s 4d.

## Marriage and issue

Broughton married firstly Katherine de Vere, said to have been the illegitimate daughter of John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, by whom he had two sons and a daughter:
* John Broughton (d. 24 January 1518) of Toddington, Bedfordshire, aged fifteen at his father's death. He married Anne Sapcote (d. 14 March 1559), the daughter and heir of Sir Guy Sapcote by Margaret Wolston, daughter and heir of Sir Guy Wolston, and by her had a son and three daughters:
* John Broughton (d.1528).
* Katherine Broughton (d. 23 April 1535), who was the first wife of William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham.
* Anne Broughton, who married, as his second wife, by dispensation dated 24 May 1539, Sir Thomas Cheyney.
* Elizabeth Broughton, who died unmarried in 1524. There is a monument to her at Chenies.
* Robert Broughton.
* Margaret Broughton (d. 6 August 1524), who married Henry Everard (d.1541), by whom she had several children, including Elizabeth Everard, who married Sir William Clopton (d. 6 October 1568) of Liston Hall, Essex. After the death of Margaret Broughton, Henry Everard married Lore (née Wentworth), widow of Edward Shaw and daughter of Sir Roger Wentworth by Anne Tyrrell, daughter of Humphrey Tyrrell. She survived him, and married, as her third husband, Francis Clopton (d.1558).
Sir Robert's marriage to Katherine de Vere can be dated to the second year of the reign of Henry VII, 1486–7, when he settled the manor of Talmages and Wyfolds near Brockley Hall in Suffolk on Katherine de Vere for life.
Broughton married secondly Dorothy Wentworth, the sister of Sir Richard Wentworth (d. 17 October 1528), and daughter of Sir Henry Wentworth (d. August 1499) by Anne Say, daughter of Sir John Say (d.1478) of Broxbourne. Sir Henry married secondly Elizabeth Scrope. Dorothy Wentworth's sister, Margery Wentworth, married Sir John Seymour, by whom she was the mother of Henry VIII's third wife, Jane Seymour.
According to John Wentworth in The Wentworth genealogy: English and American Sir Henry Wentworth married Anne Saye on 20 February 1484. Dorothy was the youngest of the Wentworths' daughters. She and her elder sister Jane were the only ones still unmarried when her father made his will on 17 August 1499. He left her 400 marks for her marriage.
Sir Robert Broughton settled the manors of Colne and Gaynes or Gaynes Hall and Dillington, as it was then called, on his marriage with Dorothy. Upon the proposed marriage between Sir Richard and Dorothy, in consideration of 400 marks to be paid to him by Richard Wentworth, her brother, he covenanted with them that he, Robert, and Dorothy should have the manors, moiety and lands of Stonham Aspall and Alyngton, moiety of the manor of Burgate, and lands in Ratlysden, to them and the heirs male of their bodies, and further granted and agreed with her brother that they should stand seised thereof to the use of Dorothy and the heirs male of her body by him begotten. After Sir Robert's death, they were held by her.
His first wife Katherine was still living and with child on 20 June 1504 when he made his will, appointing her as one of his executors. Dorothy and Sir Robert were married soon before his death in 1506. Dorothy, late the wife of Robert Broughton, knight, and administratrix of his goods, was sued by Thomas Pychys (Pykes), citizen of London, for the debt of the said Robert for goods supplied at his marriage, he dying soon afterwards.
Dorothy, Lady Broughton, gave Dorothy Clopton (d.1508), her husband's second cousin, many fine gifts, a ring with a daisy and a blue velvet frontlet. Barbara J. Harris speculates that the gifts may have been received when Dorothy Clopton was living or serving in the Broughton household. She had also spent some time at Nettlestead, the home of the Wentworths, where she had left a velvet bonnet that she bequeathed to her sister Katherine. Dorothy Clopton may also have been Dorothy Broughton's goddaughter. The two Dorothys, however, appear to have been teenagers of the same age. They may have had the same and been named for the same godmother. Dorothy Clopton had an aunt, Dorothy Curson (d. 1520+), the daughter of John Clopton of Kentwell Hall, Long Melford, Suffolk (d.1494) and Alice Darcy. She married Thomas Curson of Billingford, Norfolk (d.1511/12). Dorothy is memorialized in a stained glass window at Long Melford, and became a vowess.
Both Dorothy Broughton's brother Richard and her sister Margery had daughters called Dorothy.
Dorothy Wentworth, Lady Broughton, may have been the 'Dorothy Broughton' who was Mother of the Maids in the household of Mary I in 1557.

## Footnotes

* ↑ According to Ross, Dorothy Wentworth was Sir Robert Broughton's first wife, whom he married between 1487 and 1490; Ross 2011, p. 190.
* ↑ According to Nina Green, this confusion is probably due to an error in the probatum clause of Sir Robert Broughton's will: "The testator died 17 August 1506, and his will was proved 10 July 1507. The probatum clause states that all the executors renounced, and administration of the testator’s goods was therefore granted, by way of an intestacy, to ‘the Lady Katherine, relict’. Thus, on the one hand the inquisitions post mortem taken after the testator’s death state that he outlived his first wife, Katherine, and married secondly Dorothy Wentworth, while the probatum clause states that administration of his goods was granted to his widow, Katherine. The simplest explanation for this contradiction appears to be that the testator’s first wife, Katherine de Vere, died in childbirth after the testator had made his will on 20 June 1504, and that the testator then married Dorothy Wentworth, who survived him, and that the name ‘Katherine’ in the probatum clause is an error for ‘Dorothy’."
* ↑ Like Nina Green points out, the inquisitions post mortem supports this interpretation. A conclusive piece of evidence may be discovery of the records in the National Archives of the suit of Pychys versus Broughton. "Plaintiffs: Thomas Pychys (Pykes), citizen of London. Defendants: Dorothy, late the wife of Robert Broughton, knight, and administratrix of his goods. Subject: Debt of the said Robert for goods supplied at his marriage, he dying soon afterwards."