BRUNSTHORP,
So called, as seated by a burn, or bourn. This village was given
(as I take it) to the abbey of Ely, by Ethelwold Bishop of Winchester,
in the reign of the Saxon King Edgar. At the survey it was in the
tenure, and accounted for as the lands, of St. Audrey, or Adeldrede,
the foundress of that monastery. There was a socman and 8 bordarers, with one carucate of land, one carucate in demean, and one
amongst the men, three acres of meadow, and a mill, valued at 3l. per
annum. (fn. 1)
In the reign of King Henry II. Warine Fitz-Gerold held it of the
Bishop of Ely; he was grandson of Robert Fitz-Gerold, who lived in
the time of the Conqueror, and held many lordships in several counties. Warine was the King's chamberlain, and the family of Pinkeny
held it under the Fitz-Gerolds.
Robert de Pinkenei released to William his brother half a
knight's fee here, in the 10th of Richard I. who regranted it by fine
to Robert and Alice his wife in tail, except thirteen acres of land,
granted by him to the canons of Rudham, for which he gave other
lands in exchange. Hamo de Pinkeney held the moiety of a fee in the
reign of Henry III. with Alice, his wife, and died seized of it in the
33d of that King; held, as then said, of the honour of Albemarle.
Margaret, daughter and heir of Warine, son of Warine Fitz-Gerold,
and Alice de Curci his wife, married, 1st, Baldwin de Redvers Earl of
Devonshire, and held it in capite; but in the 24th of the said King, it
was found that Sir Robert de Insula, or de L'Isle, was lord of it by
the marriage of Alice, daughter and heir of Henry Fitz-Gerold, brother
of Warine. John de Pinkeny, son of Hamo, held under them.
In the 9th of Edward III. James de Pinkeny granted to Thomas his
brother a messuage, with lands here; and in the 19th of that King,
James de Pinkeny of Taterset, and Joan his wife, settled this lordship
on themselves for life, remainder on Hugh, their son, and Isabel his
wife; and in the 42d of that King, Robert de Insula, or L'Isle, son
and heir of John, granted to the King certain knight's fees, and courts
held by him in Brunsthorp, Intwood, Mundeford, Holt, Cley, Sniterley,
Thorley, Bayfield, Letheringset, Hempstead, and Bretenham, in
Norfolk.
The heirs of Hugh de Pinkeny were found to hold it, in the first
year of Henry IV. and in the sixth of the said reign, John Drew held
half a knight's fee, as was found, of the dutchy of Lancaster, and paid
then 10s. He was one of the executors of Sir Robert Knollys, Knt.
whose manor of Taterset extended herein.
In the 10th of Henry VII. John Dynne was found to hold the manor of Taterset, and 300 acres of land, in Taterset and Brunsthorp, by
knight's service, and Robert was his son and heir, who conveyed it to
Sir William Farmer, whose nephew, Thomas Farmer, Esq. sold this
lordship, in or about 1570, to Thomas Cocket, Esq. who married Anne,
daughter of John Butler, Gent. of Droitwich in Worcestershire, in
1564, descended from John Cocket, senior, of Ampton, in Suffolk, who
died in the 2d of Richard III. whose son John died about the 10th of
Henry VII. and was father of John Cocket, lord of Ampton in Suffolk,
and of Appleton in Norfolk, who married, and had issue, as the following pedigree shows. (fn. 2)
[Cocket pedigree]
It appears by this pedigree, that Abigail, daughter and heir of
Froximere Cocket, Esq. brought this lordship by marriage to John
Walpole, Esq. second son of Calibut Walpole, Esq. of Houghton, who
dying December 8, 1654, was buried at Tatersete, and left three daughters and coheirs; Elizabeth, who married to Edward Pepys, Esq. had
one daughter, who died in 1665, and her husband in 1663; and the
said Elizabeth dying September 10, 1668, was buried by her husband
and daughter in the church of Tatersete. By her will, she gave her
right in this lordship to her two sisters, Bridget and Susan. John
Hare, Esq. purchasing Bridget's right in 1669, became sole lord, and
left it to his son, John Hare, Esq. Richmond Herald, who in 1698
sold it to Philip Bedingfield, Esq. who married his sister Elizabeth.
Philip was son of Edmund Bedingfield, rector of Bishop's-Cleeve in
Gloucestershire, son of Robert, and brother to Sir Thomas Bedingfield
of Darsham, in Suffolk; and on December 24, 1615, it was sold by
the aforesaid Philip to Colonel Horace Walpole, a younger son of
Sir Edward Walpole, Knt. of the Bath, for 2200l. and an annuity of
60l. clear, for life.
Here is only the manor-house now remaining, which the Colonel
died seized of, October 17, 1717, and the Earl of Orford is now lord.
The lete fee, to the lord of the hundred, was 12d.
Here is no church, and it appears to have been destroyed before the
reign of Queen Elizabeth.
In the reign of Edward I. the prior of Symplingham, or Sempringham,
held this church, appropriated to the convent, and had a grange only;
it was valued at four marks, Peter-pence, 7d. In 1428, the temporalities of Coxford priory here, and in Taterset, valued at 6l. 6s. 8d.
In 1481, John Croome was instituted on the presentation of the
prior and convent aforesaid.
1529, John Mendham, collated by the Bishop, a lapse.
In 1532, August 17th, it was appropriated, on the resignation of
Mendham, to Cocksford priory, and served by one of their canons;
after that the parishioners had license to go to East Rudham church,
from William Bishop of Norwich, 1536.
1608, Thomas Huson, presented by the King. The appropriated
rectory was granted May 9th, Ao. 29th Henry VIII. to Thomas Duke
of Norfolk.
Here was the gild of St. John, to whom the church was probably
dedicated.