Person:William Brocas (1)

vol I, No 4 (April 1894) pg. 421-422
"The Mutiny in Virginia, 1635."
(S. P. O. Colo. Vol. 8, No. 65.)
Letter from Capt. Sam'l Mathews concerning the eviction of Harvey, Governor of Va.
[Excerpt]
... having, according to Sir John Harvey's desire appointed a sufficient gard for the safety of his Person, within three dayes after he departed from James Citty and went into the Mills to the house of one William Brockas,* whose wife was generally suspected to have more familiarity with him than befitted a modest woman where he thought himselfe soe secure that he dismissed his guard....

[Footnote]
* Captain William Brocas was a member of the Council from ___ to1655. He patented large tracts of land, and lived first in York county, and afterwards in that part of Lancaster which is now Middlesex. A writer states in 1647, that Captain Brocas of the Council, who had been a great traveller, had a vineyard and made excellent wine. He appears to have married three times : first Tabitha (there is recorded in Lancaster a certificate of land to Captain W. Brocas for the importation of seventeen persons, including Dr. Henry Waldron, Mrs. Tabitha Brocas, &c.); secondly Mary, widow of Christopher Wormeley, Esq. (York Records), and thirdly Eleanor, daughter of Richard Eltonhead, of" Elton- head," Lancashire, England (who afterwards married Col. John Carter of "Corotoman "—,Lancaster Records). There is recorded in Lancaster a deed, dated Nov. 17, 1652, from "Capt. Wm. Brocas of Rappa : river in ye County of Lancaster in Virginia Esq." to his wife Eleanor— witnesses Edwin Conoway [Conway] (who married her sister Martha Eltonhead), and John Anderson ; and also an order of court, May, 1655, granting Eleanor Brocas, administration on the estate of her husband, W. Brocas, deceased, who by indenture dated November 6, 1652, conveyed to Sir Henry Chichley, Knight, his whole estate in trust for his wife Eleanor Brocas. Sir Henry Chichley married Agatha, widow of Ralph Wormeley, Esq., of "Rosegill," Middlesex, and sister of Mrs. Eleanor Brocas.

There is recorded in Lancaster, May 1655, " A schedule of ye estate of Capt. Wm. Brocas, Esq ," and in July the inventory of his personal estate, which includes among other things " the servants that are English," viz: George Hickman with two years to serve, valued at 2ooo Ibs. tobacco, " Nora an Irish girl that cannot speak English," &c. (Here seems to be a palpable bull.) And also " a parcel of old torn books most of them Spanish, Italyan, and Latin," valued at 100 lbs. tobacco. Captain Brocas died without issue, and it appears from the Lancaster records that his heir at law was one John Jackson.

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vol XXII, no 2 (October 1913)
"Notes from the Records of York County"
pg 84-85
24th March, 1645. In the difference "long depending betwixt Martin Westerling plaintiff & Capt Ralph Wormely & Mrs Mary Wormeley execurs of the estate of Capt Christopher Wormeley dec." for a man servant, and order that Capt William Brocas, Esq. who hath intermarryed with the said Mrs mary Wormeley & Capt Ralph Wormeley make there appearance at the next court. the said Ralph and Mary Wormeley haveing failed in there appearance especially at this present court.
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March 26th 1646. Capt Wm. Brocas, Esq. by Note under his hand doo confesse a judgment to Sr Edmund Plowden Knight for twelve pounds of tobacco in Rowle to be pd with Court Charges and forbearance by the last of November next ells exec as alsoe on thousand powndes of tob. more for the service of one man servant from the Eight of July, 1644 til l ye twentyeth of december next following & to be found him Cloathing as by his bill of the 8th of June, 1644 appeareth being soe much ym . . . ye sd sr Edmund Plowden for a servant . . . tyme to Nicholas Browne as appearey by ... of the sd Browne wch sd 1000 lb tob is tob . . . last of November next with forbearance . . . charged ells exec.
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Pg 87:
I desire that an order may be entered for the payment of the tobacco due to Sr Edmund Plowden by the last of November nect with forbearance.
Wm. Brocas.

Nicholas Browne of the backe river aged forty yeares or thereabouts makes oath that Sr Edmund Plowden Knyght complayn- ing Capt Wm. Brocas had promised to delvr him a servant to waite on him & that under two hundred pounds of tobacco a mounth he could not hire any fitted & cloathed. This depot for a thousand pounds of tobacco & caske about the Eighth day of July last past sold to ye sd Sr Edmund Plowden Thomas Waggett his tyme to serve him being for five mounyes & more. Nic Browne Juraf in Cur. Teste me Tho: Ely.

Virginia Reconsidered: New Histories of the Old Dominion
Edited by Kevin R. Hardwick and Warren R. Hofstra
Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2003

"The Road" from A Place in Time by Darrett B. and Anita H. Rutman
pg 85
In the far southeastern section of the county, Stingray Point itself was subjected to such subdivision. The whole point - an estimated 800 acres but subsequently proving to be 1,100 - was patented by William Brocas in 1654, assigned by his heir, John Jackson, to Sir Henry Chichely in 1657, and by Cuthbert Potter, as Chichely's attorney, to William Bawdes in 1661, passing to Bawdes's daughter Mary at his death in 1665.
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Lancaster Co., Va., Deeds and Wills Book, 1654-1661, p. 161. Order of a
court held at James City, made August 1658: "Whereas it appears to this court by ye confession of Capt. Will Brocus in his life time that Jo. Jackson was his sister's son, & therefore is now ye next heir in this Country to ye lands which he said Capt. Brocus died seized of, It is therefore ordered that ye sheriff of Lancaster forthwith put ye sd Jackson
in possession of ye sd Capt. Brocus, decd." [copy courtesy of Thomas Hamm]