Surname:Brookman

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JeffreyRLehrer

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I understand there are some Brookman's in America today who are descended from a Germanic family whose surname was changed to Brookman.

The Brookman surname in England could be either topographical or locational;

* The  origin may be topographical and relate to someone living next to a 'brook' or a small stream.

* The second option is locational from places in Southern England. There is a town called Brook in both Surrey and Kent in England. These place names are likely to have derived from being located near a brook.

The locational option, certainly seems likely as the early English censuses of 1841 through to 1881, locate an overwhelming majority of people with the surname of Brookman, in and around the regions of Kent and Surrey, south of London in England.

Further information detailed below made me aware that there is also a village called Brookmans Park located north of London in the civil parish of North Mymms, in Hertfordshire. It is quite possible that someone living here adopted the place name as their surname.

1 Alternative Name
2 Brookmans Park / Brookmans Manor
3 Sources
4 Additional Brookman Resources

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Alternative Name

One of the alternate spellings appears to be Brockman and there is an article written by Lloyd Paskall on the Origin of the Brockman Family name.

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Brookmans Park / Brookmans Manor

Following up on some information from Allen Roney (great grandson) of Sarah Brookman.

“One story is that Sarah Brookman had a connection with the house where Sir Thomas More lived”

Allen wondered if maybe she had worked as a servant there but after I did an internet search with the words = Brookman house Sir Thomas More

The results elude to the fact that maybe the connection related more to the neighbours of Sir Thomas More’s ancestors, in particular a John Brookman (Bruckman, Brokeman) and his house which became known as Brookman Manor.

A history provided by the Brookman Park Golf Club is shown below.

Six hundred years ago the area now covered by the village of Brookmans Park consisted of two manor houses - 'Brokemans', originally known as Mymme Hall and owned by John Brokeman and what is today the site of Brookmans Park golf course and 'More Hall' later to be known as Gubbins or Gobions and owned by the More family. In 1500 More Hall was occupied by Sir John More, judge and father to Sir Thomas More the chancellor executed by Henry VIII in 1535.

Samuel Gaussen acquired 'Brookmans Manor' in 1786. His grandson, Robert William Gaussen, having inherited the estate, bought the adjoining Manor of Gubbins in 1838, demolished the great house, adding the land to enlarge his 'Brookmans' estate. On his death the estate passed to his son Robert George Gaussen, who when on a cruising holiday on his yacht in 1891, learned the horrible news that a painter using a blowlamp in the exterior redecoration of Brookmans Manor had completely destroyed the great house.

Further historical information available via the Brookmans Park Newsletter is shown below.

Victorian study of North Mymms Chapter Four - Brookmans Taken from "The Victoria History of Hertfordshire" Edited by W. Page - 1908.

The manor of Brookmans (Bruckmans or Mymmeshall) was held as of the honour of Clare in socage (1). In 1388 Nicholas de Mymmes sued Walter atte More of London and Katherine his wife for the manor of North Mimms called Mymmeshall. Nicholas claimed the manor by descent from his grandfather John de Mymmes who was living in the reign of Edward II.

It was held in 1400 by John Brookman, whose widow Elizabeth, afterwards wife of John Chamberlain, evidently settled the manor on her second husband for her lifetime in 1437-8. Thomas Betley, one of the trustees to whom the manor had been given by John Brookman, had already enfeoffed (2) Richard Swaynesey and John Chamberlain. A memorandum at the end of the suit states that John Twyer and Peter Aumener constituted themselves sureties for John Chamberlain and Elizabeth, and undertook to pay the expenses of Thomas Betley and Richard Swaynesey if the case was decided in their favour.

In 1455-6 John Twyer sold the manor to John Fortescue, who died seised (3) of half the manor of North Mimms in 1500-1, and was succeeded by his son John. He died in 1517, and the manor passed to his son Henry who died seised of it in 1576, having settled it upon his son Dudley, who died in 1604. His son and heir Daniel sold it in 1617 to Robert Faldo of Gray’s Inn, who died seised of it in 1621, leaving his son Thomas his heir.

1: Socage = In Anglo-Saxon and Norman England, a free tenure of land which did not require the tenant to perform military service. He might pay a rent in cash or in kind, and perform some ploughing on his lord's estates.

2: Feoffment = A mode of conveying a freehold estate by a formal transfer of possession.

3: Seisin = The legal possession of a feudal fiefdom (i.e. an estate in land). It was used in the form of "the son and heir of X has obtained seisin of his inheritance", and thus is effectively a term concerned with conveyancing in the feudal era. In the feudal age the king alone "owned" all the land of England by his allodial right, all his subjects merely held tenures in fiefs, that is to say estates-in-land.

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