Brereton Family - published books and other writings

Updated 26th June 2020

Brereton published books and other writings.
Researched by Rosemary Jewers 2020

I thought it time to add a reference page and list as many books, pamphlets and writings by members of the Norfolk Brereton line. These will not be limited to Breretons, but will include some of those who were connected to the Breretons through marriage. I can see that this page will be ongoing and I welcome all suggestions. I will start off this post with publications written by Charles David Brereton, my great great grandfather and follow with his son, Joseph Lloyd Brereton, my great grandfather and Joseph’s brother, Robert Maitland Brereton.

Charles David Brereton (1790-1868)

A Practical Inquiry Into The Number, Means Of Employment, And Wages, Of Agricultural Labourers

An Inquiry Into the Workhouse System and the Law of Maintenance in Agricultural Districts

An Inquiry Into the Workhouse System and the Law of Maintenance in Agricultural Districts

An inquiry into the workhouse system and the law of maintenance in agricultural districts, Volume 2. Free download

Brereton On The Poor Laws.

An Address, With A Proposal For The Foundation Of A Church, Mission House, And School, At Sarawak, On The Northwest Coast Of Borneo (1846)

Lectures on The Christian faith and life 1854

A Letter to the Lord Lieutenant and Magistrates of the County of Norfolk on The Proposed Innovation in The Rural Police. Free download

Joseph Lloyd Brereton (1822-1901)
Joseph (JLB) was the son of Charles David Brereton and Frances Wilson

Prometheus Britannicus Or John Bull And The Rural Police: A Tragic-comedy, In One Act. Published in 1840
By A Rugbaean. Free download

County Education: a Contribution of Experiments, Estimates and Suggestions (1874)

By Joseph Lloyd Brereton Free download 

The Higher Life, (1874), a blank verse exposition of New Testament teaching

Musings in Faith and other Poems, (1885)

Newdigate Prize winner Battle of the Nile in 1844 

By Joseph Lloyd Brereton Free download

The County College: An Educational Proposal Addressed to the Town of Cambridge, with the Surrounding Counties, and to Members of the University; Volume Talbot Collection of British Pamphlets

By Joseph Lloyd Brereton 

The Anglo-Saxon 
JLB contributed to and edited this magazine Free download

Whom Death Did Not Part.
This poem was written at the time of the deaths of the Rev Dowell and his wife Mary Dowell nee Brereton. They died one day apart. (Written February 19th 1896) Mary was a cousin of JLB.

Robert Maitland Brereton (1834-1911)
Robert was the son of Charles David Brereton and Frances Wilson

The Breretons of Cheshire 1100-1904, by Robert Maitland Brereton M.I.C.E. of Woodstock, Oregon Published by the Irwin-Hudson Company Portland, Oregon 1904 Free download

John Brereton 

A Briefe and True Relation of the Discoverie of the North Part of Virginia  by John Brereton. This John Brereton was thought to be my 8 x great grandfather. Free download

Joshua Wilson

A MEMOIR OF THE LIFE AND CHARICTER OF THOMAS WILSON, ESQ., Treasurer of Highbury College. by his son. Joshua Wilson. Free download 
Thomas Wilson, the subject of this book was the elder brother of Joseph Wilson, my gt, gt, gt grandfather. Those connected to the Wilson family will be interested to read chapter II, where Joshua Wilson gives a brief history of the family and a few details of his Wilson grandparents and my gt, gt, gt, gt grandparents.

If you have enjoyed reading this article you might consider donating to www.fosalm.org which will help restore St Andrew's Church Little Massingham. This church has been very important to the Brereton family.

Wilson Family Snippets - houses and paintings

Research by Rosemary Jewers 2020

I am gathering so much information about the Wilson family, (who are connected to the Breretons by marriage) that I have decided to have a 'snippets page' dedicated to recently found and researched information . Over time I will add this information to other posts. I will also be adding extra post further down this page.

In this first section I’m including the following quotes, because they give such an unique insight into the lives and selected events of the Wilsons of Stowlangtoft Hall, Suffolk. These extracts were taken from “Memoirs of Eighty Years” by Thomas Gordon Hake, originally published in 1892.

A family with which I was in close intimacy, indeed on affectionate terms, was the Wilsons, of Stowlangtoft Hall...

 ...The father of Henry Wilson resided on his estate at Highbury; he had been a great merchant, a calling from which so many great things have emanated in our country...

...Mr. Wilson purchased two baronets’ estates in Suffolk, one of Sir George Wombwell, the historic seat of Stowlangtoft; one, Langham Hall, the property adjoining, of Sir Henry Blake. He also held lands in Norfolk.

Henry Wilson, his son and my kindest and best of friends, resided always at Stowlangtoft; at one time he represented the county in Parliament.

He was educated at Oxford, where he made friends enough to last for a lifetime, all of whom, like himself, were thoroughly good men, and many of them fellow-students of Oriel. There was Rickards, who became his rector, a college-friend; and one of those who joined the set of Newman and Manning for a time. There was Porcher, Yarde Buller of Downs, Kindersley, Mozley; nearly all these were guests from time to time of Rickards and Wilson; in fact, the only one I do not recall as having met at the hall or rectory was Newman...

 ...Sir R. Kindersley was a most genial man, quiet and sensible, like most of those who rise to eminence. He gave his daughter in marriage to Wilson’s eldest son, and Wilson gave one of his daughters to Kindersley’s eldest son, and a daughter by this marriage is now Lady Herschell. Miss Wilson had been long adopted by the Porchers, who wished her and young Kindersley to be their heirs.

Henry Wilson had a large family by his first wife, who was a Maitland. He married a second time, the daughter of Lord Henry Fitz-Roy, a son of the Duke of Grafton. This lady brought him several children. She was a devoted mother to both families; as conscientious a lady as was ever born to fulfil great duties. She not only treated her stepchildren exactly as she did her own, but acquired for them the same affection as she felt for those which she had brought into the world.

 Those who knew her may think themselves happy if they ever see her like again...

 ...Wilson was boundless in his hospitality to his neighbours, poor and rich. Could every parish be under the management of such a squire and such a rector, poverty would cease to be an evil. Wilson may have felt this organically; it may have been under its influence that he desired to establish his family on the soil during succeeding generations. He was an ardent admirer of enterprise and self-aid; he turned his own name into his motto Will son will.

He was bent on building a mansion on the Stowlangtoft estate, and this he did ultimately on a larger scale than had sufficed for the home of Sir George Wombwell or of Sir Simonds d’Ewes, his predecessors; but not before his father died, who left him a purse of twenty-four thousand pounds a year.

The old Wilson, the London merchant, told me that he met Sir George Wombwell at his bankers’ to pay him the ninety thousand pounds in notes which he gave for the Stowlangtoft estate, and that the baronet stuffed the money into his hinder coat pocket, and so walked away.

The old hall was a very comfortable one, commodious, picturesque. A man does no good to his family in replacing old mansions by new in country places, to which the owner resorts, often, only for the shooting season. This adding on to and rebuilding often ends in disappointment to those who follow later. I saw recently an advertisement in the paper “To be let, Stowlangtoft Hall, with the shooting over seven thousand acres of land.“ My friend Mr. Thornhill, of Riddlesworth Hall, Norfolk, enlarged his mansion, which had sufficed for his wealthy father; he wished his descendants to reside there for generations, but his son has thought differently. I saw an advertisement immediately under the above concerning Stowlangtoft, which ran thus ”To be sold, the property of Sir Thomas Thornhill, Bart., the well-known sporting estate of Riddlesworth Hall.” How little influence can the dead exercise over the living!

We must now speak of old Rickards, a name he had gone by all his life, with the many who loved him. His hair had always been white, his complexion red, and he always blushed heartily when he laughed. He had been a Fellow of Oriel till he wedded Miss Wilmot, a daughter of Sir Robert Wilmot, of Chadsden Hall, Derbyshire, the liveliest, brightest, tenderest, sweetest of women; a girl to the last; and I hope still alive, though all this was fifty years ago. But every one is dead nowadays...

 ...Mrs. Rickards was a pretty creature, her husband was plain, her daughter was plainer, but when one looked at them, in the magic of the moment, they all looked alike, happy and good. One forgot that beauty existed elsewhere, save as an art.

They were of course constant guests at the hall. Miss Rickards herself painted, baked, and glazed every window in Stowlangtoft Church...

Full text can be found here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/57738/57738-0.txt

Post Two

This section is taken from 'Bishop Chase's Reminiscences'.
22nd of May 1824 page 375 and 376.

Bishop Chase was visiting England from America in 1823. He wrote the following account on 22nd May 1824.

“ At six we dined at Mr. Joseph Wilsons, in Highbury place, [sic] about four miles from the city, yet all the way as if a city. It is a lovely place, and blossomed in trees. Young Mr. Wilson, from Oxford, was there; young Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Butterworth, and many others, both gentlemen and ladies. Young Mr. Wilson, was as I walked out, civilly conducted me to his room, and showed me a marble statue of Jesus Christ, representing him in the very act of yielding up the ghost,- the most affecting I ever saw. It is said to be the same which Louis XVI. possessed. “

Although Highbury Place was nearby, Joseph Wilson was living at 'Highbury Hill'.
I'm assuming the 'young Mr. Wilberforce,' was one of the sons of William Wilberforce, as at least two of his sons were at Oriel College, Oxford where Henry Wilson was an undergraduate.

Bishop Chase's Reminiscences

Post Three

In 2011 I visited the National Portrait Gallery and Archives, looking for more information about a painting by Sir David Wilkie. While I was there I was shown copies of engraved images of Joseph Wilson (silk merchant) of Clapham, a relative of my gt, gt, gt grandfather Joseph Wilson (also a silk merchant) of ‘Highbury Hill’.

I was also shown a black and white photo (a much better copy than one held in our family) of the Wilkie painting of my 3 x gt grandfather, Joseph Wilson and his grandson, (my gt grandfather) Joseph Brereton, of Lt Massingham, Norfolk. Having discovered this painting was sold on 7th July 1967, I realised I might never be able to see the original.

I contacted Agnew’s, who, I discovered did acquire a portrait by Wilkie, entitled 'Joseph Wilson and Grandson' from a Christie’s sale on 7th July 1967 (lot 115), this was a commissioned purchase for  a private collector in America. Agnew's were kind enough to say if I'd like to write a letter they would forward it to the buyer. This I did, but sometime later I was informed they were unable to contact the buyer.

I contacted Christie's hoping they had a coloured photo of the painting, but unfortunately they only had a black & white copy. They were very helpful and sent me a scanned image of the catalogue and the price the painting realized.

The Royal Academy displayed this painting and it was listed in their catalogue.
Sir David Wilkie painting

'263 the grandfather; Being portraits of Joseph Wilson, Esq., and  his grandson, Joseph Lloyd Brereton. Sir D Wilkie RA
“So let us welcome peaceful evening in .” '

Some years ago I found the following link to paintings which were once held at Stowlangtoft Hall. 
Title '19. Joseph Wilson and Charles [sic] Joseph Brereton.' This information does give details of the colours of the sitters clothes and the other details correspond with black and white photo!

Perhaps this description will have to satisfy my curiosity until the day I can see the original in all it's glory.

Paintings once held at Stowlangtoft Hall

More Wilson information on my other posts:
Joseph Wilson - Silk Merchant
Fitzroy Wilson born Stowlangtoft.
Emma Wilson nee Welford

If you have enjoyed reading this article you might consider donating to www.fosalm.org which will help restore St Andrew's Church Little Massingham. This church has been very important to the Brereton family.

Joseph Wilson - Silk Merchant

Research by Rosemary Jewers 2020

Perhaps now is a good time to mention how the patronage of St Andrew's Church came into my family, and how it eventually came to me.

Joseph Wilson, my great, great, great grandfather was a very wealthy silk merchant, who lived in London, before moving to a large house named ‘Highbury Hill’, in Islington. He purchased two country estates, one was at Stowlangtoft in Suffolk, and the other was at Little Massingham, Norfolk. Little Massingham is the village where I was born and grew up. 

I recently came across this envelope for sale on an internet site. It confirmed Joseph Wilson's home was 'Highbury Hill' and not as some have added the word 'House' to his address. The family have always known it as 'Highbury Hill'.

There is so much that one could write about Joseph Wilson, but for this section, I've copied the following from my other blog which I've written in preparation for when I walk the 90 or so miles of Peddars Way, tracing the route from Colchester to the north Norfolk coast. As Patron. I'm hoping to raise as much money as I can for the church roof of St Andrew's, Little Massingham. If you have enjoyed my research and blog, it would be wonderful if you could help by donating to save the church roof and ultimately the church. http://peddarswaycharitywalk.blogspot.com/

When Joseph bought the estate of Little Massingham, he also acquired the patronage or advowson of St Andrew’s.

Joseph and his son, Henry and subsequent male Wilsons never lived at Little Massingham. Henry and some of his descendants lived at Stowlangtoft Hall, and where I will pass on my way north. 

As well as having a son, Joseph also had two daughters, Frances and Mary. Frances married the Rev. Charles David Brereton. Charles and Frances were my great, great grandparents and in 1820, Charles became Rector of Little Massingham.  I had always assumed that when Joseph died, he willed the advowson and his two estates to his son Henry, in fact this was not the case. When I looked again at 'The Breretons of Cheshire 1100 to 1904 A.D.', written by his grandson, Robert Maitland Brereton, he mentioned that later his paternal grandfather, John Brereton IV., of Brinton, purchased the advowson for his son, Rev. Charles David Brereton. The advowson was handed down through the family, until eventually it came to me. Several generations of my family lived in the village, many becoming clergyman. My father, was a farmer, with land in and around Little Massingham, and my parents continued to live in the village until their deaths.

Having lived in Essex for twenty plus years, and as I will be starting my walk from Essex, I think it appropriate to add a little more about Joseph Wilson, and his connection to Essex. 

Joseph’s silk business was at Milk Street, Cheapside, but in 1809 the business expanded into Essex when he purchased the old flour mill, in Chapel Lane, Braintree. He engaged George Courtauld as his manager, but some historians have documented that Courtauld was the owner of the business. I found the following in The Gazette 1818. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/17328/page/226/data.pdf

“We hereby dissolve the Partnership carried on between us at Braintree,. Under the firm of Wilson and Courtauld, by mutual consent by the day of the date hereof. - Dated this 28th January 1818. Joseph Wilson George Courtauld”

According to Malcolm Harrison, author of 'Unravelling the threads: A Guide to the Wilsons of Stenson in The County of Derbyshire 1664 to 1880', Wilson was introduced to George Courtauld by an unknown third party in 1806. Harrison states, Courtauld was invited by Wilson to convert and then manage the silk mill in Chapel Lane. 

The mill produced high quality silk mourning crape. At some point there was a disagreement and a court case ensued between Wilson and Courtauld - I understand that Wilson felt that Courtauld was not producing the silk to his high standard. The case did not go in Wilson’s favour. Despite losing the case, it was not until 1843 that Wilson sold his business in Braintree to Samuel Courtauld III. A large proportion of the Wilson family were involved in the silk industry.

Malcolm Harrison, 'Unravelling the threads: A Guide to the Wilsons of Stenson in The County of Derbyshire 1664 to 1880'

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If you have enjoyed reading this article you might consider donating to www.fosalm.org which will help restore St Andrew's Church Little Massingham. This church has been very important to the Brereton family.

Richard James Ward - Brereton Marriage

Research by Rosemary Jewers 2020

I’ve been meaning to write about Richard James Ward, who I first found some years ago on a family tree. He had married Elizabeth Maria Brereton at Brinton, Norfolk on 25 May 1842.

In fact Richard and Elizabeth shared their wedding day with Elizabeth’s sister, Anna Margaretta and cousin Robert Pearson Brereton. My great, great grandfather, Charles David Brereton, uncle to Robert, Elizabeth and Anna married them.

Richard James Ward was a civil engineer, and in 1836 he had been articled to Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Robert Pearson Brereton, son of Robert Brereton and Sarah Pearson also joined Brunel in 1836. Presumably both were articled to him, but in all mentions of Brereton it only refers to him joining Brunel. In Ward’s obituary it states he was articled for four years, whatever the finer details, these two young men probably first met in Brunel offices where they worked. Ward was born in January 1817 and Brereton in 1818 or 1819.

They must have become friends, and I’m assuming that Brereton must have introduced Ward to his two Norfolk cousins, Anna and Elizabeth, the daughters of William and Sarah Brereton of Brinton.

On 25th May 1842, Elizabeth Maria Brereton married Richard James Ward and her sister Anna Margaretta Brereton married Robert Pearson Brereton.

Thanks to the help of ICE Publishing, I'm able to add this pdf link of Richard Ward's obituary. https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/doi/pdf/10.1680/imotp.1881.22285

Richard and Elizabeth Ward went on to have a number of children. So far I've discovered Catherine Brereton Ward, Elizabeth Brereton Ward, Richard Brereton Ward, MacGregor Brereton Ward, twin brother, Lloyd Brereton Ward, Florence Fyfe Brereton Ward to name just a few. Florence married Claude Joseph Goldsmid Monefiore. Lloyd married Fanny Louisa Kingsley Anderson. Catherine Brereton Ward married Richard Sumner Helps. It's possible that some of the children died young, and when other children were born they were given the same name as the deceased child. This needs further investigation.

A little more about Robert Pearson Brereton. I found that he and Anna had a son, Robert Brereton Brereton, he lived for just 6 days.

R. P Brereton became Brunel's chief assistant in 1844, aged 25, he took over responsibility for completing some of Brunel's projects after Brunel died in 1859.

These were not the only civil engineers in the family, one was my great, great uncle, Robert Maitland Brereton and the other notable family engineer was Cuthbert Arthur Brereton.

Update to follow.

If you have enjoyed reading this article you might consider donating to www.fosalm.org which will help restore St Andrew's Church Little Massingham. This church has been very important to the Brereton family.