Early Holbrook Family in England: Research Findings

Working file, started 30 September 2026.

• Second pass (same day): Luccombe and north Somerset parish registers (FreeREG), the Clergy of the Church of England Database (CCEd), the National Archives catalogue, and the full text of Lord (1942).
• Third pass (same day): FamilySearch's index of Somerset parish registers and its catalog, the Somerset Heritage Centre (SHC) online catalogue, printed will abstracts, and Somerset Record Society volumes on archive.org.
• Fourth pass (1 October 2026): the Glastonbury in-law families (J. Gardner Bartlett's register and will extracts, printed in Weaver 1928), the SHC catalogue for those families, and a check of the American line from Thomas to Richard Blackmer Holbrook Sr. in printed vital records, Plymouth and Barnstable County probate and deeds (FamilySearch full-text search), and Plymouth histories. The results are in sections 12 and 13 and in the new project file Holbrook-Master-Family-Tree.md.
• Fifth pass (same day): the Plymouth death registers for Gideon Holbrook (d. 1852) and his son Gideon H. (d. 1853), the 1779 Wellfleet guardianships, and Richard Blackmer Holbrook Sr.'s life and death in Massachusetts and Washington records. Mostly American detail, recorded in full in Holbrook-Master-Family-Tree.md; the points that touch this file are in sections 13-15.
• Sixth pass (same day): the seven PCC register wills from The National Archives (PROB 11), downloaded by Dasloops and transcribed in the new project file Holbrooke-PCC-Wills-1503-1617.md. Results in section 5 and section 15.
• Seventh pass (same day): printed genealogies that abstract the lost north Somerset wills (Walter Goodwin Davis, The Ancestry of Joseph Neal, 1945; the Stone-Gregg genealogy, 1987; Knoff, 1989), and Burton W. Spear's Search for the Passengers of the Mary & John, vol. 26, which prints Robin Bush's abstract of a 1617 church-court deposition by William Holbrook of Glastonbury. William said he was born at Norton Malreward and had lived 20 years at Compton Dando. Results in the new section 5A, which supersedes the judgment at the end of section 5.
• Eighth pass (same day): the Smyth of Ashton Court deeds at Bristol Archives (Hungerford leases at Compton Dando, 1542-1600), the Somerset executors' accounts, Chancery and PCC catalogues, and printed sources, looking for Edith's family, the generations above Thomas, the 1457 will and the Suffolk question. Results in section 5B. The consolidated list of documents to order is in the project file Holbrook-Records-Order-List.md.

Scope: the English origins of the immigrant Thomas Holbrook (d. Weymouth, Mass., 1673-1677), from the medieval Holbrook records through his emigration in 1635. American generations are covered only where they bear on the English question.

Evidence tiers used below

• [Documented] A primary record, or a published transcript, index, abstract or archive catalogue description of one.
• [Compiled] A secondary genealogy (Lord 1942, Mollie Holbrook Pfeiffer's typescript, online trees) stating something, with or without a source.
• [Tradition] Family lore with no stated source.
• [Inference] Our own reasoning from the above.

Dates before 1700 are often approximate. A mismatch of a few years is not treated as grounds to rule a link out. Dates between 1 January and 24 March are shown as 1625/6 where the source makes the year clear; FamilySearch's index often gives only the first year.

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1. Current picture

Question	Status
Thomas Holbrook emigrated 1635 from Weymouth, Dorset, described as "of Broudway"	Documented
Thomas married Jane Powyes at St John's, Glastonbury, 12 Sept 1616	Documented (Somerset register index on FamilySearch; also Anderson)
Thomas's sons John (bapt. 10 Apr 1618) and William (bapt. 12 June 1620) were baptised at Glastonbury	Documented (same index)
Thomas's father was William Holbrooke "the elder" of Glastonbury, yeoman (will 11 Dec 1625, proved 1 Feb 1625/6)	Documented. The original will survives at the Somerset Heritage Centre (D/D/ct/1/H/137). Not yet read by us
Where William was born	Norton Malreward, Somerset, about 1551-2. Documented, from a printed abstract (Spear, vol. 26, reporting Robin Bush) of his church-court deposition of 9 May 1617: at Glastonbury 19 years, before that at Compton Dando 20 years, before that at Norton Malreward where he was born; aged 65. Original not yet seen (section 5A)
Who William's parents were	Very probably Thomas Holbrooke of Norton Malreward, yeoman (will 11 Jan 1571/2, buried 11 Mar 1571/2), and his second wife Edith, a widow Sanders, who died at Compton Dando in 1592/3. Thomas's will names a son William and leaves him the lease of "the park at Compton Dando"; Edith's will names her son William. Inference: about 85-90% for Thomas after the eighth pass, which meets the 80-85% standard; about 75% for Edith as his mother (sections 5A and 5B)
Thomas Holbrook and Constans Thayer (m. Thornbury, Glos., 1560) as William's parents	Ruled out. William was born at Norton Malreward about 1551-2, some eight years before that marriage. Thornbury had its own Holbrooke family (section 6)
A Holbrooke family at Chew, Dundry, Norton Malreward, Stanton Prior and Marksbury from 1503	Documented (wills, registers, muster roll; section 5). William of Glastonbury was born into it (section 5A)
An archive file of abstracts of 15 Holbrooke wills, 1544-1631, grouping those north Somerset Holbrookes with William of Glastonbury	Documented (SHC DD/X/HBS/1; catalogue entry only, not yet seen). Walter Goodwin Davis (1945, p. 125) says nineteen Somerset Holbrookes left wills between 1457 and 1631, and that abstracts of fifteen of them were "placed in the library of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society in Boston." The SHC file is very probably a copy of that same set, so its grouping reflects Davis's research rather than independent evidence
Glastonbury Holbrookes held leases near Marksbury and Saltford, 1577-1685; a Glastonbury widow was in Chancery over property in Glastonbury and Backwell, 1647-1654	Documented (catalogue descriptions; documents not yet seen)
Earliest Holbrooke found in Glastonbury itself	John Holbroke, renting a cottage from St John's church, 1574 (printed churchwardens' account)
Grandson Edmund Tylye, named in William's will, baptised at St John's 8 July 1617	Documented (Bartlett's register extracts in Weaver 1928; section 12)
William Holbrook was overseer of the will of Thomas Coles of Glastonbury, 1602/3	Documented (Bartlett's abstract of the lost Wells register copy; section 12)
The American line from Thomas to Richard Blackmer Holbrook Sr.	Documented at every step except two: John (b. 1686) to Elisha (strong inference, about 85-90%) and Elisha to Gideon (compiled, about 80%). Section 13
Lord's "Colbrook" churchwarden of 1428-1438 was really a Holbrook	Doubtful. The printed accounts spell Colbrook/Colbrok every time, and "Colbroke" also appears in the Glastonbury Abbey feodary (section 6)
Descent from the de Holebrok knights of Suffolk	Unproven. No connecting record found
Thomas was "son of Sir Thomas Holbrooke of Broadway"	Tradition, no source, conflicts with the will
Luccombe (Stawell) question	Parked at your request (section 10)

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2. The immigrant: Thomas Holbrook

• [Documented] Enrolled at Weymouth, Dorset, 20 March 1634/5 for New England in the Rev. Joseph Hull's company: "Thomas Holbrooke of Broudway aged 34 yeare," with Jane (34), John (11), Thomas (10), Anne (5) and Elizabeth (1). Printed in NEHGR 25 (1871), p. 14.
• [Documented] Married Jane Powys (Powyes) at St John the Baptist, Glastonbury, 12 Sept 1616 (Anderson, Great Migration 3:350-353; also Lord p. 6). Pane-Joyce gives her parents as William Powyes (b. c. 1568) and Elizabeth.
• [Documented] Glastonbury register index (FamilySearch): John, son of Thomas Holbrook, baptised 10 Apr 1618; William, son of Thomas, baptised 12 June 1620; Elizabeth, daughter of "Thome" Holbroke, baptised 13 Feb 1630 (probably 1630/1). No baptisms were found in the index for the Thomas (aged 10) and Anne (aged 5) of the 1635 list. William (b. 1620) is not on the list, so he may have died young.
• [Compiled] Landed at Dorchester, Mass., 7 June 1635, stayed two weeks, then built a house at Weymouth (Mollie p. 5, citing Suffolk Court files 815). Granted 10 acres in the first division and 30 in the second, in the part of Weymouth called "Old Spain" (Weymouth Land Grants 283, 284). Grantee of Rehoboth but forfeited by not moving. Owned salt meadow at Kingman's Neck.
• [Compiled] Freeman May 1645. Selectman several times between 1641 and 1654. Will dated 31 Dec 1668, codicil 31 Dec 1673, proved 24 Apr 1677 (Pane-Joyce; Mollie p. 5). His grandson Peter had cared for him and his wife for about eight years in their old age (Mollie p. 5).

Birth year: four different estimates

Estimate	Basis	Source
c. 1589	Deposition of 7 Nov 1666 giving his age as 77	Pane-Joyce; Anderson
c. 1594	"Depositions made by him at three different times"	Lord p. 7
1598/9	Baptism "in Eversley, Glastonbury, 1 Mar 1598/9"	Pane-Joyce (source not given)
c. 1601	Passenger list age of 34 in 1635	Mollie p. 1; NEHGR list

[Inference] The passenger list ages look understated across the family. Son John is listed as 11 in 1635 but was baptized at Glastonbury about 1617/18, making him about 17. So the list is the weakest basis for Thomas's birth year.

Where was "Broadway"?

• [Compiled] Mollie p. 5: Broadway "about four miles west of Ilminster, Somerset" (the parish of Broadway in south Somerset). She adds, "One account says Dorsetshire."
• [Compiled] Lord p. 7: resided in Broadway in 1634; "a hamlet by that name very near Glastonbury, and there are two other Broadways in the County."
• Open: which Broadway. The south Somerset parish is some distance from Glastonbury; a hamlet near Glastonbury would fit the rest of the family's records.

Discrepancy: Thomas's wives in Mollie's typescript

• [Compiled] Mollie pp. 1 and 5 give Thomas (1) a first wife Experience Leland (daughter of Hopestill Leland) and a second wife Jane Kingman.
• [Documented] The recorded marriage is to Jane Powys, Glastonbury, 1616.
• [Compiled] Lord p. 10 gives Experience Leland as the first wife of a different Thomas: the son of John Holbrook (the immigrant's brother), born c. 1627. Pane-Joyce gives Joanna Kingman as the wife of Thomas (2), the immigrant's son.
• [Inference] Mollie appears to have merged three Thomas Holbrooks. If so, the Leland pages in her typescript (pp. 11, 12, 14-A) belong to a collateral line, not the direct one.

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3. His father: William Holbrooke "the elder" of Glastonbury, yeoman (d. by Feb 1626)

The will

• [Documented] Somerset Heritage Centre, D/D/ct/1/H/137: "Will of William Holbrooke the elder of Glastonbury, yeoman. 11 Dec 1625. Proved: 1 Feb 1625/6." The original survives; it was not among the probate records lost at Exeter in 1942. An abstract of it is also in SHC DD/X/HBS/1 (section 5).
  • This answers the earlier open question about his status: he was a yeoman.
• [Compiled, quoting the will] Lord pp. 6-8:
  • Names sons Thomas, John "(if living)" and William the younger, daughter Basell, and three grandsons. Son William executor. Sons-in-law Clement Weaver Sr. and Thomas Tylye overseers.
  • Leaves to grandsons Thomas Holbrook Jr., Edmund Tylye and Clement Weaver Jr. "My grounds att yee moore geate together with ye leases and Conveyances thereof" if son John was dead, or to John "if he be livinge."
  • Lord's footnote 2 cites "Register of Wills at Wells, General Court, Wells, England, Liber 45, p. 46," plus History and Genealogy of the Weaver Family (1928), pp. 31, 60, 64, and "The Holbrook Family, Caleff and Carter Manuscripts."
• [Inference] "Leases and Conveyances" suggests land held at least partly by lease, which fits the leases in SHC DD/BR/su/6 (section 4).

Glastonbury register entries for this household (FamilySearch index)

Source for all rows: "England, Somerset, Church Records, 1501-1999" on FamilySearch, indexing the St John's register (Somerset Archives D/P/GLAJ 2/1/1). Images are on Findmypast, or viewable at a FamilySearch Center.

Date	Index entry	Lord
25 Mar 1603	Julia, daughter of "Willmi" (William) Holbrooke, baptised	Not in Lord. Davis (1945) reads this entry as the baptism of "Bazell (a daughter)," so it is Basell's baptism, misindexed
8 May 1605	Johanna Holbrooke m. Nicholas Bennett	Lord: 3 June 1605
19 Aug 1609	"Johes" (John) Holbrook buried	Not in Lord
9 July 1610	Anna Holbrook m. John Notley (the same marriage is also indexed with the bride as "Agneta", i.e. Agnes)	Not in Lord
12 Sept 1610, and again 12 Sept 1611	Elizabeth Holbrook m. Thomas Tylie / Tylye (two index entries a year apart)	Lord: 1611
11 June 1612	"Eadithia" (Edith) Holbrooke buried	Lord: June 1612
12 Sept 1616	Thomas Holbrook m. Jane Powyes	Same
May 1617	Rebecca Holbrook m. Clement Weaver	Lord: 19 May 1617
10 Apr 1618	John, son of Thomas Holbrook, baptised	Lord: c. 1617/18
12 June 1620	William, son of Thomas Holbrook, baptised	Not in Lord
26 Jan 1625 (1625/6)	Bassell Holbroke m. Phillip Wrinkmore	Lord: 27 Jan 1625/26
13 Feb 1630 (probably 1630/1)	Elizabeth, daughter of "Thome" (Thomas) Holbroke, baptised	Lord has a daughter of William the younger baptised 29 June 1629/30 instead

• [Documented] No Glastonbury Holbrooke entries after 1630/1 were found in the index, although a widow Cecily or Sybil Holbrooke was in Chancery over Glastonbury property in 1647-1654 (section 4).
• [Documented] The St John's register begins in 1603. Before that only the bishop's transcripts for 1597-1598 survive (FamilySearch catalog). So William's own baptism and his older children's cannot be in the Glastonbury registers. (Seventh pass: William was in fact born at Norton Malreward about 1551-2, and his older children were probably born at Compton Dando, where he lived about 1578-1598 and where no register or transcript survives before 1602/3. Section 5A.)
• [Inference] Julia (1603), Anna/Agnes (married 1610) and the John buried in 1609 are new to this file:
  • Julia could be a daughter of William who died young. The FamilySearch tree notes suggest it might be a misreading of Basil's baptism. (Seventh pass: Davis gives Bazell's baptism as 25 Mar 1603, the same date, so "Julia" is Basell.)
  • Anna/Agnes could be another daughter of William, or a sister.
  • The 1609 John could be William's father or brother. Nothing in the index says which.
• [Inference] The 1630/1 Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas, may be the "Elizabeth (1)" of the 1635 passenger list, whose ages run low.

Other points

• Wife: probably Edith, buried 11 June 1612. Her maiden name is unknown. The FamilySearch tree notes reject "Saunders" and "Coles" as unsupported. [Inference, seventh pass] The "Edith Saunders" of online trees is probably a mix-up with William's mother, Edith, who was a widow Sanders when she married Thomas Holbrooke of Norton Malreward (section 5A).
• [Compiled] Wolfe Genealogy, citing Dwelly's Parish Records vol. 1, p. 443: a Glastonbury bishop's transcript christening of 20 June 1598 of a "s. of William Holbrooke." Not yet checked. Davis (1945) and the Stone-Gregg genealogy (1987) take this child to be William's son John. The date fits William's arrival at Glastonbury about 1598.
• [Compiled] One online tree gives William's birthplace as Norton Malreward. [Documented] No William Holbrooke appears in the indexed Norton Malreward baptisms, 1554-1601 (section 5). [Documented, seventh pass] That is because he was born about 1551-2, before the register begins; his own deposition of 1617 names Norton Malreward as his birthplace (section 5A).
• [Documented, seventh pass] Davis (1945) adds that William Holbrooke "of Edgerley in Glastonbury" paid a subsidy in 1620. Edgarley is a hamlet in Glastonbury parish. Davis also places the immigrant Thomas's birth "presumably at Eversley in Glastonbury," probably the same hamlet (Pane-Joyce's "Eversley" baptism of 1598/9 may come from the same guess). The 1617 deposition puts William at Compton Dando when Thomas was born about 1589, so that guess no longer fits.

William's children (Lord pp. 6-7)

1. Joan, b. c. 1587. m. (1) 3 June 1605 (index: 8 May 1605) at St John's, Glastonbury, Nicholas Bennett (buried 22 Mar 1606, called "Bennet als Illarie"); m. (2) 14 Jan 1609/10 Randall Gylles.
2. Elizabeth, b. c. 1590. m. 12 Sept 1611 at St John's, Thomas Tylye (Lord p. 4 says "William Tylye"; p. 6 says Thomas). Children from Bartlett's register extracts (Weaver 1928): William bapt. 7 Dec 1614, Edmund bapt. 8 July 1617 (the grandson "Edmund Tyly" of the will), Mary bapt. 23 Apr 1620.
3. Thomas, the immigrant. m. 12 Sept 1616 Jane Powyes.
4. John, b. c. 1595. Emigrated before 1625 (Lord's inference from the will), in Weymouth by 1627, Dorchester 1635.
5. Rebecca, b. c. 1597. m. 19 May 1617 at St John's, Clement Weaver (b. c. 1592). They emigrated, lived next door to Thomas in Weymouth, and were his partners in land dealings. Children (Weaver 1928): Clement (b. before 1625, the grandson of the will), Elner (bapt. 10 Sept 1623 at St Benedict's), Elizabeth (m. Thomas Dungan).
6. William, b. c. 1600. Weaver 1928: daughter Mary bapt. 28 Jan 1629/30. (Lord's "29 June 1629/30" cannot be right as written, since only January to March dates carry a double year.)
7. Basil (Basell). m. 27 Jan 1625/26 (index: 26 Jan) at St John's, Philip Wrinkmore (son of Absalom Wrinkmore). Children: Rebecca bapt. 17 Oct 1626 (Weaver; the index has 1627), William bapt. Oct 1636 (index), Anne bapt. 1640 (Weaver).

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4. Glastonbury Holbrookes in archive catalogues

Found in the National Archives' Discovery catalogue and the Somerset Heritage Centre (SHC) online catalogue. Except where stated, only the catalogue descriptions have been seen, not the documents.

Reference	Date	Description
SDNQ vol. 4, p. 384 (printed transcript)	1574	St John's churchwardens' account for the year to Michaelmas 16 Eliz. (1574), rents received: "vj s. de Redditu Johannis Holbroke pro j cotagio nuper Ricardi Nycolls" (6s. rent from John Holbroke for a cottage formerly Richard Nycolls's). The earliest Glastonbury Holbrooke found so far.
SHC D/D/ct/1/H/137	1625	Will of William Holbrooke the elder of Glastonbury, yeoman (section 3).
SHC DD/BR/su/6	1543-1685	Leases for years and lives, including the manor-house farm of Wike (Shewards Wyke), Grubbswyke and Smallbroke, with land in Woolland, Marksbury and Saltford, involving several families including the "Holbrooke family of Glastonbury" (1577-1685). 11 documents.
TNA C 6/11/238	1647	Perryn v Holbrooke. Plaintiffs Thomas Perryn and others; defendants [unknown] Gutch, Sybil Holbrooke, widow, and others. Property in Backwell and Glastonbury. Bill and answer.
TNA C 10/23/55	1653	Holbrooke v Gutch. Plaintiff Cecily Holbrooke, widow; defendants Samuel Gutch, Richard Ashcombe and John Dorvell. Property in Glastonbury. Bill and answer.
TNA C 10/37/104	1654	Holbrooke v Birch. Plaintiff Cicely Holbrooke, widow; defendants Samuel Birch, Richard Ashcombe and John Darvell. Property in Glastonbury. Answer only.
TNA C 7/167/23	1674	Holbrooke v Hickes. Joseph Holbrooke v Richard Hickes. Property in Backwell.

• [Inference] "Sybil" and "Cecily/Cicely" are probably the same widow; the names were often confused by clerks and cataloguers. "Birch" in 1654 may be a misreading of "Gutch," since the other two defendants are the same men. Her husband is not named. One candidate is the immigrant's brother William the younger (b. c. 1600, executor in 1625), but that is untested.
• [Documented, context] A lease "for lives" normally names the people it runs for, often with their ages, so the SHC leases could name Glastonbury Holbrookes of the 1570s onward.
• [Documented, context] Glastonbury St John's churchwardens' accounts, 1366-1650, survive (SHC; FamilySearch microfilm, image group 8081016, viewable only at a FamilySearch Center or affiliate library). Only selected years are printed in SDNQ vol. 4. The unprinted years could show more Holbrooke tenants.

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5. The north Somerset Holbrookes, 1503-1601 (new)

These are the Holbrooke records found in the Chew valley, Dundry, Norton Malreward, Keynsham, Stanton Prior and Marksbury area, south of Bristol. This is the district where compiled trees put the family in the early 1500s. None of these records names William of Glastonbury, so the link to him is still unproven. How they might bear on him is set out at the end of this section.

Wills (printed abstracts and National Archives catalogue)

Date	Record	Holbrooke content	Source
8 May 1503, proved 26 Oct 1503	Will of Roger Holbroke of Chew (Chew Magna)	To be buried in St Andrew's, Chew. Executors: Agnes his wife, John Storowe, and "Thomas Holbroke my son." The register copy (read 1 Oct 2026) adds legacies to John Chelton [?] of Camerton and John Rugge [?] of Midsomer Norton	Weaver, Somerset Medieval Wills, 2nd series (Somerset Record Society 19, 1903), p. 42; original register copy TNA PROB 11/13/574
1 Mar 1524/5, proved 27 May 1525	Will of John Storowe of Chew	A money bequest "To John Holbroke"	Same volume, p. 237
26 Dec 1532	Will of Thomas Abbot of Chewton [Keynsham]	John Holbroke a witness	Weaver, Wells Wills (1890), p. 54
15 Nov 1542, proved 13 Apr 1543	Will of Sir Thomas West, parson of Chelwood	Witness "Thomas Sholbroke of Norton" (so printed)	Weaver, Somerset Medieval Wills, 3rd series (SRS 21, 1905), p. 72
22 July 1546, proved 15 Mar 1551/2	Will of Nicholas Derell of Marksbury	£10 "in the hands of Thomas Holbroke of Norton Malerward"; a lease "that I hold of Robert Holbroke within the lordship of Staunton Prior"; a yearling "which is with Thomas Holbroke"; 6s. 8d. each to John Holbroke and Johane Holbroke; overseers "Thomas Holbroke of Norton and John Richman of Stanton"	SMW 3rd series, pp. 90-91; TNA PROB 11/35/42 and PROB 11/35/101
9 Mar 1551/2, proved 6 Oct 1552	Will of Alice Derell of Marksbury, widow	"To John Holbroke and Johan Holbroke children of my son-in-law Thomas Holbroke, a cow to each"; overseers Thomas Holbroke and John Aprice. The register copy adds that her daughter was Agnes Saunders, with a daughter Johan Saunders; executors Agnes Saunders and "my cosyn Richard Gage"	SMW 3rd series, pp. 134-135; TNA PROB 11/35/315
1544-1631	Abstracts of 15 Holbrooke wills	See next table	SHC DD/X/HBS/1
2 July 1592, proved 11 Jan 1592/3	Will of John Holbroke of Norton Malreward, bachelor (original)		SHC D/D/ct/1/H/136
4 Feb 1549/50, proved 21 Mar 1549/50	Will of Richard Holbroke, "yoman of the kinges most honorable pryvy chamber"	Of Eltham, Kent, and Westminster; son Frances, mother Margery, brother Sampson, wife Thomasyn. Not Somerset; set aside	TNA PROB 11/33/142
11 Oct 1585, proved 11 Dec 1585	Will of John Holbrooke of Compton Bishop ("Compton Epi[scopi]", not Compton Dando)	House at Cheddar; brothers Thomas and Roger Holbrooke; sister Mrs Fisher; Henry Holbrooke's wife; wife Joan executrix; no children named	TNA PROB 11/68/700
11 Jan 1571/2, proved at Wells 1572	Will of Thomas Holbrooke of Norton Malreward, yeoman (lost; abstracts only)	Sons John the elder (eldest), Thomas, William, John the younger and Robert; daughter Margery; wife Edith; her son Richard Sanders. Leases at Compton Dando: a fee farm to Thomas, a farm with a tenement called Cases and a cottage called Busshes to Robert, and "the park at Compton Dando" to William. Full summary in section 5A	Davis (1945) pp. 125-127, from the abstract in SHC DD/X/HBS/1; also Stone-Gregg (1987)
12 Nov 1592, proved 13 Feb 1592/3	Will of Edith Holbrocke of Compton Dando, widow (original survives)	Sons William, Robert and John (Holbrooke) and Richard and Thomas Sandes; godson William Horsington the younger; son John executor; William and Robert Holbrooke overseers and witnesses. Section 5A	SHC D/D/ct/1/H/135; abstract in Davis (1945)
March 1616/17, proved 3 July 1617	Will of Robert Holbrooke of Queen Charlton, yeoman	Wife Elnor executrix; son Robert; daughters Jone (eldest), Katherine and Milliard; "William Holbroke the sonne of John Holbrooke my brother deceased"; sons John, Robert and Thomas of a John Holbroke; sons Richard and John of a Nicholas Holbroke; James Holbrooke; overseers the vicar of Compton Dando and the minister of Queen Charlton	TNA PROB 11/130/32

• [Documented] From the two Derell wills: by 1546 Thomas Holbroke of Norton Malreward had children John and Johan (Joan), living in 1552, and Alice Derell called him "my sonne in lawe." Nicholas Derell does not call him son-in-law, and in the 1500s the term could also mean stepson, so the exact tie is open. A Robert Holbroke held land in the lordship of Stanton Prior.
• [Inference] John, son of Thomas, married Elen Saunders at Norton Malreward in 1556; Alice Derell's daughter was Agnes Saunders, so Elen was quite possibly Agnes's daughter.
• [Documented] Robert Holbrooke of Queen Charlton (will 1616/17) had a brother John, dead by 1617, whose son William was then living. [Inference] Robert is very probably the Robert, son of Thomas, baptised at Norton Malreward in 1557/8, which would make the dead brother John the son of Thomas who married Elen Saunders. No William appears among that John's baptised children in the index (1558-1581). Full transcriptions in Holbrooke-PCC-Wills-1503-1617.md. (Seventh pass: Thomas's 1571/2 will confirms Robert as his son. Since William of Glastonbury was born about 1551-2, before that John's marriage, Robert's nephew William is now taken to be a different, younger man; section 5A.)

SHC DD/X/HBS/1: "Abstracts of 15 Holbrooke family wills, 1544-1631"

As listed in the SHC catalogue index (two testators are indexed under a second surname, so there are 17 index lines for 15 wills):

Testator	Parish	Described as	Year
John Holbrooke	Stanton Prior		1544
Richard Holbrooke (also indexed as Hodges)	Dundry		1546
John Holbrooke	Chew		1552
Thomas Holbrooke	Dundry		1556
William Holbrooke	Chew Magna	bachelor	1565
John Holbrooke	Sutton Wick (Bishop Sutton, Chew Magna)	husbandman	1568
John Holbrooke	Keynsham	husbandman	1569
Thomas Holbrooke	Norton Malreward	yeoman	1571
Edith Holbrooke	Compton Dundon (an index slip for Compton Dando: the original will, D/D/ct/1/H/135, and Medlycott's Somerset Wills Index both say Compton Dando)	widow	1593 (will 12 Nov 1592, proved 13 Feb 1592/3)
John Holbrooke	Norton Malreward		1593
Richard Holbrooke	Stanton Prior	yeoman	1615
Robert Holbrooke	Queen Charlton	yeoman	1616
William Holbrooke the elder	Glastonbury	yeoman	1625
Elinor Holbrooke (also indexed as Hedges)	Chew Stoke	widow	1627
Arthur Holbrooke	Keynsham		1631

• [Documented, seventh pass] The "Compton Dundon" of the index is Compton Dando, east of Norton Malreward. So every parish in the list except Glastonbury is in north or north-east Somerset, and there was no Holbrooke widow 4 miles from Glastonbury in 1593 after all.
• [Inference] Whoever compiled this file grouped William of Glastonbury with the north Somerset Holbrookes. That shows what the compiler believed or was testing, not proof. The catalogue does not say who compiled it or when. (Seventh pass: Davis, The Ancestry of Joseph Neal (1945), p. 125, says abstracts of fifteen Holbrooke wills were placed in the library of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston. This file is very probably a copy of that set.) Because Somerset probate originals were largely destroyed at Exeter in 1942, abstracts like these may be the only surviving text of some of the wills.
• [Inference] The FamilySearch tree's former "Richard Holbrook I (c. 1480-1546), Dundry" probably derives from the 1546 Dundry will.

Norton Malreward register (FamilySearch index), 1555-1601

Date	Entry
1 Sept 1555	Margerye, daughter of Thomas Holbrook, baptised
28 Nov 1556	John Holbrooke m. Elen Saunders
13 Mar 1558 (probably 1557/8)	Robert, son of Thomas Holbrooke, baptised (Spear's transcript, vol. 26: 14 Mar 1558/9)
4 Apr 1558	Thomas, son of John Holbrooke, baptised
10 Apr 1558	Thomas Holbroke buried
28 July 1558	Elenor Holbrooke buried (Spear: "Elenor wife of John Holbrooke", so probably Elen Saunders, married 1556)
7 June 1560	John, son of John Holbrooke, baptised
13 Oct 1560	Johan, daughter of John Holbrooke, baptised
30 Jan 1562 (probably 1561/2)	John, son of John Holbrok, baptised
23 and 24 June 1563	John Holbroke buried; John, son of Thomas Holbroke, baptised (as indexed)
12 Feb 1565	Thomas, son of John Holbrooke, baptised
7 Dec 1566	Arthur, son of John Holbrooke, baptised
12 Mar 1569	Alex[ander], son of John Holbrooke, baptised (Spear reads "Ales dau. of John," 11 Mar 1569/70)
11 Mar 1571 (1571/2)	"Thomas Holbrok Senior" buried (Spear: "Thomas Holbroke the elder," 11 Mar 1571/2). His will is dated 11 Jan 1571/2 (section 5A), so the burial is March 1571/2
9 Jan 1572	Elenor, daughter of John Holbrook, baptised
4 June 1574	Judithe, daughter of John Holbrok, baptised
27 Mar 1576	Sara, daughter of John Holbroke, baptised
12 Dec 1578	Ursula ("Uorsola"), daughter of John Holbrooke, baptised
15 Jan 1581	Susane, daughter of John Holbrook, baptised
20 July 1592	John Holbroke buried
7 Feb and May 1599	Two Holbrooke women (forenames not indexed) married, to ___ Stevens and to Thomas Wyckham
7 Feb 1599/1600	Edward Boweman of Hardington m. Elena Holbrook, daughter of John Holbrook of Norton (Spear)
10 Nov 1601	Arthur Holbrooke buried
30 June 1608	John Holbrooke buried (Spear; beyond the FamilySearch index range). Possibly Thomas's eldest son John, which would fit "John Holbrooke my brother deceased" in Robert's will of 1616/17

• [Documented] No William Holbrooke is baptised in the indexed Norton Malreward register, 1554-1601. (Seventh pass: William of Glastonbury was born there about 1551-2, before the register begins.)
• [Inference] There seem to be two Thomases: one buried 1558 and "Thomas Senior" buried 1571/2. The will of Thomas of Norton Malreward, yeoman, 1571/2, is the second. John, whose children were baptised 1558-1581, is probably the John named as Thomas's child in the Derell wills, and the "eldest son John" of Thomas's will.
• [Documented] Spear (vol. 26) prints the Holbrooke entries from a search of the Norton Malreward registers for 1554-1640 and from the Compton Dando bishop's transcripts. The readings above marked "Spear" come from it; only snippets of it have been seen so far.

Keynsham (FamilySearch index)

• [Documented] 12 Jan 1595 (possibly 1594/5): Rebecka, daughter of William Holbrooke, baptised at Keynsham. Also at Keynsham: Elizabeth Holbrooke buried 10 Sept 1595; Priscilla Holbrooke buried 25 Apr 1596; John Holbrooke buried 1 Jan 1608; John, son of Arthur Holbrooke, baptised 26 Dec 1609. The indexed Keynsham Holbrooke entries begin in 1595.
• [Inference] William of Glastonbury had a daughter Rebecca, whom Lord places at "about 1597" without a baptism. His children born before 1603 cannot be in the Glastonbury register (section 3). So this Keynsham William is worth testing as the same man, living near Keynsham in the 1590s before moving to Glastonbury. But William is a common name, and this is one baptism. Unproven.

Muster roll and other lists

• [Documented] Certificate of Musters for Somerset, 1569 (SRS 20):
  • Norton Malreward tithing: "Thomas Holbroke, a bow and a sheaf of arrows" (arms he was to supply).
  • Stanton [Prior] tithing: Richard Holbroke, able man.
  • Bishop's Sutton tithing, Chew hundred: Henry Holbrook and John Holbrook, able men.
• [Documented] 1600 (42 Eliz.): a return by the inhabitants of Chew hundred about their tax assessments is signed by, among many others, "Henrie Holbrooke" and "Harie Holbrook" (SDNQ vol. 5, pp. 165-166).
• [Documented] Dundry register (index): John, son of Thomas "Howlbrooke," baptised 9 Dec 1622.

How this bears on William of Glastonbury

• Points toward a north Somerset origin [Inference]:
  • The Glastonbury Holbrookes held leases with land in Marksbury and Saltford, 1577-1685 (section 4). Marksbury was the home of the Derells, whose son-in-law was Thomas Holbroke of Norton Malreward.
  • The Glastonbury widow's Chancery suit of 1647 concerned property in Backwell as well as Glastonbury.
  • A William Holbrooke had a daughter Rebecca baptised at Keynsham in 1594/5.
  • (New) Robert Holbrooke of Queen Charlton's will of 1616/17 names a living William, son of his dead brother John. Queen Charlton lies between Keynsham and Norton Malreward, and Robert's overseer was the vicar of Compton Dando, the parish of the farm in the Glastonbury Holbrookes' leases (DD/BR/su/6).
  • The compiler of DD/X/HBS grouped William with this family.
  • First names overlap: Thomas, John, William, Joan/Johan, Robert, Richard.
• Points against, or neutral:
  • Holbrook was a common north Somerset surname, and there were other Holbrookes nearer Glastonbury (Edith of Compton Dundon, 1593; John of Compton Bishop and Cheddar, 1585, with brothers Thomas and Roger) and farther off (Thornbury, section 6).
  • No record yet names William's father.
• My judgment (revised after the PCC wills): roughly 60-65% that William's family came out of the north Somerset Holbrookes, and perhaps 40% that he was specifically Robert of Queen Charlton's nephew William, son of John. Both are short of your 80% standard. The documents most likely to settle it are the DD/X/HBS abstracts, William's own will, the Marksbury leases (DD/BR/su/6), and the 1647-1654 Chancery bills.
• Superseded in the seventh pass. See section 5A: William was born at Norton Malreward, and was very probably Robert's brother, not his nephew.

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5A. William's birthplace and parents (seventh pass, 1 Oct 2026)

In short. In 1617 William Holbrook of Glastonbury said under oath that he was born at Norton Malreward and had lived at Compton Dando for 20 years before moving to Glastonbury. The will of Thomas Holbrooke of Norton Malreward (1571/2) leaves his son William the lease of the park at Compton Dando. Thomas's widow Edith died at Compton Dando in 1592/3, naming her son William. Taken together, William of Glastonbury was very probably Thomas's son, and Robert of Queen Charlton's brother.

The 1617 deposition

• [Documented, printed abstract] Burton W. Spear, Search for the Passengers of the Mary & John 1630, vol. 26, Holbrook section ("Holbrook, Thomas (a. 1594-1677), John (a. 1595-by 1644) and Rebecca, wife of Clement Weaver"), reporting a search made by Robin Bush, former Deputy Archivist of the Somerset Record Office. On 9 May 1617, in a Wells church-court case about unpaid ("subtracted") tithes, William Holbrook of St John's, Glastonbury, yeoman, gave evidence. As deponents in these books usually did, he gave his residence history and age:
  • at Glastonbury for the last 19 years (so since about 1598);
  • before that at Compton Dando for 20 years (about 1578-1598);
  • before that at "Norton Mareward," where he was born;
  • aged 65, so born about 1551-2.
• Spear notes that William was the father of the three Holbrook emigrants (Thomas, John and Rebecca), and that his years at Compton Dando would explain why Thomas's and John's baptisms have never been found.
• Reference. Spear prints the reference as Somerset Record Office "D/D/Cd 42 50". In today's Somerset Heritage Centre catalogue, D/D/cd/42 is a deposition book of 1610 ("broken sections, not fit for detailed examination"), and D/D/cd/50 covers 1616-1618 ("broken sections," fragile). A deposition of May 1617 should be in D/D/cd/50, perhaps at folio or page 42 [I]. Both books are fragile, so the archive may not be able to copy them.
• How far to trust it. It is a secondary abstract, but by a county archivist reading the original, and its details are specific (three places, two spans of years, an age). Its dates also fit independent records [I]:
  • the Compton Dando leases involving the "Holbrooke family of Glastonbury" begin in 1577 (SHC DD/BR/su/6), when William would have moved there;
  • a Glastonbury bishop's transcript has a baptism of a son of William Holbrooke on 20 June 1598 (Dwelly), as he arrived;
  • he was overseer of a Glastonbury will in 1602/3, and the St John's register shows his family from 1603.
• What it changes [I]:
  • William was born about 1551-2, not about 1560-1562 (Weaver, Lord, the FamilySearch tree).
  • The immigrant Thomas (born about 1589) and probably Joan, Elizabeth, John and Rebecca were born at Compton Dando, where no register or bishop's transcript survives before 1602/3 (Spear lists the Compton Dando transcripts as 1602/3 and scattered years to 1639/40).
  • The Keynsham baptism of Rebecka, daughter of a William Holbrooke, 12 Jan 1594/5, falls in William's Compton Dando years. Compton Dando lies a few miles south of Keynsham, and William had a daughter Rebecca (Spear: "a. 1597"). It may be her, but that is unproven.
  • Lord's Thornbury parents (married 1560) are ruled out.

Thomas Holbrooke of Norton Malreward, yeoman: will, 11 Jan 1571/2

The original is lost. The text is known from an abstract in SHC DD/X/HBS/1, printed (in English summary) by Davis (1945), pp. 125-127, and repeated by the Stone-Gregg genealogy (1987) and Knoff (1989). The points below are paraphrased from those printed abstracts.

• [Documented, printed abstract] Dated 11 Jan 1571 (that is, 1571/2); proved at Wells. He was buried at Norton Malreward as "Thomas Holbroke the elder" on 11 Mar 1571/2. (Davis prints the will in full summary on pp. 125-126; Dasloops supplied page images on 1 Oct 2026.)
• 6d. to Wells cathedral; a bushel of wheat and a bushel of barley to the church of Stanton Drew; a sheep to the church of Norton. A lamb each to his godchildren James and Jone Holbrooke, 12d. to each of "the rest of his sons' children," and a lamb to his godson Thomas Clement, son of John Clement.
• Money: £5 and a colt to his son Thomas; £5 each to his son William and his son John the younger; £5 to "his wife's son," Richard Sanders; £10 to his daughter Margery.
• Compton Dando leases:
  • to son Thomas and the heirs of his body, his interest in a lease of a fee farm ("fea farm") in Compton Dando, with remainders in turn to his sons John the younger, William and Robert;
  • to son Robert, the lease of a farm at Compton Dando with a tenement called Cases and a cottage called Busshes, and a wain and four oxen;
  • to son William, the lease of "the park" at Compton Dando.
• His widow Edith was to have the use of Robert's farm and of William's park for her widowhood, paying each of them 12s. a year. No trees were to be felled or sold in the park. If Robert or William died without heirs, the farm or park went to John the younger.
• To his son Thomas, a horse to be kept on the farm or park at Compton Dando winter and summer for his life. To his eldest son John, yokes, ropes and gear for his oxen.
• Residue to his wife Edith, executrix. Overseers: Robert Aprice of Weston, John Bushe of Butcombe, John Flower of Phillips Norton (Norton St Philip), and his eldest son John. Witnesses: Thomas Dale of Dundry, John White of Norton Malreward, and Richard Holbrooke of Stanton Prior.
• Sons named: John the elder (eldest), Thomas, William, John the younger, Robert. Daughter: Margery. Stepson: Richard Sanders.
• Davis concludes from this will and Edith's that Thomas was born about 1500 and married at least twice, "his two oldest sons and probably his daughter Margery" being children of an earlier wife than Edith, who was a widow Sanders when she married him. (Davis does not mention Margery's baptism at Norton Malreward in 1555; if she was the first wife's child, Edith married Thomas after 1555 and could not be William's mother. Edith's will may simply leave Margery out because she was married or dead. Davis calls John the elder and Thomas Robert's half-brothers.) Stone-Gregg: "first wife is unknown."
• Davis opens the chapter with a caution: the pedigree is certain only back to the emigrant's father, and the two earlier generations are given as "sufficiently probable" but "not fully proved."
• [Inference] The first wife may have been a Derell: Alice Derell of Marksbury (1551/2) called Thomas her son-in-law and left cows to his children John and Johan, and Nicholas Derell (1546) left them small sums. The Saunders name runs through the same circle (Alice's daughter Agnes Saunders; Edith, widow Sanders; Elen Saunders, who married Thomas's son John in 1556). How they were related is not known.

Edith Holbrooke of Compton Dando, widow: will, 12 Nov 1592

• [Documented] The original survives: SHC D/D/ct/1/H/135, "Will of Edith Holbrocke of Compton Dando, widow, 12 Nov 1592. Proved: 13 Feb 1592/3." Not yet seen by us.
• [Documented, printed abstract] Davis (1945), p. 126, paraphrased: dated 12 November in the 34th year of Elizabeth (1592), proved 1593. 5s. to the poor of Compton; a peck of rye each to Margerie Smith, Thomas Taylor, Nicholas Gibbons, Thomas Barrott, John Parsons, Nicholas Lansdowne, John Dagge, Isabel Shippe and Isabel Butt. A feather bed and furnishings to her son William; a bed to her son Robert; 10s. to her cousin and godson William Horsington the younger; the residue to her son John, including debts owed to her by her sons Richard and Thomas Sandes and by Thomas Harrol. Executor her son John; overseers William and Robert Holbrooke. Witnesses: William Holbrooke, Robert Holbrooke, William Horsington, William Holden, John Vowles.
• [Compiled] Davis (p. 126) lists Thomas's children as: i. John the elder, overseer of his father's will; ii. Thomas; iii. Margery, "possibly the Margery Smith mentioned in her step-mother's will"; and "by wife Edith": iv. John the younger; v. William; vi. Robert. So Davis himself put a son William among Edith's children. He then made William of Glastonbury a different man, a grandson.
• [Inference] So Edith had Holbrooke sons John (the younger), William and Robert, and Sandes (Sanders) sons Richard and Thomas from her first marriage. In November 1592, when a William Holbrooke witnessed her will at Compton Dando, William of Glastonbury was living at Compton Dando (deposition).

Putting it together

Point	Evidence	Tier
William of Glastonbury was born at Norton Malreward about 1551-2 and lived at Compton Dando about 1578-1598	1617 deposition (Spear's abstract)	Documented, secondary abstract
Thomas Holbrooke of Norton Malreward had a son William, to whom he left the lease of the park at Compton Dando (1571/2)	Thomas's will (abstracts)	Documented, printed abstract
Edith of Compton Dando, Thomas's widow, had a son William; a William Holbrooke was her overseer and witness at Compton Dando in 1592	Edith's will (abstract; original survives)	Documented, printed abstract
These Williams are one man	Same birthplace, same generation, same Compton Dando holding and years; no other William Holbrooke born at Norton Malreward about 1551 is known	Inference
Thomas's sons are unlikely to be William's father	His eldest son John received small grandchild's legacies in the Derell wills of 1546-1552, married in 1556, and had children baptised from 1558; he would have been about 20 or younger in 1551. John the younger and Robert were younger still	Inference

• [Inference] Robert of Queen Charlton was then William's brother (probably full brother, both being Edith's sons). Robert held the Compton Dando farm from 1571/2, had his daughter Melior baptised at Compton Dando in 1605, and was at Queen Charlton by 1609.
• [Inference] The "William Holbroke the sonne of John Holbrooke my brother deceased" in Robert's will of 1616/17 is a different, younger man: a nephew, son of John the elder (perhaps the John buried at Norton Malreward on 30 June 1608) or of John the younger. A ewe and a lamb suits a young man better than a 65-year-old yeoman. Why Robert's will does not mention his brother William is unknown; wills often leave out adult brothers who had been provided for.
• [Compiled] Davis (1945), writing before the deposition was known, made William of Glastonbury the son of John the younger, with a question mark ("William3 Holbrooke (?John2, Thomas1)"), and said it was "possible, though not proven." Stone-Gregg (1987) and Knoff (1989) follow him. With William born about 1551-2, that reading no longer fits. John the younger was younger than John the elder, who married only in 1556, so he could hardly have had a son by 1551. Davis himself guessed John the younger's birth at about 1540.
• [Inference] Whether Edith was William's own mother or his stepmother: her will calls him "son," and in the 1500s "son" could also mean stepson. Her known Holbrooke children were born in the 1550s (Robert 1557/8, and perhaps Margery 1555), and William, born 1551-2, fits as her eldest Holbrooke son. Davis also lists William among Edith's children. Against: Davis thought Margery (perhaps the 1555 baptism) was the first wife's child; if so, Edith married Thomas after 1555 and would be William's stepmother. Edith's will leaves out the first wife's sons, John the elder and Thomas, but names William, which fits a son better than a stepson. About 75%.

What Davis's chapter says (pp. 125-131, from Dasloops's HathiTrust page images)

Davis's book is in the public domain (HathiTrust: "Public Domain, Google-digitized"), so his wording is quoted where it matters.

• Opening (p. 125): Holbrook families lived "in a group of neighboring parishes a few miles west of Bath and south of Bristol," one of which "sent an off-shoot to the town of Glastonbury." Nineteen Somerset Holbrookes made wills "between 1457 and 1631," recorded in the PCC or at Wells. The pedigree is certain only back to the emigrant's father; the two earlier generations are "sufficiently probable" but "not fully proved." (A will as early as 1457 is new to us; the earliest we have is Roger of Chew, 1503.)
• Robert of Queen Charlton (p. 127): will "March 15, 1616," proved July 3, 1617; £100 to "his eldest daughter Jone," £20 each to "his daughter Catherine" and "his daughter Milliard"; a ewe and a lamb to "William Holbrooke, son of his brother John Holbrooke"; a sheep apiece to John, Robert and Thomas, sons of John Holbrooke, and to Richard and John, sons of Nicholas Holbrooke; a sheep to James Holbrooke; residue to his wife Elinor, executrix; overseers Richard Davies and John Nicholls; witnesses John Nicholls and Robert Holbrooke. Davis's footnote: Nicholas "may have been a son of John Holbrooke the elder or Thomas Holbrook, the testator's half-brothers," and James is the grandson named in Thomas's will of 1571.
• Davis's own scheme (p. 127), now overtaken by the 1617 deposition:
  • "2. John Holbrooke, the younger, (Thomas1) was probably born at Norton Malreward... about 1540," was named in his father's will (1571) and his mother's (1592), "and was possibly the brother John, with a son William," of Robert's will. Davis thought it possible, though not proven, that this John lived in Glastonbury, had a wife Edith buried there 11 June 1612, and had children William, John, Robert and Thomas (the four nephews of Robert's will), Joan (m. Nicholas Bennett, 1605) and Agnes (m. John Knotley, 1610).
  • "3. William Holbrooke (?John, Thomas1) of Glastonbury... was born about 1565 and was possibly the William, son of John Holbrooke, who was a legatee of Robert Holbrooke of Queen Charlton in 1616. With him the pedigree ceases to be subject to doubt."
  • [Inference] The deposition puts William's birth about 1551-2, about thirteen years earlier than Davis guessed, and before John the younger could have fathered him. So Davis's chain no longer works for William. His idea that the Edith buried in 1612 was John's wife, not William's, is still open (section 14).
• William's will (p. 128), dated 11 Dec 1625 and proved at Wells: to his son Thomas his two kyne (cows) in place of £7 10s. he owed him; his bay mare to be sold, with 4 marks of the money to his daughter Basill, which he owed her, and the rest to Thomas if the kyne were short of £7 10s.; 10s. to each of his children, "men as well as women"; to his son John his ground at the Moor, or, if John was dead, to the three grandchildren Thomas Holbrooke the younger, Edmund Eyly and Clement Weaver the younger; residue to his son William the younger, executor. Thomas Eyly, Clement Weaver the elder (son-in-law) and Thomas Holbrooke the elder (son) were to hold the ground at the Moor and the conveyance for John or the grandchildren. Overseers: Thomas Holbrooke, Clement Weaver the elder, Thomas Eyly.
• William's children (Davis, p. 128, "order uncertain"): William (executor; "of 'Edgersly' in Glastonbury" in the subsidy of 4 Charles I, 1628-1629); Thomas; Elizabeth (m. 1611 Thomas Tylye, "called Eyly in her father's will"); John, possibly the son of William baptised at St John's, 20 June 1598; Rebecca (m. 1617 Clement Weaver); and "Bazell (a daughter), bapt. at St. John's, Glastonbury, March 25, 1603; living in 1625." William the elder himself was "of Edgerley in Glastonbury" in a subsidy of 1620.
• Thomas the immigrant (pp. 128-129): his deposition of 2 Nov 1666, "an old man of seventy-seven," says he came with Mr. Hull's company, which landed at Dorchester on 7 June 1635, and went on to Weymouth after about a fortnight (Suffolk Court Files, no. 815). Freeman May 1645; selectman of Weymouth 1645, 1646, 1651, 1652 and 1654; an original Rehoboth grantee who forfeited in January 1645; granted ten and thirty acres in the Weymouth divisions, 14 Dec 1663. He "died shortly before March 10, 1676/7," when his inventory calls him lately deceased; Davis gives the widow Jane's death as 24 Apr 1677, the same date he gives for the probate of Thomas's will (31 Dec 1668), so one of the two may be a slip. Also "born about 1589, presumably at Eversley in Glastonbury"; lived in Glastonbury until some time after February 1630/1, then at Broadway; Hull's company was gathered "from the country-side about Crewkerne." Davis notes that in 1635 John was really about seventeen and another son, William, about eleven, and suggests the clerk joined one boy's name to the other's age.

Assessment against the 80-85% standard

• William born at Norton Malreward, into the north Somerset family: about 95%. Rests on the deposition abstract, which fits every independent date.
• William a son of Thomas Holbrooke of Norton Malreward (d. 1571/2): about 85% (raised to 85-90% in section 5B, after the 1593 Horsington accounts showed a William Hollbrooke acting at Compton Dando). This meets the standard. It would reach the high 90s if Edith's original will (D/D/ct/1/H/135) or a Compton Dando lease (DD/BR/su/6) ties her son William, or the lessee of the park, to Glastonbury or to William's children.
• Edith (widow Sanders) as William's mother: about 75%. Davis lists William among her children; the doubt is Davis's guess that Margery (bapt. 1555) was the first wife's daughter.
• Thomas's own parents: unknown. Davis puts Thomas's birth about 1500. Roger Holbroke of Chew (will 1503) had an adult son Thomas, his executor, born by about 1482. That Thomas fits the Thomas buried at Norton Malreward on 10 Apr 1558 better than the testator of 1571/2, who was fathering children in the late 1550s. So the testator may be Roger's grandson rather than his son [I, unproven; well below 50% for any specific link].

Others of the family now placed (seventh pass)

• Robert's household. Melior, daughter of Robert, bapt. Compton Dando 4 Oct 1605 (FamilySearch index; Spear). Robert, son of Robarte Holbrocke, bapt. Queen Charlton 4 Nov 1609. Robert Holbrooke bur. Queen Charlton 27 Mar 1616 (FamilySearch index). His will is dated 15 March 1616 (Davis) or [16?] March 1616 (our reading), that is 1616/17, and was proved 3 July 1617, so the burial is probably 27 Mar 1617 with the year misindexed. Rachell Holbrooke bur. Queen Charlton 9 July 1619. John, son of Robert (Robert junior), bapt. Queen Charlton 27 May 1632. [D index; I for the dating]
• Davis's reading of Robert's will. Davis took "Milliard" to be the married name of a daughter. The register copy reads "my daughter Milliard," and the Compton Dando baptism shows she was Melior.
• Nicholas Holbrooke of Compton Dando. Richard, son of Nicholas, bapt. Compton Dando 1 Nov 1606; Nicholas Holbrooke bur. Compton Dando 2 May 1639; Joane Holbrooke bur. there 7 May 1639 (FamilySearch index). These are the "Richard and John the sonnes of Nicholas" of Robert's will. Davis suggests Nicholas was a son of John the elder [C].
• Before William: Holbrookes already in Glastonbury. John Holbroke rented a St John's church cottage in 1574, and a John Holbrook was buried there in 1609, both before or around William's arrival about 1598. Their relationship to William is unknown.

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5B. Compton Dando deeds, the Horsingtons, and the generations above Thomas (eighth pass, 1 Oct 2026)

Searched: the Bristol Archives catalogue (Smyth of Ashton Court papers, which include the Hungerford deeds for Compton Dando), the Somerset Heritage Centre catalogue (executors' accounts, court rolls), The National Archives' Discovery catalogue (wills, Chancery), and printed sources on archive.org (Somerset Medieval Wills, Records of the Heal Family, Kirby's Quest). A separate check covered the NEHGS library in Boston, the Holbrook Y-DNA project, and the Suffolk de Holebrok family.

New records for Thomas, Edith and William at Compton Dando (catalogue descriptions only; documents not yet seen)

Reference	Date	Catalogue description
Bristol Archives AC/D/26/5	7 Sep 1562	Bond for £20: (1) John Hungerford, (2) Thomas Holbrook
Bristol Archives AC/D/26/8	30 Apr 1565	Lease for lives of property in Compton Dando: (1) John Hungerford and Anne his wife, (2) "Edyth Holbrooke, and Robert and John her sons"
Bristol Archives AC/D/26/9	18 Oct 1576	Lease for lives: (1) Thomas Holbrooke of Compton Dando, (2) Nicholas Gibbons of Compton Dando, Jane his wife, and Thomas Gibbons his son
Bristol Archives AC/D/26/10	14 Oct 1577	Counterpart lease for lives: (1) Thomas Holbrooke of Compton Dando, (2) John Baker of Compton Dando, Agnes his wife, and Thomas their son
Bristol Archives AC/M/6	1568 (dated "29 Apr. 30 Eliz. I", which would be 1588; the catalogue's 1568 fits "10 Eliz.")	Survey of the lands and tenements Matthew Smyth bought of Thomas Hungerford in the manor of Compton Dando. 3 sheets; the bottom of two torn away
Bristol Archives AC/M/11/13	1595-1607	Survey book including the manor of Compton Dando
SHC D/D/cta/H/37	23 Mar 1592/3	Executorship accounts for William Horsington the elder, of Compton Dando. Administrators "Thomas Horsington and William Hollbrooke, 'overseers' of the deceased's will and also administrators for his son [deceased?] who was named executor." Expenses include "letters of tutorship for William the Younger." Estate £63 4s 8d. 2 pages
Bristol Archives AC/D/17/4/6-7	1581	Fine on Norton Hawkfield farm and manor (in Norton Malreward parish): James Bysse of Butcombe and Elinor his wife to Robert Chambers and John Holbroke of Norton Malreward

What these add:

• [Documented, catalogue] Edith was Thomas's wife by 1565 and took a Compton Dando lease for her own life and the lives of "Robert and John her sons." So Robert (of Queen Charlton) and John the younger were her sons. William is not in this lease; his father's will gave him a separate holding, the park.
• [Documented, catalogue] The Thomas Holbrooke "of Compton Dando" who granted sub-leases in 1576-1577 is very probably Thomas's son Thomas, who inherited the Compton Dando fee farm in 1571/2.
• [Documented, catalogue] In March 1592/3 a William Hollbrooke was overseer and administrator of the will of William Horsington the elder of Compton Dando. This is an independent record of a William Holbrooke acting at Compton Dando in the years when, by his own deposition, William of Glastonbury lived there (about 1578-1598). The Horsington boy whose guardianship was paid for is the "cousin and godson William Horsington the younger" of Edith's will, made four months earlier.
• [Inference] These records make the Compton Dando family, and William's place in it, firmer. I would now put Thomas > William at about 85-90%.

Edith's maiden name and first husband: leads, not answers

No record names her parents. Two leads, both unproven:

• The Horsingtons. Edith called William Horsington the younger her "cousin and godson" (in the 1500s "cousin" covered nephews, nieces and other kin). The Horsingtons were yeomen of Corston and Compton Dando:
  • John Horsington of Corston, will 1 Oct 1536 (PCC, TNA PROB 11/25/610; printed abstract in Somerset Medieval Wills 3rd series, SRS 21, p. 31): wife Agnes; sons Richard (the mills at Pensford, a tanhouse and two dovecotes), Giles, William and Thomas; brother Walter; a silver cup and half a dozen silver spoons to "every one of my own children."
  • Richard Horsington was farmer of Corston in 1565, with the sheep houses of Lansdown, Corston, "Briston" and Compton Dando (TNA REQ 2/263/8).
  • William Horsington the elder of Compton Dando died 1592/3 (SHC D/D/cta/H/37, above). Thomas Horsington, yeoman of Corston, left a will in 1612 (PROB 11/119/416).
  • Bath Record Office holds a typescript, "The Horsingtons of Corston, Pucklechurch, 1510-1673" (Acc/269/6).
  • [Inference] Edith may have been born a Horsington, perhaps a daughter of John of Corston (d. 1536), whose printed will abstract does not list his daughters. The full register copy of his will, and the Bath typescript, could test this.
  • [Documented] The register copy, read 10 October 2026 (Jordan's download; Will of John Horsington of Corston, 1536). It names no daughters either: it has his wife Agnes, sons Richard, Giles, "maister" Thomas and William, and his brother Walter, and leaves silver to "every one of myn owne children" without naming them. So the will neither supports nor rules out a daughter Edith. The Bath typescript (Acc/269/6) is now the better test.
• The Saunders of Chew Stoke. Edith's first husband was a Sanders (Sandes), father of Richard and Thomas Sandes. A candidate is Thomas Saunders, son of William Saunders of Chew Stoke:
  • William's will of 15 Dec 1539 (PCC, PROB 11/28/50; SMW 3rd series, p. 56) names his wife Margery, his son William "dwelling at Prydie" (Priddy; William died 1540, PROB 11/28/187), and his son Thomas, co-executor, who was to have the house William lived in.
  • Nothing yet connects this Thomas Saunders to Edith. Alice Derell's daughter Agnes Saunders (1552) and Elen Saunders (m. John Holbrooke 1556) show the Saunders name in the same circle.

Roger of Chew and the generations above Thomas

• [Documented] In 1463, at the bishop's manor court of Chew, "Roger Holbroke and John Holbroke" were sworn as sureties for Alice, widow of Thomas Attehele (SHC DD/CC/B/131911a/8, a bishopric court roll of 1463; printed in Ambrose Heal, Records of the Heal Family, 1932, p. xxvii). So Roger of Chew was an adult by 1463 and died about forty years later (will May 1503).
• [Documented] Heal also prints the will of John Holbrook of Sutton Wick in Chew Magna, 3 Sep 1568, proved at Wells 13 June 1569: sons Henry, John, Thomas and Roger; wife Joan executrix; overseers William At Heale and John Purnell the elder. This is the "John of Sutton Wick, husbandman, 1568" of the SHC abstracts, and it shows the name Roger continuing in the Chew branch.
• [Inference] The likeliest shape, not proven:
  • Roger of Chew (adult by 1463, d. 1503).
  • His son Thomas, adult by 1503 (so born by about 1482); possibly the Thomas buried at Norton Malreward on 10 Apr 1558, and the "Thomas Sholbroke of Norton" who witnessed a will in 1542.
  • Thomas "the elder" of Norton Malreward (born about 1500-1510, buried 1571/2), our Thomas.
  • On this reading, Roger is Thomas's grandfather, not his father. The dates make Roger's son the testator of 1571/2 unlikely: he would have been about 75 when Robert was born in 1557/8.
• [Inference] The "alias Hedges" thread. Two records carry the same double name at Chew Stoke:
  • TNA C 1/833/14 (1533-1538), Ive v Holbroke: Richard, grandson and heir of Ralph Ive of Sodbury, Gloucestershire, against "Elizabeth Holbroke alias Hedge and Thomas, her son," over pasture in Chew Stoke.
  • Elinor Holbrooke alias Hedges, widow, of Chew Stoke, whose will (1627) is abstracted in SHC DD/X/HBS/1. Robert of Queen Charlton's widow was named Elnor (1617), and earlier passes took her to be this Elinor.
  • Aliases like this usually ran down a family, often from a mother's remarriage or a holding. If Robert's widow carried the alias, Robert's family probably descended from Elizabeth Holbroke alias Hedge. In that case Elizabeth's son Thomas, an adult in the 1530s, could be Thomas of Norton Malreward, and Elizabeth's late Holbroke husband his father.
  • One possible shape: Roger (d. 1503) > Thomas, his executor (who died before the 1530s, leaving a widow Elizabeth, who then married a Hedge) > Thomas of Norton Malreward. This is a hypothesis.
  • Two documents would test it. The Chancery bill, which normally recites how the land came to the defendants and would probably name Elizabeth's husband. And the abstract of Elinor's 1627 will, which would show whether she was Robert's widow.
  • Also noted: REQ 2/48/43 (1558-1603), Stibbin v Holbrooke, against Thomas Holbrooke, land in the manor of Chew; and the will of William Hedges, baker of Chew, 1625 (PROB 11/146/30).
• [Inference] Why this is hard to prove. Davis had abstracts of every Somerset Holbrooke will from 1457 to 1631, including Roger's, and still did not connect Thomas to Roger; he called the Norton Malreward generations "sufficiently probable" but "not fully proved." So the will abstracts probably do not contain the link. What could:
  • Davis's own typescript notes at NEHGS (below), which may say how far he got.
  • The SHC abstracts of the Dundry wills of Richard Holbrooke alias Hodges (1546) and Thomas Holbrooke (1556), John of Chew (1552) and John of Stanton Prior (1544), which have never been read by us.
  • Manorial court rolls recording a death, heriot and the heir admitted. For the bishop's manor of Chew, the surviving rolls at SHC run from 1553 (DD/S/WH/215); earlier ones are scattered (1463 above; Lambeth Palace and others). Searching them is slow Latin work, better left to a professional record agent if ever attempted.

The 1457 will

• [Documented, catalogue] TNA PROB 11/4/176 (downloaded 9 October 2026 in place of PROB 11/25/610, the Horsington will): will of Richard Holbroke, merchant of Bristol, proved 27 July 1457. A PCC register will, downloadable free with a National Archives account. This is very probably the 1457 will Davis counted among his nineteen Somerset Holbrooke wills.
• [Documented] Read from the image (Jordan's download, 9 October 2026; Will of Richard Holbroke, merchant and burgess of Bristol, 1457, read in part). The will is dated 13 July 1457: "Ego Ricardus Holbroke mercator ac burgensis ville Bristollie." He asks to be buried in St Stephen's, Bristol, in St Katherine's chapel, and leaves 12d. to Worcester cathedral. He names his son and heir Richard, and leaves the residue to his wife, Margaret [?], his executrix. That fits the Margaret Holbroke of the Bristol trade above [I]. St Stephen's is in the city north of the Avon, which was then in Worcester diocese, not Bath and Wells. So, as far as it has been read, the will names no parish, kin or property south of Bristol, and nothing in it connects him to Roger of Chew.
• [Documented] A Margaret Holbroke shipped wine, rosin and other goods through Bristol in the later 1400s (The Overseas Trade of Bristol in the Later Middle Ages, Bristol Record Society vol. 7, pp. 210-212). She may have been Richard's widow carrying on his trade [I].
• [Inference] Bristol's Redcliffe and Temple parishes lay in Somerset and the diocese of Bath and Wells, which may be why Davis counted a Bristol merchant as a Somerset Holbrooke. The will may name a parish, kin or property south of Bristol; Chew and Norton Malreward are only six to eight miles away. Nothing yet connects Richard to Roger of Chew.

The Suffolk knights (summary of the separate check)

• [Documented] The de Holebrok lords of Holbrook, Suffolk, run from William (temp. Henry III) through Richard, the king's steward (d. 1290), several Johns, and Sir Thomas (d. 1360), to John Holbrook, who died in 1376 leaving daughters. Margery married John Fastolf, and the manor passed out of the name. The inquisitions post mortem of 1309 and 1316 list Suffolk lands only. A collateral line was settled on William de Holebroke and Amicia at Little Wenham in 1336. (Copinger, Manors of Suffolk, vols 3 and 6; Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem vols 5-6; William Worcestre's Itineraries notes Margery Fastolf's death in 1387.)
• [Documented] The surname was already scattered across Somerset by 1327. The lay subsidy of that year (Kirby's Quest, SRS 3) taxes three people of the name:
  • Henry Holebroc (8d.), in a Bath-area list just after Freshford;
  • Isota Holebrok (6d.), near Cannington;
  • Nicholas Holebrok (2s.), at South Petherton.
• [Documented] No Holebrok is taxed at Norton Malreward or Chew in 1327. The family appears at Chew by 1463.
• [Documented] The Somerset place Holbrook (a hamlet of Wincanton in 1316, later in Charlton Musgrove and Bratton Seymour) was held by the Huse family and later the Farewells. No landholding "de Holebrok" family is recorded there.
• [Inference] Nothing documents a link between the Suffolk knights and the Somerset Holbrookes. The surname was present in several Somerset places while the Suffolk male line was still alive, which fits a separate, local origin better than a migration. A documentary link is very unlikely ever to turn up, and with the Suffolk main line ending in heiresses in 1376 there is no male-line descendant to compare by Y-DNA.
• [Documented] Y-DNA. The FamilyTreeDNA Holbrook project's group for Thomas of Weymouth's descendants ("J.00, J-M304", terminal SNP J-FTD548) has two Big Y testers, probably second cousins. They match each other but no other Holbrooks, and their STR matches are mostly Freemans. The project administrator's write-up (26 July 2025) asks whether another lineage may have entered that line and calls for more distant cousins to test. The English-origin Holbrook testers in the project belong to a separate T-M70 group. (https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/holbrook/about/results)
  • [Inference] A Y-DNA test by a male-line Holbrook descended from Richard Blackmer Holbrook would add a third, independent line from Thomas of Weymouth. It would show whether J-FTD548 is really Thomas's signature.

Other leads from this pass

• TNA C 1/1444/24-26 (1556-1558), Jekett v Holbroke: Bartholomew Jekett and Rychard, widow of Nicholas Barnehouse alias Marwood, against John Holbroke, executor of Richard Gage, who was an executor of Nicholas Derell, over a lease of the rectory of Holberton, Devon, entrusted to Derell. Nicholas Barnhouse witnessed Alice Derell's will, and Richard Gage was her "cosyn" and executor. So by about 1556 a John Holbroke, very probably Thomas's eldest son, was executor to the Derells' kinsman. The pleadings might state how he was related. Not digitised.
• NEHGS, Boston (catalogue checks, 1 Oct 2026):
  • Knoff (1989) cites a Davis typescript, Holbrook Records, England 1544-1698, New England 1697-1707, 21 unnumbered pages with a chart, call number G HOL 604. It does not show in the current online catalogue; NEHGS says only about 70% of its manuscripts are catalogued.
  • Mss C 1374, "Four Holbrook family wills, 1503-1635, co. Somerset" (4 leaves, photocopied typescript extracts from PCC wills).
  • George O. Caleff, The Holbrook Family, 1560-1800 (1935), in the Vault ("in cataloging"). This is probably the "Caleff manuscript" Lord cited for his English claims.
• Anderson, Great Migration 1634-1635, vol. III, pp. 350-355 gives Thomas's origin as Broadway, calls Davis (1945) "the best account," and does not use the 1617 deposition. Zubrinsky (2026) follows Davis.

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6. Above William: the unproven generations

Seventh pass: William's father is now very probably Thomas Holbrooke of Norton Malreward (section 5A). The older candidates below are kept for the record. Lord's Thornbury couple is ruled out by William's birth about 1551-2; the old FamilySearch chain "Thomas I (1510-1599), Thomas II (1529-1572)" is a garbled version of the two Norton Malreward Thomases buried in 1558 and 1571/2.

Lord's candidates: Thomas Holbrook and Constans Thayer, Thornbury, 1560

• [Compiled] Lord pp. 5-6: "probable" parents Thomas Holbrook and Constans Thayer, married at Thornbury, Gloucestershire, 19 Feb 1560. His reasons: Thornbury is "only a few miles north of Glastonbury"; William named his first son Thomas; "many other circumstances."
  • [Inference] Thornbury lies north of Bristol, roughly 35 miles from Glastonbury by my estimate, not a few miles.
• [Documented] FamilySearch "England Marriages, 1538-1973" and "England, Births and Christenings" indexes for Thornbury, Gloucestershire:

Date	Entry
19 Feb 1560	Thomas Holdbrooke m. Constance Tawier
21 Jan 1562	Thomas Holbrooke m. Edith Marten
16 Feb 1565	John Patch m. Elena Holdbrooke
28 Aug 1569	Thomas Holbrooke m. Margery Morton
1578	John Howlebroke christened; a Howlebroke m. Suzan Barton
21 Nov 1583	William Taborar m. Jone Holebrooke
8 Oct 1585	John Holebrooke m. Agnes Hixs
28 Oct 1594	Thomas Holdbrooke m. Jone Gowgh
1 Apr 1611	John Holbrocke m. Sisley Wilcoks
7 June 1613	William Williams m. Alice Holbrocke
Jan 1614	Sissly Halbrok christened
9 Aug 1636	James Horsete m. Sissle Holebrooke

• [Inference] Thornbury had a resident Holbrooke family for at least 75 years. The 1560 couple are more naturally Thornbury people than Glastonbury ones, and nothing found links them to William. The bride's surname is indexed as "Tawier," not Thayer.
• [Compiled] The FamilySearch shared tree (William Holbrook, ID MXNJ-XJP, as of September 2026) has no parents attached. Its collaborators' notes say there are "NO credible sources" for Thomas and Constance as his parents, and that the Thornbury Thomas belonged to "a different Holbrooke family."

Other compiled claims

• [Compiled] Earlier versions of the FamilySearch tree had Richard Holbrook I (c. 1480-1546, Glastonbury/Dundry), Thomas I (1510-1599), Thomas II (1529-1572), then William. [Inference] The dates match the 1546 Dundry will and the Norton Malreward burials of 1558 and 1571 (section 5). But no record found joins those men to William.
• [Compiled] Dictionary of American Family Names: the Thomas and John line "can be traced back to Dundry, Somerset, England, in the first half of the 16th century." [Inference] Probably based on the same Dundry wills (1546, 1556).
• [Documented, context] A Holbrook chest tomb stands in St Michael's churchyard, Dundry; earliest legible date "Thos. Holbrook, 1784."
• [Compiled] Lord p. 4: in 1379 a William Holbrook made William Tylye "of Glastonbury Abbey" his heir. Holbrook-Tylye marriages recur in the 1500s and 1600s. Source not identified.
• [Compiled, no sources] Online trees (McCurdy lineage site) bridge Suffolk to Glastonbury with William de Holebrok (b. c. 1380), John de Holbrook (b. c. 1410, Suffolk) and Thomas Holbrook (b. c. 1440, Glastonbury, "church warden"). None carry a citation.

The Glastonbury "Colbrook" of the 1400s

• [Compiled] Lord p. 5: a Thomas "Colbrook" was churchwarden of St John's, Glastonbury, 1428-1438. Lord assumes a scribe's error for Holbrook, saying the name Colbrook appears nowhere else in the church records.
• [Documented] Notes & Queries for Somerset and Dorset vol. 4, which prints parts of the St John's churchwardens' accounts, names Thomas Colbrook or Colbrok several times:
  • as a former warden (custos), with John Hull;
  • in his own account as "supervisor fabrice" (overseer of the fabric) for the rebuilding of St John's church;
  • and through a bequest "ex legato Thome Colbrook" (so he had died by that account).
  • The volume's index lists him under "Colbrook" (pp. 191, 192, 283, 284), separately from "Holbrook, John."
• [Documented] A Feodary of Glastonbury Abbey (SRS 26, 1910), p. 55: "Appropriatur Colbroke."
• [Inference] Colbrook looks like a real Glastonbury surname. That weakens Lord's reading of the 1428-1438 churchwarden as a Holbrook, and with it the idea of Holbrooks at Glastonbury in the 1400s.
• [Documented] No Holbrook or Holbrooke appears in the Feodary of Glastonbury Abbey, in Somerset Medieval Wills 1383-1500 (SRS 16), or among the roughly 600 Wells wills of 1528-1536 printed by Weaver (except John Holbroke as a witness at Chewton Keynsham, 1532).

[Inference] The earliest Holbrooke found in Glastonbury itself is John Holbroke, tenant of a church cottage in 1574. The earliest Holbrookes found anywhere in the Chew-Norton Malreward district are Roger of Chew (d. 1503) and his son Thomas.

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7. The Suffolk knights and the claimed link

What Lord records (pp. 1-4)

• Sir Richard de Holbrok, son of William de Holebroc of Lincolnshire. Free warren at Tattingstone, Bentley, Rushagh and Foxhole, Suffolk, and Senges, Norfolk, 16 June 1267. Custodian of the King's castles in twenty counties. Steward between the bridges of Oxford and Stamford 16 Nov 1275, escheator the next year. Witness to the homage of Alexander, King of Scotland, 29 Sept 1278. Steward to the King 30 May 1285. d. 27 Feb 1291. m. Isabella.
• Sir John de Holbrok, son. Summoned to defend the coast against the French 30 Aug 1295 and against the Scots about six years later. d. before 6 Dec 1306, when his widow Alice and two others held knight's fees including one at Freston and Holbrook, Suffolk. Alice d. 8 Dec 1309.
• John de Holebrok, d. 12 Oct 1316, leaving widow Petronilla and a son.
• Thomas de Holebrok, of Suffolk, "who left a son."
• John de Holbrok, principal in a pleading at Trinity term 1382 about presentation to the church at Holton, Suffolk. Lord's Suffolk line ends here.

Arms

• [Compiled] Sir Richard's arms on the Charles Roll (1285-1295): "Or crusilly and a chevron gules." His son John's arms, 1301: "Or, a chevron between ten crosses crosslet gules." Lord adopts these as the Holbrook arms.
• [Documented, printed query] Notes & Queries for Somerset and Dorset vol. 10, p. 120 (query 82, c. 1906-07), which Lord cites: Miss Lucy D. Akerly of New York asks whether the Broadway emigrant had Somerset kin, and whether the Suffolk Holbrookes were related. She gives the Suffolk arms differently: "Argent, a chevron between three cross crosslets gules; also, Or a chevron gules, surmounted with a cross formee fitchee." No reply found in vols. 11-12.

Lord's case for the link (p. 4)

In his words, "entirely circumstantial." His points:

1. The names Thomas and Isabella recur in both families.
2. A Thomas Holbroke of Wimborne Minster, Dorset, had a daughter Isabella (see below).
3. The Stawell monument at Luccombe shows Holbrooke arms matching the Suffolk arms (see section 10).
4. "Many other things," unspecified.

The Wimborne Minster record (new)

• [Documented, printed abstract] Notes & Queries for Somerset and Dorset vol. 11, p. 12, a bond of 6 June, 1 Mary (1554): "Thomas Flamberde, of Wymborne Minster, Dorset, Taylor, and Isabella, his wife, daughter and heiress of Thomas Holbroke, and Elena, his wife, late of the same place, deceased, to John Welstede, of the same place, Yoeman. £50."
• [Inference] This is Lord's source for point 2. Isabella was her father's heiress, so Thomas Holbroke of Wimborne left no surviving son; his family cannot be the male line of the Glastonbury Holbrooks, though kinship in an earlier generation is not ruled out. The record gives no rank, knighthood or arms.

Later additions not in Lord

• [Compiled, unverified] The McCurdy site, citing Lord, describes the 1350s John as a fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge (1393), later Chancellor of Cambridge, chaplain to Henry V and Henry VI, and author of astronomical tables, with a son William. Lord's p. 4 gives only the 1382 pleading. [Inference] This looks like a merger with the Cambridge astronomer John Holbrook; a cleric of that kind would normally have been celibate.

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8. The "Sir Thomas Holbrooke" tradition

• [Tradition, earliest written form found] Mollie Frances Holbrook Pfeiffer's typescript, p. 5: "He was the son of Sir Thomas Holbrooke of Broadway." No source is given. Her listed authorities (p. 1) are American: Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth, History of Mendon, History of Weymouth, American Biography.
• Conflicts with: William's 1625 will naming a son Thomas (Lord), and Anderson's identification of Thomas as William's son.
• Family memory: "Sir Thomas Holbrook from the Cornwall region." Mollie places Broadway in Somerset (or Dorset).
• [Inference] Possible sources of the "Sir Thomas" idea: the medieval Sir Thomas de Holebrok of Suffolk in compiled genealogies, or a misreading of the passenger entry "Thomas Holbrooke of Broadway."

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9. Holbrook place-names, and where the surname was common

Places

• Holbrook, near Wincanton, Somerset (Norton Ferris hundred). A hamlet of Charlton Musgrove parish, moved to Bratton Seymour in 1885. [Documented] Victoria County History: the Holbrook estate was held by the Huse family from 1242 (Reynold Huse), then Hungerford and Hastings families, then the Farewell family from c. 1589-1611 to the 1800s; site of Holbrook House. Rent from the estate was "virtually stable between 1429 and c. 1600." No owners surnamed Holbrook appear. Several Farewell wills and Chancery cases "of Holbrook" are in the National Archives.
  • [Compiled] Lord p. 2 calls this the parish "from which this American branch descends," about seventeen miles east of Glastonbury, but gives no evidence. He says its only early surviving records are rolls of 1413-1461, which "throw little light on the Holbrook family." [Inference] These may be the Hungerford estate accounts VCH cites for 1429 onward.
  • Mollie p. 10: "Holbrook House about two miles west of Wincanton."
• Holbrook, Dorset (Dictionary of American Family Names). [Documented] A "Holbrooke Tenement" in Lydlinch, Dorset, appears in estate deeds.
• Holbrook (Holybrook), hamlet in Abson parish, Gloucestershire, 4 miles west of Marshfield (Mollie p. 9).
• Holbrook, Suffolk and Holbrook, Derbyshire: the two best-known Holbrook parishes (Lord p. 2; Mollie p. 9).
• [Documented, context] "Holbrook" also occurs as a field or tenement name in Somerset deeds (Burlescombe on the Devon border, North Newton, Barrow Gurney, and "Holbrookes tenement" in the manor of Chew Baber, next to Dundry). As a descriptive name for a stream in a hollow, it arose in many places.

The surname in 17th-century Somerset (new)

• [Documented] FreeREG returns more than 500 entries under the exact spelling "Holbrook" for Somerset, Devon and Dorset combined, 1600-1740. Those inspected were almost all in Somerset. It was a common yeoman surname there, not a rare one.
• [Documented] The entries inspected cluster in two areas:
  • North Somerset, the Chew Valley and Mendip edge: Nempnett Thrubwell, Blagdon, Wrington, West Harptree, Chew Stoke, Chew Magna, Winford, Long Ashton, Backwell, Winscombe.
  • North-east Somerset, towards Bath and Frome: Marksbury, Combe Hay, Stanton Prior, Compton Dando, Stoke Lane, Frome.
• [Documented] Nempnett Thrubwell Holbrookes, from the register (FreeREG): Thomas Holbrooke m. Elizabeth Hipsley 1611; William Holbrooke m. Charity Collens 1646 and had children there and at Blagdon 1646-1668; Thomas Holbrooke and Deborah Holbrooke, both of Chew Magna, married there 1673; Lawrence Holbrooke buried 1688; William Holbrooke buried 1693. Two of these households are recorded as living at the hamlet of Stroud.
• [Documented] SHC DD\S\WH/180, manor of Regilbury deeds, item 13: "Mess. at Stroud (Holbrooke of Winford) with note of copyhold admission, 1705, 1728."
• [Inference] This is the same district as Dundry and Norton Malreward, and as the Backwell and Marksbury property of the Glastonbury Holbrookes (section 4), and of the Holbrooke wills in section 5. Whether the north Somerset Holbrookes and the Glastonbury Holbrookes were one kin group is untested.

Early name records (from Mollie p. 10, to be verified)

Name	Place / record	Date
William de Holbrook	Lincolnshire, Hundred Rolls	1273
Richard de Holbrook	Suffolk, Hundred Rolls	1273
Roger de Holbrook	Nottinghamshire, Hundred Rolls	1273
Isota Holebroke	Kirby's Quest, p. 140	1 Edw. III (1327)
Henry de Holebroc	Devon	Hen. III / Edw. I (1216-1307)
William de Holbrooke	Poll Tax, Yorkshire, p. 79	(1379)

• [Documented] Kirby's Quest for Somerset (Somerset Record Society vol. 3, 1889), the Exchequer lay subsidy of 1 Edward III (1327), lists three Holebroks:
  • Isota Holebrok at Cannington (Cannington hundred, near Bridgwater);
  • Nicholas Holebrok at South Petherton, taxed 2s.;
  • Henry Holebroc under "Aumarle Chaumflour," taxed 8d.
  • The same volume's Nomina Villarum (1316) lists "Winalton (Wincaunton) cum hamel: de Holebrok," that is, Holbrook as a hamlet of Wincanton.
• [Documented] A Nicholas (de) Holebrok also served as a juror on 1330s inquisitions, including one for the lands of John de Beauchamp of Hatch (SRS 35; Notes & Queries for Somerset and Dorset vol. 12). SHC DD/TRANS/2/1 lists documents about "Holbrook(es) Place or the Lower House in South Petherton," 1617-1729.
• [Documented] "Master Robert Holbrowke" was named supervisor (overseer) of the will of Robert Passewater, rector of Sampford [Orcas], 1414 (Somerset Medieval Wills, 2nd series, p. 316).
• [Inference] These medieval Holebroks are in west and south Somerset, not in the Chew district or at Glastonbury, and nothing found connects them to the later families.
• Henry de Holebroc of Devon is a Holbrook in Devon in the 1200s. One surname website also claims a 13th-century landholding Holbrook family in Devon (no source).

Meaning of the name

• [Documented, reference] Old English hol ("hole, hollow") + brōc ("brook, stream"): a stream in a hollow. Mainly a habitational surname, from any of several places called Holbrook (DAFN; Oxford Dictionary of Family Names).
• Mollie p. 9 gives the folk explanation "Holybrook," from an early Saxon practice of worshipping bodies of water.

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10. Luccombe, Somerset: Rev. Thomas Stawell and his wife Elizabeth

Parked at your request (30 Sept 2026). Kept here for reference; not being pursued.

Luccombe (Luckham) is on Exmoor in west Somerset, near the Devon border.

The three published accounts

Source	Thomas Stawell	Elizabeth	Other
Collinson, History of Somerset vol. 2 (1791), p. 24 (text rechecked)	"rector of this parish forty-three years. He died Dec. 22, 1782, aged 84."	"Elizabeth his wife died Aug. 3, 1781, aged 73."	Marble monument, north wall of chancel. Collinson does not mention arms.
Historic England listing (1969)	not mentioned	"Elizabeth Stawell, died 1731"	Marble tablet with broken pediment and alabaster coat of arms
Lord (1942), p. 1	1648-1732; rector 43 years	"Elizabeth Holbrooke (1668-1731)"	"Stawell arms impaling Holbrooke," the Holbrooke half "identical" to the Suffolk arms. No citation.

What is now settled

• [Documented] Luccombe parish register (FreeREG transcription): "Elizabeth Stawel," buried 9 Aug 1731, and "Thomas Stawell," noted "(Rector)," buried 29 Dec 1732.
• [Inference] Collinson's days and months fit these burials: died 3 Aug, buried 9 Aug; died 22 Dec, buried 29 Dec. His years are misprinted, 8 for 3, in both. So the monument reads: Elizabeth d. 3 Aug 1731; Thomas d. 22 Dec 1732, aged 84 (born c. 1648).
• [Documented] CCEd person 49077: Thomas Stowell, MA, subscribed as preacher and rector of East Luccombe, 25 Oct 1687. Vacancy "by natural death" recorded 5 Feb 1732/3, probably the date the living was refilled. CCEd has no earlier ordination, curacy or degree record for him.
• [Documented] Luccombe rectors (CCEd location 4584): Byam family 1575-1669; John Wood 1669-1687; Thomas Stowell/Stawell 1687-1732; Thomas Hargrave 1733-1757; William Willis 1757-1781; Richard Purdy 1781-1782; Robert Gould 1782 onward.
• [Inference] 1687 to 1732 is 45 years, where the monument says 43. A small discrepancy; either the count or the reading of the inscription is off.

Their son, and the "only child" record

• [Documented] National Archives C 11/2077/35, Chancery, 1738, Stawell v Shippen, bill and two answers: "Plaintiffs: Thomas Stawell clerk, of Hawkridge, Somerset (only child of Thomas Stawell, clerk of Luccombe, Somerset and Elizabeth Stawell his wife, both deceased). Defendants: William Shippen, esq and Robert Shippen DD." Not digitised.
  • [Documented, context] Robert Shippen DD was Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford, where the son matriculated in 1713. William Shippen was his brother, the MP. The subject of the suit is not described. A bill brought as "only child" of both parents usually claims something due through them, and the bill will recite the family facts behind the claim.
• [Documented] Alumni Oxonienses: Thomas Stawell, son of Thomas of "Luckea" (Luccombe), clerk; Brasenose, matric. 13 Oct 1713 aged 17 (so b. c. 1696); BA 1717. The father is described there as "rector of Luccombe 1687-1732, as Thomas Stowell, M.A."
• [Documented] CCEd person 49075: ordained priest 23 Dec 1722; rector of Hawkridge (with the chapel of Withypool) 27 Sep 1728; vacancy by death recorded 23 Oct 1762.
• [Documented] Hawkridge bishop's transcripts (FreeREG):
  • William, son of Thomas and Jane Stawell, father "Curate," baptised 13 Oct 1726.
  • Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Stawell, buried 30 Jun 1757.
  • A son of Thomas Stawell, "of Winsford," buried 3 Jul 1758.
  • "Revd. Mr. STAWELL - Rector," buried 9 Jul 1762.
• [Documented] A second suit: Stawell v Oxenham, Chancery 1714-1758: Thomas Stawell, clerk of Hawkridge, v Roger, Joan and Henry Oxenham. Subject not described.
• [Inference] A son born c. 1696 suggests a marriage about 1695 or a little earlier, when Thomas senior was about 47.

Who was Elizabeth?

• Maiden name: only Lord says "Holbrooke," from his reading of the arms. Collinson and Historic England do not name her family.
• Caution on the arms [Inference]: a chevron between ten crosses is also the pattern of the Berkeley arms (with crosses pattée rather than crosses crosslet). On a small carved or painted shield the two could be confused. The tablet needs a close look, including any colours.
• Her age at death decides her birth year. Collinson printed 73 (born c. 1658). Lord gives 1668 (implying he read 63). The tablet needs reading.
• Register coverage [Documented]: the Luccombe transcription on FreeREG begins in 1700, so the Stawell marriage (c. 1688-1695) and the son's baptism (c. 1696) fall before it. No marriage of a Thomas Stawell or Stowell to an Elizabeth was found anywhere in Somerset or Devon on FreeREG, 1660-1765.

Candidates: Elizabeth Holbrook(e), Somerset, Devon and Dorset, 1650-1700 (FreeREG)

Elizabeth	Parents	Record	Age at 3 Aug 1731	Comment
born 3 Aug 1658, Nempnett Thrubwell	Roger and Elizabeth Holbrooke, "of Stroud"	birth entry in register	73	Matches Collinson's reading exactly
baptised 20 Apr 1663, Blagdon	William and Charity Holbrook (the bishop's transcript says 26 Apr and father "John")	baptism	68	Matches neither reading
baptised 19 Apr 1657, West Harptree	John and Mary Holbrooke	birth entry	74	An Elizabeth, daughter of John Holbrook, was buried there 22 Nov 1669; probably this child
baptised 18 May 1677, Combe Hay	John and Elizabeth	baptism	54	Too young for either reading
1688 Stoke Lane; 1689 Marksbury	James; John and Eleanor	baptisms	41-42	Too young
c. 1668		nothing found	63	Lord's implied year; no match in the index

FreeREG covers only some parishes and years, so this list is not complete.

The 1658 Nempnett Thrubwell Elizabeth

• [Documented] Her mother, "Elizabeth wife of Roger Holbrook," died 11 Aug 1667 and was buried at Wrington (next parish west).
• [Documented] Wrington also records Roger, son of Roger and Elizabeth Holbrook, baptised 1668 or 1669 (two transcriptions with conflicting dates), and "Roger Holbrooke" of Lye, buried 4 Jun 1693. Whether this is the same Roger, remarried to a second Elizabeth, is not settled.
• [Documented] Possible baptisms for her father Roger: Blagdon, Aug 1633, son of Thomas; Long Ashton, 15 Jan 1614/5, son of Francis.
• Complication [Documented]: Edward Warford of Winford married Elizabeth Holbrooke at Nempnett Thrubwell, 23 Dec 1688. Edward and Elizabeth Warford then had children baptised at Winford and Nempnett from 1693/4 to 1706 (Edward, George, James twice, Joseph). (A second couple, Edward and Sarah Warford, also baptised at Winford 1691-1697.)
  • [Inference] If that bride were the 1658 Elizabeth, she would have been 47 at the 1706 baptism, which is unlikely. The 1663 Blagdon Elizabeth (43 in 1706) fits that marriage better. That would leave the 1658 Elizabeth unaccounted for in these records, and so still a candidate for Mrs Stawell. Nothing here proves it either way.
• A coincidence that does not count as evidence [Inference]: her birthday (3 Aug) is the same day as Mrs Stawell's death (3 Aug). It looks striking, but a woman dies on her birthday about one time in 365 whether or not these are the same person, so it does not favour either answer. What does count is that she would have been exactly 73 on that day, matching Collinson's reading.

Thomas Stawell senior's own background

• [Documented] No matriculation at Oxford (Foster) or Cambridge (Venn) found. The MA is known only from CCEd.
• [Documented] Not found among the High Ham Stawell baptisms on FreeREG (the baronial family of Sir John Stawell, 1636-1692).
• [Documented] National Archives, Chancery before 1714: Stawell v Courtney, Thomas Stawell v Sir William Courtney, bart, and others, concerning "the personal estate of the deceased Hugh Stawell of Park, Devon." Whether this Thomas is the rector is unknown. Devon Quarter Sessions also has a sacrament certificate for a Thomas Stawell of Bovey Tracey, 1695 (QS/21/1695/28).
• [Documented, context] Collinson: the manor and advowson of Luccombe (the right to appoint the rector) belonged to the Arundells of Trerice, a Cornish family.

Assessment, against the 80% standard (my judgment)

• Monument dates: settled.
• Maiden name Holbrooke: rests on a single, uncited reading of the arms. About even odds until the tablet is examined.
• That she was the 1658 Nempnett Elizabeth: a genuine lead with an exact age fit, but it is one candidate from a partial index and depends on Collinson's "73" being right. Roughly one chance in four at present, well short of 80%.
• Relevance to our line: even if proven, she was born more than twenty years after the immigrant sailed, so she would be a cousin at most. Her value is as possible evidence that a north Somerset Holbrooke family used, or was credited with, the Suffolk-style arms, and that point itself is uncertain.

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11. Holbrook clergy (no West Country link found)

• [Documented] CCEd lists 24 clergy named Holbrook or Holbrooke, 1555-1835. None held a post in the dioceses of Bath and Wells or Exeter (Somerset, Devon, Cornwall). Their records place them mostly in Staffordshire and Shropshire, with others in Kent, Northamptonshire, Essex, Gloucestershire and Cambridgeshire. Examples:

  • William Holbrooke, subdeacon 9 Mar 1555 (Bishop Brooks of Gloucester); only record.
  • Richard Holbrooke, 1612-1620, Merchant Taylors' School, vicar of Evenley and of St Giles, Northampton.
  • John Holbrook, 1666-1699, Oriel, rector of Edgmond, Shropshire.
  • Thomas Holbrook, 1702-1719, curate of Stafford, rector of Tixall.
  • John Holbrook, 1733-1765, Cambridge, curate of Great Waltham, vicar of Didbrook, rector of Pinnock, Gloucestershire.
  • Theophilus Holbrooke, 1705-1764, rector of Lolworth, Cambridgeshire.

• [Documented] Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714: all Holbrook(e) entries are from Staffordshire, Shropshire, Lancashire, Herefordshire or Kent; none from Somerset. Also Humphrey Holbrooke, student 1562, "tutor Thomas Thornebury."

• Other Holbrook clergy noted earlier:

  • Rev. Anthony Holbrook (d. 1749), rector of Little Waltham, Essex; chaplain to Richard, Lord Lumley.
  • William Holbrooke, son of Edward Holbrooke "of Holbrooke in the County of Stafford, Gentleman"; rector of Staunton, Nottinghamshire; d. 24 June 1689 aged 45.
  • Samuel Holbrooke, vicar of Ashby-de-la-Zouch 1721-1729, son of Samuel Holbrooke, vicar of Stanton upon Hine Heath, Shropshire.

• [Documented] One Somerset exception outside CCEd's coverage: SHC D/D/ct/1/P/80, will of "[ ] Phillips alias Houlbrooke," clerk, proved 14 Jan 1589/90, with bequests "to my son Andrew Phillips alias Houlbrooke." The parish is lost (the document is damaged).

[Inference] Apart from that 1589 alias, no Holbrook served as a clergyman in Somerset, Devon or Cornwall in the period CCEd covers.

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12. The Glastonbury circle: in-law families (new)

The best single source for William's household turned out to be the Weaver family genealogy. In the 1920s the Weavers commissioned J. Gardner Bartlett of Boston to work in the Somerset records, and Lucius E. Weaver printed his findings in History and Genealogy of a Branch of the Weaver Family (1928), chapter IV, "A Brief Account of the Holbrooks" and appendices (pp. 27-35). Lord cites it. Bartlett read the St John's register itself, the Wells transcripts of the St Benedict's register, and the Wells will registers, which were later destroyed at Exeter in 1942. His abstracts are therefore the only text we have of several wills.

What Bartlett adds

• [Documented, abstract] William Holbrook was named overseer of the will of Thomas Coles of Glastonbury, dated 7 Mar 1602/3 (Wells Registered Wills vol. 32, fol. 16). This is the earliest record found of William himself, and the only one before his own will. (The FamilySearch tree notes reject "Coles" as William's wife's maiden name; this will may be where that idea started.)
• [Documented, abstract] William's will is registered at Wells, General Court, 45:36 (Lord gives Liber 45, p. 46). Bartlett's abstract matches Lord's.
• [Documented, register] St John's baptisms of the Tylye grandchildren: William, 7 Dec 1614; Edmund, 8 July 1617; Mary, 23 Apr 1620. Edmund is the grandson "Edmund Tyly" of the will. The FamilySearch index had not turned him up.
• [Documented, register] William the younger's daughter Mary, 28 Jan 1629/30; Basell and Philip Wrinkmore's daughters Rebecca, 17 Oct 1626, and Anne, 1640.
• [Documented, register] "Edith Holbrook, buried 11 June" 1612: the probable wife of William, as already noted in section 3.
• [Documented, register] Registers survive only patchily: St John's baptisms 1603-1622, 1625, 1626 and 1630; marriages 1603-1630; burials 1603-1622; then nothing until 1653. St Benedict's survives only in Wells transcripts for scattered years (1599, 1603, 1605-1608, 1610, 1616, 1621, 1623, 1629, 1639, 1663). This explains why Thomas's sons Thomas (c. 1624) and later children, and Anne (c. 1629), have no baptisms.

The Weavers

• [Documented, abstracts; Compiled, arrangement] About 1590 five Weavers of one generation lived in Glastonbury and the next parish, Walton: John (churchwarden of Walton, 1608), Richard, Robert of Walton (will proved 1607), William (m. Florence, d. 1607; m. Blanch Davis, 1608) and Thomas, Clement's father, named in the will of William Curtize of St John's in 1590.
• [Compiled] Thomas Weaver's wife was probably the Margaret Weaver who was a legatee of Nicholas Adams of St Benedict's, butcher (1586), and executrix of his widow Margaret (1588/9).
• [Documented, abstract] Clement Gutch Sr. of St John's, will of 21 Oct 1632 (Wells Registered Wills 47:169), left legacies to "Clement, son of Thomas Weaver," to Blanch Weaver and to Margaret, daughter of William Weaver.
• Weaver's further claim that the Glastonbury Weavers descend from a Herefordshire armigerous family, and through them from Welsh kings, is not relevant here and was not checked.

Other families around the Holbrookes

• Tylye. No Tylye will or deed was found in the SHC catalogue for the 1600s. A Thomas and Edith Tylye held land at Brewham in 1368 (SHC DD/WHh/593), which is context only. Lord's 1379 Holbrook-Tylye inheritance remains unsourced.
• Wrinkmore. Henry Wrinkmore of Glastonbury, yeoman, took over a lease of Godney Drove in Glastonbury in 1593 (SHC DD/SE/16/1); William Wrinkmore held a St John's house in High Street in 1658 (D/P/gla.j/5/1/108).
• Gutch. A leading Glastonbury family: Samuel Gutch, chandler (1633); John Gutch, linen draper and later a justice of the peace (1637-1659); Clement Gutch, tailor (1656). Samuel Gutch was a defendant in the widow Cecily Holbrooke's suit of 1653 (section 4). The SHC holds nineteenth-century notes on "the family of Gutch of Glastonbury, Wincanton, Wells, Salem USA" (DD/SAS/C795/SW/23).
• Searches that found nothing new: the SHC catalogue for Powys, Notley, Tylye and Weaver wills, and its descriptions of the Bath and Wells deposition books (which give witnesses' birthplaces) for any Holbrooke witness. Bartlett found no Holbrooke birthplace either. (Seventh pass: the deposition books are not name-indexed in the catalogue, but Robin Bush found William's own deposition of 1617 in them; section 5A.)

What this means for William's origin

Nothing in the in-law records names William's parents or birthplace. They do show that William was established at Glastonbury by 1602/3, trusted as an overseer, and that his daughters married into settled Glastonbury families (Weaver, Tylye, Wrinkmore, Bennett). That fits a man who had been in the town for some years before the registers begin in 1603, and it adds nothing for or against the north Somerset hypothesis. (Seventh pass: he had arrived about 1598, aged about 46, from Compton Dando; section 5A.)

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13. The American line checked (new)

The family's line runs from Thomas through his eldest son Capt. John. Mollie's typescript instead runs through Thomas's son Thomas of Braintree. This pass checked each American step against records. The full tree, with every sibling, is in the new project file Holbrook-Master-Family-Tree.md and on the tree page.

Step	Evidence	Tier
Thomas > Capt. John (1618-1699)	Baptism at St John's as son of Thomas; 1635 list; Thomas's will (1668, Suffolk Probate 6:201) names "eldest son John"	Documented
Capt. John > John (1650-1731)	Capt. John's will (12 July 1699, Suffolk Probate 14:111) names "his son John, who has a wife Abigail" and that son's children	Documented
John (1650) > John (b. 19 Nov 1686)	Scituate VR birth; his grandfather's will names him	Documented
John (1686) > Elisha (b. 25 May 1716)	Scituate VR: "Elisha, s. Jo[h]n Jr. and Sarah." Court records: "John Holbrook of Scituate," gentleman, was "now of Eastham in the County of Barnstable" (1736-1738). Barnstable probate: "Capt John Holbrook late of Eastham... Gent Deceased," administration to his son John, seafaring man (1749). His sons John, Thomas and Ezekiel also appear at Eastham and Wellfleet, and Ezekiel and Elisha married two daughters of Daniel Mayo of Eastham (his will, 1754). Vinton: the children "settled at Eastham and Wellfleet"	Birth documented; identity with the Eastham Elisha an inference, about 95%
Elisha > Gideon (c. 1765-1842)	Davis 1899 and Radasch 1973 call Gideon Elisha's son. Gideon was born at Wellfleet (his daughter's 1899 death record) about 1765 (gravestone: "Æ. 76 Y'rs." in Jan 1842), while Elisha's first wife was living. He owned a house (sold 1795) and a schooner (1803-1804) jointly with Elisha's son Eliphalet, and named sons Elisha and Eliphalet	Compiled, about 80-85%
Gideon > Richard Blackmer Holbrook Sr. (1821-1894)	Gideon's will (18 June 1841, proved April 1842) names "Richard B. Holbrook"; Richard's 1855 deed of his share "of my late father Gideon Holbrook" to "my brother Elisha"	Documented

Where Mollie's typescript went wrong

• [Documented] Davis, Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth (1899), Part II p. 135, makes "Eliphalet, son of Peter" the father of Elisha. Mollie lists Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth among her authorities, and her chain (Peter > Eliphalet > Elisha > Gideon) is Davis's.
• [Documented] The only known Eliphalet son of Peter was born 27 Feb 1691/2 and died at Bellingham, Mass., 19 Oct 1775. His children were born at Mendon and Bellingham, 1717-1736, and he deeded his Bellingham homestead in 1767.
• [Inference] Davis's own entry is muddled: it lists Gideon, Eliphalet and Jonathan as sons both of "Eliphalet 1st" and of Elisha. The Eliphalet in the Plymouth records is Elisha's son (Capt. Eliphalet, c. 1745-1815, of Wellfleet and then Plymouth), and Davis seems to have pushed that name up a generation.
• Mollie and the records agree from Elisha downward. Her "Elisha m. Mary Mayhew, 1742" is the Eastham marriage of 1742 to a Mayo.

New facts about Elisha and Gideon

• [Documented] Elisha's first marriage, Eastham: intention 1 Apr 1742 ("Sarah May"), marriage 13 May 1742 (one index reads "Annah Mayo"). The bride was Sarah Mayo, daughter of Daniel Mayo Sr. of Eastham, yeoman: his will, dated 8 Nov 1754 and proved 29 Jan 1755, divides the estate among "my Eldest Son Daniel" (two shares), "my son Samuell" and "my Daughters viz Sarah the wife of Elisha Holbrook, Martha the wife of Ezekiel Holbrook, Anna the Wife of Barnabas Young [and] Mary the wife of Elisha Bigford," with £9 to his daughter Mercy; executors his wife Mary and son Daniel. So two Holbrook brothers, Elisha and Ezekiel, married two Mayo sisters. Second marriage, 1771, Priscilla Newcomb.
• [Documented] Elisha's father died at Eastham, not Scituate. Barnstable probate, 1749: letters of administration to "John Holbrook of Eastham... Seafaring man" on the estate of "Capt John Holbrook late of Eastham... Gent Deceased." The FamilySearch tree's death of 28 Feb 1740/1 at Scituate is not supported by anything found. The rest of the family is there too: "John Holbrook Junr of Eastham," miller or mariner, in court 1739-1742, who bought a house on Great Chebeague Island, Maine, in 1742 (Vinton: "John, the eldest, removed to Maine"); and "Thomas Holbrook late of Eastham now Wellfleet," yeoman, dead by 1764, whose widow's thirds were set off in 1765 by a committee that included Ezekiel Holbrook.
• [Documented] Elisha was "of Wellfleet... Mariner" in a Middlesex County lawsuit of December 1766. He died intestate before 11 June 1779, the date of the first guardianship letters. The Barnstable probate calls him "Deacon Elisha Holbrook late of Wellfleet." His widow Priscilla administered the estate and accused his son Eliphalet of withholding five bushels of salt and other goods. On 11-18 June 1779 she was made guardian of their minor children Daniel, Sarah, Joseph and Ezekiel, and "Eliphalet Holbrook of Wellfleet... Yeoman" was made guardian of the youngest, Jeremiah. About two pounds were left after debts. No guardianship for Gideon, who would have been about 13 or 14, was found among these letters. (Most of Barnstable County's early records burned in 1827, but these 1779-1780 papers survive and are on FamilySearch.)
• [Documented] Gideon's gravestone at Manomet Cemetery reads "GIDEON HOLBROOK / Died / Jan. 23, 1842 / Æ. 76 Y'rs." (Æ. for aetatis, "aged"). Read from the sunlit Find a Grave photograph (memorial 40957263); the memorial's own "born 1786, aged 55-56" misreads 76 as 56. So he was born between January 1765 and January 1766, while Elisha's first wife Sarah was still living (she died in 1767 according to the FamilySearch tree).
• [Documented] Gideon died on 23 Jan 1842, not 1847. The FamilySearch tree's 1847 belongs to a three-year-old Gideon in another Plymouth family: the elder Gideon's nephew Gideon (1786-1868), son of Capt. Eliphalet, had a son Gideon whose son Gideon died 10 Dec 1847.
• [Documented] Gideon was a Plymouth mariner and shipmaster (master of the Eagle, 1790-91, and the William, 1794), "Capt." on family gravestones and "gentleman" at probate. With Eliphalet Holbrook, "both of Plymouth... Mariner[s]," he sold "our Dwelling house" at Monument Ponds, bought together from Capt. Samuel Hovey, to Caleb Bartlett on 20 Nov 1795. He married (1) Sarah Clark, int. 29 Dec 1787 (she d. 1 Mar 1818), and (2) in Nov/Dec 1818 "Mrs. Nancy Blackman," born Nancy Ellis (1781-1864), widow of Richard Blackmer.
• [Documented] His will names nine heirs: Lois Tribble, Martha Covington, Betsey Morton, Gideon, Richard B., Elisha, Polly and Eliphalet, and granddaughter Jerusha, daughter of his late daughter Harriet Davie.

Two other points

• [Documented] Richard B. Holbrook Sr.'s donation land claim says he reached Oregon on 10 Apr 1852 and lived on his Whidbey Island claim from 5 May 1852. His birth date in the FamilySearch tree (7 Aug 1821) fits his census ages in 1850, 1870 and 1880; the 1830 of the Collins-Reed Master Family Tree and of his memorial marker at Coupeville does not. He died at Coupeville in May 1894: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer of 18 Nov 1894 (p. 11), listing the Washington pioneers who had died in the past year, gives "born in Plymouth, Mass., August 7, 1821; arrived in California March 4, 1851, and came to Puget sound in April, 1852." The 1898 on his marker and in the family book is wrong. Details in Holbrook-Master-Family-Tree.md.
• [Inference] For Y-DNA purposes, the direct male line is now documented from Thomas to Richard B. Sr. except at the two steps above, so a male-line Holbrook descendant of Richard B. would test the Glastonbury Holbrook Y chromosome.

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14. Discrepancy log

Item	Versions	Sources	Status
Thomas's birth year	c. 1589 / c. 1594 / 1598-9 / c. 1601	Anderson, Lord, Pane-Joyce, passenger list	Open
Thomas's wife	Jane Powys (m. 1616) vs Experience Leland then Jane Kingman	Anderson/Lord vs Mollie	Mollie probably merged three Thomases
Thomas's father	William of Glastonbury vs "Sir Thomas Holbrooke of Broadway"	Lord vs Mollie	William, documented by his will (1625). The "Sir Thomas" tradition has no source
Broadway	Near Ilminster vs hamlet near Glastonbury	Mollie vs Lord	Open
Ship	Marygould vs Hopewell	Anderson vs Lord p. 6	Open
Elizabeth Holbrook's husband (1611)	Thomas Tylye vs William Tylye	Lord p. 6 vs p. 4	Open
Luccombe dates	1731/1732 vs 1781/1782	Lord, Historic England vs Collinson	Resolved: 1731/1732 (burial registers)
Elizabeth Stawell's age at death	73 vs 63	Collinson vs Lord (implied)	Open; needs the tablet
Stawell's years as rector	43 vs 45	Monument vs CCEd	Minor, open
Widow in the Glastonbury Chancery suits	Sybil vs Cecily/Cicely	TNA catalogue	Probably one woman
William's parents	Thomas & Constans Thayer (1560) vs Thomas I/II & Richard I vs unknown vs ?John the younger, son of Thomas of Norton Malreward vs Thomas of Norton Malreward and Edith	Lord vs older FamilySearch tree vs current FamilySearch tree vs Davis 1945 (followed by Stone-Gregg 1987, Knoff 1989) vs this file	Thomas of Norton Malreward (d. 1571/2), about 85%; Edith as mother about 75% (section 5A). The 1617 deposition (born Norton Malreward c. 1551-2) was not known to Davis
William's birth	c. 1560 vs c. 1562 vs c. 1565 vs c. 1551-2	Weaver vs FamilySearch tree vs Stone-Gregg vs 1617 deposition	c. 1551-2, Norton Malreward (aged 65 on 9 May 1617)
Edith Holbrooke's parish, 1592/3	Compton Dundon vs Compton Dando	SHC index to DD/X/HBS/1 vs her original will (D/D/ct/1/H/135) and Medlycott	Compton Dando
William's deposition reference	"D/D/Cd 42 50" vs D/D/cd/50	Spear vs SHC catalogue dates (D/D/cd/42 is 1610; D/D/cd/50 is 1616-1618)	Probably D/D/cd/50; ask the archive
Overseers of William's will (1625)	Clement Weaver Sr. and Thomas Tylye vs Thomas Holbrooke, Clement Weaver the elder and Thomas "Eyly"	Lord vs Davis 1945	Open; read the original (D/D/ct/1/H/137)
Robert of Queen Charlton's will date and burial	will 15 Mar 1616 (Davis) vs [16?] Mar 1616 (our reading), i.e. 1616/17; burial 27 Mar 1616 (FamilySearch index)	Davis, PROB 11/130/32, index	Burial probably 27 Mar 1617, misindexed
Robert's daughter "Milliard"	a daughter who married a Milliard vs a daughter named Milliard	Davis vs the register copy	Melior, bapt. Compton Dando 4 Oct 1605
Thomas the immigrant's birthplace	Eversley/Edgarley in Glastonbury vs Compton Dando	Davis, Pane-Joyce vs 1617 deposition (William at Compton Dando c. 1578-1598)	Probably Compton Dando [I]
Bride of the 1560 Thornbury marriage	Thayer vs Tawier	Lord vs FamilySearch index	Open
Joan's marriage to Nicholas Bennett	3 June 1605 vs 8 May 1605	Lord vs register index	Check the register image
Elizabeth's marriage to Thomas Tylye	1611 vs index entries for both 1610 and 1611	Lord vs register index	Check the register image
Basil's marriage to Philip Wrinkmore	27 Jan vs 26 Jan 1625/6	Lord vs register index	Minor
Julia, daughter of William, bapt. 1603	"Julia" (index) vs "Bazell (a daughter)" (Davis)	Register index vs Davis 1945	Basell; the index misread the name
The Edith buried at Glastonbury, 11 June 1612	wife of William (Lord, Weaver, FamilySearch) vs wife of John the younger, who Davis thought might have lived at Glastonbury	Lord vs Davis 1945	Open; William's wife is not named in any record seen
1428-1438 churchwarden	"Colbrook" read as Holbrook vs a real Colbrook family	Lord vs printed accounts and abbey feodary	Doubtful
William the younger's daughter	Mary bapt. 28 Jan 1629/30 vs "29 June 1629/30" vs index "Elizabeth, daughter of Thome," 13 Feb 1630	Weaver vs Lord vs register index	Weaver; the 1630/1 Elizabeth is probably Thomas's daughter
Basil's daughter Rebecca	bapt. 17 Oct 1626 vs 1627	Weaver vs register index	Minor
Capt. John's baptism	6 Apr 1618 vs 10 Apr 1618	Weaver (from the register) vs register index	Check the image
Elisha's father (American line)	John and Sarah (Chittenden) of Scituate vs "Eliphalet son of Peter"	Scituate VR, Vinton, court and probate records vs Davis 1899 and Mollie	John and Sarah, about 95% (section 13)
Elisha's first wife	Sarah Mayo vs "Annah Mayo" vs "Mary Mayhew"	Intention and Daniel Mayo's will vs one marriage index vs Mollie	Resolved: Sarah, daughter of Daniel Mayo Sr.
Death of John (b. 1686)	28 Feb 1740/1 at Scituate vs by early 1749 at Eastham	FamilySearch tree vs Barnstable probate	Eastham, by 1749
Gideon's birth year	c. 1765 vs 1766 vs 1786	Gravestone (aged 76) vs Mollie vs Find a Grave memorial	c. 1765
Gideon's death	23 Jan 1842 vs 1847	Will and Find a Grave vs FamilySearch tree	Resolved: 1842 (section 13)
Richard Blackmer Holbrook Sr.'s birth	1821 vs 1830	FamilySearch tree and the 1850, 1870 and 1880 censuses vs Collins-Reed Master Tree and the Coupeville memorial marker	1821
Richard Blackmer Holbrook Sr.'s death	14 May 1894 vs 1898	FamilySearch tree vs memorial marker and family book	May 1894 (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 18 Nov 1894, p. 11)
Richard Blackmer Holbrook Jr.'s birth	16 Sep 1872 vs 1873	Collins-Reed tree, 1880 census (aged 7), Pioneers of Alaska notice (1917) vs FamilySearch tree	1872

Outside this file's scope, but flagged

• American descent from Thomas. Checked in section 13. Mollie's typescript runs Thomas (2) > Peter > Eliphalet > Elisha > Gideon, following Davis's Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth (1899), which is one of her listed authorities. The records support the FamilySearch descent instead: Capt. John > John (1650) > John (1686) > Elisha (1716) > Gideon. Mollie and the records agree from Elisha (married a Mayo at Eastham, 1742) downward.

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15. Records to request, and next steps

Superseded for ordering purposes by Holbrook-Records-Order-List.md (eighth pass, 1 Oct 2026), which combines everything below with the new Bristol Archives, Bath and NEHGS items into one batch. The notes below are kept for the record.

A. Records worth ordering (small fees or free sign-up)

Somerset Heritage Centre (South West Heritage Trust, Taunton). Requests go by email to somersetarchives@swheritage.org.uk with their Research and Copying Request Form attached (https://somerset-cat.swheritage.org.uk/researchGuides/researchService; form as .docx or .pdf). Checked 1 Oct 2026: £44 an hour in 15-minute steps (minimum £22), each request capped at two hours of staff time, replies in about ten to twelve weeks, images sent as JPEGs, payment by PayPal, card by phone (01823 278805) or cheque; card details must not go on the form. Ask for digital copies of:

Revised priority after the seventh pass. The question has changed from "where did William come from?" to "confirm that he was Thomas and Edith's son." The two items that do that best are short, so a single minimum-fee request (£22, 30 minutes) may cover both. Order them first.

1. D/D/ct/1/H/135: original will of Edith Holbrocke of Compton Dando, widow, 12 Nov 1592, proved 13 Feb 1592/3. Probably one or two pages. It names "her son William" and William Holbrooke as overseer and witness. The original may describe him (for example "of Compton Dando"), name his children, or carry his signature or mark. Most useful single item now.
2. William Holbrook's deposition of 9 May 1617 in a tithe case, Diocesan Deposition Book. Spear cites "D/D/Cd 42 50"; by the current catalogue dates this is probably D/D/cd/50 (1616-1618), perhaps at folio 42. A copy would confirm Spear's abstract, give the parties to the case, and might show a signature. Both books are marked fragile, so the archive may say no.
3. DD/BR/su/6: Compton Dando etc. deeds, 1543-1685, Holbrooke documents only. The earliest lease (1577) would show whether William took the Sewardswick farm when he moved to Compton Dando, and leases for lives name the lives (often a man and his sons).
4. D/D/ct/1/H/137: the original will of William Holbrooke the elder of Glastonbury, 11 Dec 1625, proved 1 Feb 1625/6. Would settle the overseers (Lord and Davis disagree) and may mention Compton Dando property.
5. DD/X/HBS/1: abstracts of 15 Holbrooke family wills, 1544-1631. Now lower: Davis's book prints his summaries of most of them, and his book is free online (B below). Worth having only for the full abstract of Thomas of Norton Malreward's lost will (1571/2).
6. D/D/ct/1/H/136: will of John Holbroke of Norton Malreward, bachelor, 1592. Optional.
7. Optional: DD/S/WH/180, item 13 (Holbrooke copyhold at Stroud, Winford/Nempnett, 1705 and 1728).

The National Archives (Kew). The wills below are digitised. Each catalogue page shows "£3.50, sign in to get this free", so a free National Archives account is enough to download them as PDFs. I can't create the account or sign in for you, but once they're downloaded you can attach them here and I'll transcribe them. In order of usefulness:

Items 6-11 were downloaded and transcribed on 1 Oct 2026 (Holbrooke-PCC-Wills-1503-1617.md).

6. PROB 11/13/574: Roger Holbroke of Chew, 1503.
7. PROB 11/35/315: Alice Derell of Marksbury, widow, 1552 (names "my son-in-law Thomas Holbroke").
8. PROB 11/35/42 and PROB 11/35/101: Nicholas Derell of Marksbury, proved 1552.
9. PROB 11/68/700: John Holbrooke of Compton Bishop, 1585.
10. PROB 11/130/32: Robert Holbrooke of Queen Charlton, yeoman, 1617.
11. PROB 11/33/142: Richard Holbroke, yeoman, 1550 (place not in the catalogue).

The Chancery suits are not digitised. Use "Request a copy" on each catalogue page for a quotation:

12. C 6/11/238 (1647), C 10/23/55 (1653) and C 10/37/104 (1654): widow Sybil or Cecily Holbrooke; property in Glastonbury and Backwell. The bill of complaint usually explains how the property came to the family.

B. Images you could view yourself

• Davis, The Ancestry of Joseph Neal (1945), free full view on HathiTrust: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89069671295 (chapter XI, "Holbrook, of Weymouth," from p. 125). HathiTrust shows a "Verify you are human" check first, which I can't pass for you. The chapter has Davis's full abstracts of the wills of Thomas of Norton Malreward (1571/2), Edith (1592), Robert of Queen Charlton (1616/17) and William of Glastonbury (1625). Only search snippets have been read so far. A download of the chapter's pages as a PDF, attached here, would let me check every reading in section 5A.

• Spear, Search for the Passengers of the Mary & John, vol. 26 (archive.org, borrow-only) and vol. 17, pp. 169-170 (cited by Spear for "the ancestry of the Holbrook family"; not found online).

• Glastonbury, Norton Malreward, Keynsham and Dundry register images. FamilySearch has the index, but the images are "limited access" (viewable only at a FamilySearch Center or affiliate library). The same images are on Findmypast with a subscription. Worth checking:

  • the Julia (1603), John (1609) and Elizabeth (1630/1) entries at Glastonbury;
  • the 1594/5 Rebecka entry at Keynsham, and whether the Keynsham register shows other children of that William.

• Glastonbury St John's churchwardens' accounts, 1366-1650: FamilySearch image group 8081016, FamilySearch Center only.

C. Other open questions

• Dwelly's Parish Records vol. 1, p. 443: the 1598 Glastonbury bishop's transcript entry for a son of William Holbrooke.
• Somerset Wills Index (Medlycott, 1993): printed and manuscript copies of lost Somerset wills. Snippets seen (seventh pass): "Holbrocke Edith wid Compton Dando W 1592 D/D/Ct"; "Holbrooke Edith Compton Dando W 1593 HBS"; Arthur of Keynsham 1632 (HBS); John, bachelor, Norton Malreward 1592 (D/D/Ct) and John of Norton Malreward 1593 (HBS); Elinor Holbrooke alias Hedges, widow. The full Holbrooke entries are not yet read.
• Heraldic visitations of Somerset (1531, 1573, 1623): any Holbrook entries.
• Hull's company list (NEHGR 25, p. 14, and the original): ship name and ages; which Broadway.
• Y-DNA: needs a male-line Holbrook. Mollie's typescript (p. 4, handwritten additions) lists Frances's brothers John Francis Holbrook (b. 5 May 1932, Sacramento), Dare Low Holbrook (b. June 1933, Sacramento) and Richard Clay Holbrook, and a cousin line through Daniel Phillips Holbrook to Thomas Philip Holbrook (b. 24 Oct 1930, Sacramento). Sons or grandsons of these men would carry the Holbrook Y chromosome.
• Mollie's "Alice Holbrook" will (unverified): p. 13 recalls an English will leaving a bequest "To my granddaughter Alice Holbrook residing in New England," which she could not re-find.

D. New England (free, online)

• Gideon's parentage (Elisha > Gideon). Searched in the fifth pass without result: the 1779 guardianship letters for Elisha's children, and the FamilySearch full text for Gideon at Wellfleet, Eastham or Barnstable before 1787. Still to try: the Wellfleet town book of births from 1763 and the First Congregational Church of Wellfleet records (Elisha was a deacon), neither of which the full-text search seems to reach; Eastham and Wellfleet town deed copies that name Elisha's heirs (Barnstable County's own deeds burned in 1827); and Gideon's sale of any Wellfleet land or rights after Elisha's death.
• John (b. 1686) > Elisha. Now very strong. The rest of the 1749 administration file for Capt. John Holbrook of Eastham (inventory, accounts or a division naming his children), on the FamilySearch images that follow the letter of administration, would close it.
• Find a Grave. Optional: suggest a correction to memorial 40957263 (birth c. 1765, aged 76), so the 1786 date stops spreading into other trees.
• These are all on FamilySearch, where the full-text search (Search > Full-Text) reaches deeds and probate that are not name-indexed. Nothing here needs to be paid for.

E. Parked

• The Luccombe / Stawell question (section 10), at your request. Its open items (the tablet, the pre-1700 Luccombe register, Stawell v Shippen) are not being pursued.

---

Sources

Registers, databases and catalogues

• FreeREG (free transcriptions of parish registers). https://www.freereg.org.uk/search_queries/new
  • Luccombe: Thomas Stawell burial, 29 Dec 1732. https://www.freereg.org.uk/search_records/685163a6865574058aa34fbf/thomas-stawell-burial-somerset-luccombe-1732-12-29
  • Luccombe (Elizabeth Stawel burial, 9 Aug 1731), Hawkridge, Nempnett Thrubwell, Blagdon, Wrington, Winford and High Ham entries: found by surname and place searches on the same site.
• Clergy of the Church of England Database: Thomas Stowell/Stawell senior, https://theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/persons/DisplayPerson.jsp?PersonID=49077 ; Thomas Stawell junior, https://theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/persons/DisplayPerson.jsp?PersonID=49075 ; Luccombe location page, https://theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/locations/DisplayLocation.jsp?locKey=4584
• National Archives, Discovery catalogue:
  • C 11/2077/35, Stawell v Shippen (1738). https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C10497522
  • C 6/11/238, Perryn v Holbrooke (1647). https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C5194902
  • C 10/23/55, Holbrooke v Gutch (1653). https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C5643815
  • C 10/37/104, Holbrooke v Birch (1654). https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C5644051
  • C 7/167/23, Holbrooke v Hickes (1674).
  • SHC DD\BR\su/6, Compton Dando etc. deeds. https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/0604256d-7051-4358-8604-32d8cbc23409
  • SHC DD\S\WH/180, manor of Regilbury deeds. https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/23e9b3be-68c9-4e29-b50e-86db443665bd
• Foster, Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714, on British History Online.
• Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses (ACAD database).

Printed sources

• Collinson, John. History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset, vol. 2 (1791), Luckham entry, p. 24. https://archive.org/details/historyantiqutit02colluoft
• Notes & Queries for Somerset and Dorset, vol. 10, p. 120 (query 82). https://archive.org/details/notesqueriesfors10brid
• Notes & Queries for Somerset and Dorset, vol. 11, p. 12 (Wimborne bond, 1554). https://archive.org/details/notesqueriesfors11brid
• Historic England listing 1057328, Church of St Mary, Luccombe. https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101057328-church-of-st-mary-luccombe
• Exmoor Historic Environment Record MSO12036, St Mary's Church, Luccombe. https://www.exmoorher.co.uk/Monument/MSO12036
• Victoria County History, Somerset vol. 7 (1999), "Charlton Musgrove." https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/som/vol7/pp170-177
• Somerset Record Society vol. 3, Kirby's Quest for Somerset (1889). https://somersetrecordsociety.org.uk/?p=205
• Somerset Heritage Centre, wills research guide. https://somerset-cat.swheritage.org.uk/researchGuides/wills
• Historic England listing 1320999, Holbrook monument, Dundry. https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101320999
• Dictionary of American Family Names, "Holbrook" (via FamilySearch). https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/2DXL-GK1/lydia-holbrook-1741-1775

Compiled genealogies

• Lord, A. Roberts. Holbrook and Allied Families (New York, 1942). Full text: https://archive.org/details/holbrookalliedfa00lord . Also HathiTrust: https://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89063108526
  • Lord's footnote 1 (the English section) lists, among general heraldic works: Collinson vol. 2 pp. 141, 262 and vol. 3 p. 38; Notes and Queries for Somerset and Dorset vol. 10 p. 120; The Genealogist, new series, vol. 13 p. 96; Harleian Society vol. 2 p. 235; Papworth's Ordinary; the Parish Register of St John's, Glastonbury; Daniel, The Accounts of St. John's Church, Glastonbury, pp. 16, 20; Marston, Glastonbury (1925), p. 87; and the unpublished "Caleff and Carter Manuscript."
• Pfeiffer, Mollie Frances Holbrook (b. 1870). Holbrook family typescript, parts 1-2 (pp. 1-29).
• Anderson, R.C., et al. The Great Migration, vol. 3, pp. 350-353 (via G.D. Cooke). https://www.gdcooke.org/ss/org2-o/p31383.htm
• Wolfe Genealogy: Thomas Holbrook and Jane Powyes. https://websites.umich.edu/~bobwolfe/gen/mn/m12012x12028.htm
• Wolfe Genealogy: William Holbrook and Edith. https://websites.umich.edu/~bobwolfe/gen/mn/m12003x12006.htm
• Wolfe Genealogy: Thomas Holbrook and Constans Thayer. https://websites.umich.edu/~bobwolfe/gen/mn/m12004x12005.htm
• Pane-Joyce Genealogy: Thomas Holbrook. https://mathcs.clarku.edu/~djoyce/gen/report/rr01/rr01_480.html
• McCurdy lineage site: de Holebrok pages. https://mccurdyfamilylineage.com/ancestry/g7/p7635.htm

Other clergy

• National Archives: Anthony Holbrook. https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F60251
• Staunton monument: https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101045995-church-of-st-mary-staunton/photos/210749
• Ashby-de-la-Zouch: https://sthelensashby.net/Publisher/File.aspx?ID=299139

Added in the third pass

• FamilySearch, "England, Somerset, Church Records, 1501-1999" (index of Somerset Archives parish registers; images on Findmypast). https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/collection/4380193
  • Johes Holbrook burial, Glastonbury, 19 Aug 1609. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6D99-SNYR
  • Julia Holbrooke baptism, Glastonbury, 25 Mar 1603. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6D96-W7WV
  • John, son of Thomas, baptism, Glastonbury, 10 Apr 1618. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6D96-WNWL
  • William, son of Thomas, baptism, Glastonbury, 12 June 1620. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6D96-4WGF
  • Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas, baptism, Glastonbury, 13 Feb 1630. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6D96-9TQ9
  • Rebecka, daughter of William, baptism, Keynsham, 12 Jan 1595. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6D9F-52QK
  • "Thomas Holbrok Senior" burial, Norton Malreward, 11 Mar 1571. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6D99-MTKD
• FamilySearch, "England Marriages, 1538-1973": Thomas Holdbrooke and Constance Tawier, Thornbury, 19 Feb 1560. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NL8C-55N
• FamilySearch shared tree, William Holbrook (1562-1626), MXNJ-XJP. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/MXNJ-XJP
• FamilySearch catalog: Norton Malreward parish registers 1554-1835 (https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/koha:383145); Glastonbury St John's parish chest material 1366-1878 (https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/koha:499792).
• Somerset Heritage Centre catalogue:
  • DD/X/HBS/1, abstracts of 15 Holbrooke family wills. https://somerset-cat.swheritage.org.uk/records/DD/X/HBS/1
  • D/D/ct/1/H/137, will of William Holbrooke the elder of Glastonbury. https://somerset-cat.swheritage.org.uk/records/D/D/ct/1/H/137
  • D/D/ct/1/H/136, will of John Holbroke of Norton Malreward. https://somerset-cat.swheritage.org.uk/records/D/D/ct/1/H/136
  • D/D/ct/1/P/80, will of [ ] Phillips alias Houlbrooke, clerk. https://somerset-cat.swheritage.org.uk/records/D/D/ct/1/P/80
• National Archives, PCC will of Roger Holbroke of Chew, PROB 11/13/574. https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D971520
• Weaver, F.W., ed. Somerset Medieval Wills, 2nd series 1501-1530 (SRS 19, 1903). https://archive.org/details/somersetmedieva01weavgoog
• Weaver, F.W., ed. Somerset Medieval Wills, 3rd series 1531-1558 (SRS 21, 1905). https://archive.org/details/somersetmedieva02weavgoog
• Weaver, F.W. Wells Wills, Arranged in Parishes (1890). https://archive.org/details/wellswillsarrang00weavuoft
• Green, E., ed. Certificate of Musters in the County of Somerset, 1569 (SRS 20). https://archive.org/details/somersetpub20someuoft
• Kirby's Quest for Somerset (SRS 3). https://archive.org/details/publicationssome03someuoft
• A Feodary of Glastonbury Abbey (SRS 26, 1910). https://archive.org/details/somersetpub26someuoft
• Notes & Queries for Somerset and Dorset, vol. 4 (St John's, Glastonbury, churchwardens' accounts). https://archive.org/details/notesqueriesfors04brid
• Notes & Queries for Somerset and Dorset, vol. 5 (Chew hundred, 1600). https://archive.org/details/notesqueriesfors05brid

Added in the fourth pass

• Weaver, Lucius E. History and Genealogy of a Branch of the Weaver Family (Rochester, 1928), ch. IV, pp. 27-35: J. Gardner Bartlett's Glastonbury research, with St John's register extracts, St Benedict's transcripts and Wells will abstracts. https://archive.org/details/historygenealogy00weav
• Vinton, John Adams. The Vinton Memorial (Boston, 1858), "The Holbrook Family," pp. 330-335. https://archive.org/details/vintonmemorialc00vintgoog
• Vital Records of Scituate, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850 (NEHGS, 1909), vols. 1-2. https://archive.org/details/vitalrecordsofsc01newe and https://archive.org/details/vitalrecordsofsc02newe
• Vital Records of Weymouth, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850 (NEHGS, 1910). https://archive.org/details/vitalrecordsofwe01weym
• Davis, William T. Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth (1899), Part II p. 135 (Holbrook) and addenda. https://archive.org/details/ancientlandmarks1899davi
• Radasch, Arthur H. The Thomas Clark Family (1973). https://archive.org/details/thomasclarkfamil00rada
• Adadourian, Haig. Manometiana Number Four (1899) and "Dying, and, Behold, We Live" (1899). https://archive.org/details/manometiananumbe00adad and https://archive.org/details/dyingandbeholdwe00adad
• Ship Registers of the District of Plymouth, Massachusetts, 1789-1908 (1939). https://archive.org/details/shipregistersofply00surv
• Plymouth County Probate, will of Gideon Holbrook, 1841-1842. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-897D-JZGX
• Plymouth County Deeds, Richard B. Holbrook to Elisha Holbrook, 1855. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89Z7-LWW3
• Barnstable County Probate, estate of Elisha Holbrook of Wellfleet, 1779-1780. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9YB-XRB6 ; guardianships, 1779. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9YY-JYL1
• Suffolk County court, 1738 ("John Holbrook... now of Eastham"). https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSZN-QSKH ; Bristol County court, 1736. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS41-Y9QF-5
• Massachusetts death records: Nancy Holbrook, 1864 (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N7JD-P61); Gideon Holbrook, son of Eliphalet, 1868 (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N7V7-B58); Mary Holbrook, 1899 (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N4FV-N6L).
• Find a Grave: Gideon Holbrook, 40957263 (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/40957263/gideon-holbrook); Nancy Ellis Holbrook, 147127092.
• Donation land claim of Richard B. Holbrook, Island County, 1855. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G976-9FSV
• SHC catalogue: DD/SE/16/1 (Wrinkmore lease, 1593); D/P/gla.j/5/1/108 (William Wrinkmore, 1658); DD/WHh/593 (Tylye of Brewham, 1368); DD/SAS/C795/SW/23 (notes on the Gutch family).
• Barnstable County Probate: administration on the estate of Capt. John Holbrook late of Eastham, 1749 (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9YB-V9JX); will of Daniel Mayo Sr. of Eastham, 1754-1755 (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9YB-XRGK); estate of Thomas Holbrook late of Eastham, 1764-1766 (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9YY-B5LC).
• York County (Maine) Deeds: William Robords to John Holbrook Jr. of Eastham, 1742. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSRH-41NX
• Plymouth County Deeds: Eliphalet and Gideon Holbrook to Caleb Bartlett, 1795. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99Z7-NDY9
• Find a Grave 40957263, photographs of Gideon Holbrook's stone (Manomet Cemetery).

Added in the fifth pass

• Barnstable County Probate, June 1779: guardianship of Jeremiah Holbrook, minor son of Elisha, to Eliphalet Holbrook of Wellfleet, yeoman. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9YY-JY28 ; guardianships of Joseph and Ezekiel to Priscilla. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9Y1-S9S7-N
• Middlesex County court, December 1766: "Elisha Holbrook of Wellfleet in the County of Barnstable, Mariner." https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSLR-C91H-X
• Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915: Plymouth return for 1852, no. 85, Gideon Holbrook (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-68D7-ZW); for 1853, no. 113, Gideon H. Holbrook (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-DT43-2ZM).
• Island County, Washington, Register of Deaths, 1891-1907. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89SJ-J9CZ-J
• Find a Grave 11548347: Capt. Richard B. Holbrook, Sunnyside Cemetery, Coupeville. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11548347/richard-b-holbrook

Added in the seventh pass

• Spear, Burton W., ed. Search for the Passengers of the Mary & John 1630, vol. 26, Holbrook section: Robin Bush's abstract of William Holbrook's deposition of 9 May 1617, and transcripts of the Norton Malreward register and Compton Dando bishop's transcripts. Borrowable on archive.org: https://archive.org/details/searchforpasseng0026burt (read through full-text search snippets only).
• Davis, Walter Goodwin. The Ancestry of Joseph Neal, 1769-c. 1835, of Litchfield, Maine (Portland, 1945), ch. XI, "Holbrook, of Weymouth," pp. 125 ff. HathiTrust full view: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89069671295 ; archive.org (borrow): https://archive.org/details/ancestryofjoseph00davi (read through snippets only).
• Chase, Barbara Stone, and Alicia Crane Williams. Stone-Gregg Genealogy (1987), Holbrook section, following Davis. https://archive.org/details/stonegregggeneal00chas (snippets only).
• Knoff, Dorothy C. and Gerald E. Thirty-One English Emigrants Who Came to New England by 1662 (1989), Holbrook section, following Davis. https://archive.org/details/thirtyoneenglish00knof (snippets only).
• Medlycott, M.T. Somerset Wills Index: Printed and Manuscript Copies (1993). https://archive.org/details/somersetwillsind0000mtme (snippets only).
• Somerset Heritage Centre catalogue: D/D/ct/1/H/135, will of Edith Holbrocke of Compton Dando, widow, 1592 (https://somerset-cat.swheritage.org.uk/records/D/D/ct/1/H/135); D/D/cd/42, deposition book, 1610 (https://somerset-cat.swheritage.org.uk/records/D/D/cd/42); D/D/cd/50, deposition book, 1616-1618 (https://somerset-cat.swheritage.org.uk/records/D/D/cd/50); DD/PO/1, Popham deeds including the manor of Wyke alias Sheward Wyke in Compton Dando (https://somerset-cat.swheritage.org.uk/records/DD/PO/1).
• FamilySearch, "England, Somerset, Church Records, 1501-1999" (index): Melior, daughter of Robert, bapt. Compton Dando, 4 Oct 1605; Richard, son of Nicholas, bapt. Compton Dando, 1 Nov 1606; Nicholas Holbrooke bur. Compton Dando, 2 May 1639; Joane Holbrooke bur. Compton Dando, 7 May 1639; Robert, son of Robarte Holbrocke, bapt. Queen Charlton, 4 Nov 1609; Robert Holbrooke bur. Queen Charlton, 27 Mar 1616 [1617?]; Rachell Holbrooke bur. Queen Charlton, 9 July 1619; John, son of Robert, bapt. Queen Charlton, 27 May 1632; Edith Holbrook bur. Stanton Prior, 1572. https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/collection/4380193

Added in the eighth pass

• Bristol Archives, Smyth of Ashton Court papers: AC/D/26 (Compton Dando deeds, 1542-1657), including AC/D/26/5, /8, /9 and /10 (https://archives.bristol.gov.uk/records/AC/D/26 ); AC/M/6, survey of Compton Dando lands bought of Thomas Hungerford (https://archives.bristol.gov.uk/records/AC/M/6 ); AC/M/11/13, survey book 1595-1607; AC/D/17/4, Norton Hawkfield deeds 1551-1697.
• Somerset Heritage Centre: D/D/cta/H/37, executorship accounts of William Horsington the elder of Compton Dando, 1592/3 (https://somerset-cat.swheritage.org.uk/records/D/D/cta/H/37 ); DD/CC/B/131911a/8, bishopric court roll including Chew, 1463; DD/S/WH/215, manor and hundred of Chew court rolls, 1553-1653.
• The National Archives: PROB 11/4/176, will of Richard Holbroke, merchant of Bristol, 1457 (https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D968925 ); PROB 11/25/610, will of John Horssyngton of Corston, 1536 (https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D977319 ); PROB 11/28/50, will of William Saunders of Chew Stoke, 1539/40 (https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D949387 ); PROB 11/119/416, will of Thomas Horsington of Corston, 1612 (https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D903566 ); C 1/1444/24-26, Jekett v Holbroke (https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7504938 ); REQ 2/263/8, Richeman v Horsington, 1565; SC 2/200/14, courts of survey for Priston and Stanton Prior with Compton Dando, 1590-1623.
• Bath Record Office: Acc/269/6, "The Horsingtons of Corston, Pucklechurch, 1510-1673" (typescript).
• Heal, Ambrose. Records of the Heal Family (1932), pp. xxvii, 2, 73. https://archive.org/details/recordsofhealfam00heal
• Weaver, F.W., ed. Somerset Medieval Wills, 3rd series (SRS 21, 1905), pp. 31 (John Horsington), 56 (William Saunders of Chew Stoke), 58 (William Saunders of Yatton). https://archive.org/details/somersetmedieva02weavgoog
• Carus-Wilson, E.M., ed. The Overseas Trade of Bristol in the Later Middle Ages (Bristol Record Society vol. 7), pp. 210-212 (Margaret Holbroke).
• Copinger, W.A. The Manors of Suffolk, vols 3 and 6 (Holbrook and Tattingstone). https://archive.org/details/manorsofsuffolkn06copiuoft
• Kirby's Quest and the 1327 Somerset lay subsidy (SRS 3). https://archive.org/details/kirbysquestforso00grearich
• FamilyTreeDNA Holbrook project, Y-DNA results and administrator's notes. https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/holbrook/about/results
• NEHGS library catalogue: Mss C 1374 (https://library.nehgs.org/record=b1079904 ); Caleff, The Holbrook Family, 1560-1800 (https://library.nehgs.org/record=b1102320 ).
• Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England 1634-1635, vol. III (2003), pp. 350-355.
• The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 18 Nov 1894, p. 11, "Pioneers Gone." https://washingtondigitalnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=SEATPINT18941118.1.11