Will of Richard Holbroke, merchant and burgess of Bristol, 1457

The register copy of a Latin will, read from the image downloaded from The National Archives (October 2026). The reading is partial, and words marked [?] are uncertain.

“In dei nomine Amen. Terciodecimo die mensis July Anno domini Millesimo CCCC^mo^ quinquagesimo Septimo. Ego Ricardus Holbroke mercator ac burgensis ville Bristollie”: Richard Holbroke, merchant and burgess of the town of Bristol, 13 July 1457. He asks to be buried in the church of St Stephen, Bristol, in the chapel founded in honour of St Katherine the Virgin, and leaves:

• 12d. to the cathedral church of Worcester (Bristol north of the Avon, St Stephen’s parish included, was then in Worcester diocese);
• 3s. 4d. for repairing the books of the choir of St Stephen’s, and gifts to its lights;
• money for a suitable priest to sing for his soul in St Stephen’s for a year;
• gowns and goods to “Johanni Goffrayo [?] fratri meo” and to John Bartelot [?];
• to “Ric[ard]o filio meo et heredi,” his son and heir, two whole cloths (ij whole clothes, in English) [?], a [?] tasse and a covered goblet.

The residue goes to his wife Margaret [?], to dispose of for his soul. She is his executrix. John Skydmore [?] and William Bird [?] are named overseers, with 6s. 8d. each. The probate clause, at Lambeth, 27 July 1457 (the day from the catalogue), grants administration to Margaret, the widow and executrix.

This is very probably the will of 1457 that Walter Goodwin Davis (1945) counted as the earliest of nineteen Somerset Holbrooke wills (research/holbrook/early-holbrook-family-england.md, “The 1457 will”). Nothing in it connects Richard to the Holbrookes of Chew, Norton Malreward or Glastonbury. It is the earliest Holbroke record yet seen near Bristol, but no line runs from him to the family. It was downloaded on 9 Oct 2026 in place of PROB 11/25/610, the Horsington will that bears on Edith Holbrooke, so it is not in the Gallery.