Thomas de Brantingham

By 1349 he had been appointed as clerk of the exchequer. In 1359 he was cofferer responsible for finance during the French military campaign and from 1361 to 1368 he was Treasurer of Calais. On 27 June 1369 he was appointed treasurer of the realm, but as the war in France deteriorated, he, along with fellow clerics William of Wykeham, the Chancellor and Peter Lacy, Keeper of the Privy Seal, was forced by public opinion to resign. However, in 1370 he had been consecrated as Bishop of Exeter.

While serving as bishop of Exeter, de Brantingham was petitioned by parishioners of "St. Tenion" (which, it has been suggested, may refer to Tinney Hall near Lewannick, Cornwall)[7] in the peculiar jurisdiction of St German's, concerning a suit carried on by them for eighteen years against the Prior and Convent of St. German's about permission for them to have their own chaplain.[7] The petitioners sought de Brantingham's intervention to settle the dispute,[7] although his decision is now lost.

A record of de Brantingham's death, dated 13 December 1394, notes that the bishop was to be buried in the nave of Exeter Cathedral and lists, among the beneficiaries of his will, Richard Brantingham and his wife, Joan (presumably de Brantingham's son and daughter-in-law).[6] Nor did De Brantingham forget the village of Brantingham, which had given its name to his family, bequeathing to the church of Brantingham a pair of vestments or one shilling.[6] De Brantingham also left a book of decretals to each of Merton Hall and Stapledon Hall. De Brantingham's association with Stapledon Hall (now Exeter College, Oxford) pre-dated his death to his contribution of 20 pounds to the building of its library.[6][8] As proof of his position in society, de Brantingham also remembered in (or had as a witness to) his will William Hankeford, later Chief Justice of the King's Bench.[6]

Richard Brantingham is recorded in the survey of Thomas Hatfield, Bishop of Durham, completed in 1382,[9] as a "suiter" or lawyer, holding a half a burgage for life in Auckland and paying six pence for any omission, and one penny at the four terms.[10] Bishop Hatfield granted a forest office to the valet of his kitchen, Walter Brantingham, presumably a relation.[11]

• Register of Bishop Brantingham, archive.org

• Davies, R.G. "Brantingham, Thomas". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32787. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Greenwell, William, ed. (1857), Bishop Hatfield's survey, Publications of the Surtees Society, Durham: Surtees Society.
• Holford, M. L.; Stringer, K. J. (2010), Border liberties and loyalties: North-East England, c. 1200 – c. 1400, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 9780748632787.
• Savage, Ernest Albert (1911), Old English libraries, Taylor & Francis.
• Steel, Anthony Bedford (1954), The receipt of the Exchequer, 1377–1485, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• North country wills, Publications of the Surtees Society, vol. 116, Surtees Society, 1908
• Yonge family of Puslinch, Devon (n.d.), Records, Plymouth and West Devon Public Records Office.
• Pollard, Albert Frederick (1901). "Brantingham, Thomas de" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (1st supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co.
• Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.