Bracken on the Wolds

The settlement of Bracken likely originated during Viking Age Britain, however it may date to an earlier period. At the time of the Earldom of York in 972 the Anglo-Scandinavian estate was recorded as "Bracenan"[6] in a memorandum on the estates of the See of York by the Benedictine Archbishop, St. Oswald of Worcester, which reads: " . . . þreo hida æt Bracenan he gebohte æt Eadgare cinge . . . " The estate was owned by the Archbishopric in place of a thegn and measured to be 3 hides. It was noted to have been bought by a previous Archbishop of York, Oscytel, from King Edgar the Peaceful.[7] This would have occurred between 959 and 971, immediately after Viking rule in the Danelaw had ended - when Eric Bloodaxe was driven out of Northumbria in 954.

Bracenan recorded in St. Oswald's memorandum on line 18

In the memorandum St. Oswald further stated:

I, Archbishop Oswald, declare that all these lands which Archbishop Oscetel obtained in Northumbria, and which my lord granted me for St. Peter's when he was at Nottingham, together with these other lands which are entered here besides, I had them all until [unintelligible] ascended. Then St. Peter was robbed of them. May God avenge it as He will.[8]

This narrowly preceded the "manifold disturbances" or anti-monastic reaction, during the reign of King Edward the Martyr, mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.[9] During this time, many of King Edgar's former grants to monasteries were undone and the lands were distributed amongst the local nobility.

The era between the ensuing North Sea Empire and the Norman Invasion were tumultuous and account of the estate is obscured.

In the years following the Norman Conquest in 1066, all manors in England were seized by William the Conqueror and the majority were subsequently granted to his nobles. In Northern England, William encountered great resistance to his rule, which he dealt with ruthlessly.

The winter of 1069–1070 saw the Harrying of the North and the razing of the historic county of Yorkshire. It is unknown if Bracken was among the areas directly affected by the scorched earth tactics employed by the King's men, however by the next written account it was under Norman control.

Sneculfcros Hundred recorded in the Domesday Book

The manor was listed as "Brachen"[10] within the Domesday Book in 1086, where it is recorded in the Hundred of Sneculfcros as: "In Brachen. Erneiſ. vi. c𛰁." The land was surveyed to be 6 carucates, equivalent to approximately 720 acres.

Erneis is presumed to be Erneis de Buron, Lord of Hunsingore and High Sheriff of Yorkshire.[11] He was a feudal baron who had fought at the Battle of Hastings, under the banner of Odo of Bayeux. He is named in both the Falaise Roll and in the Rolls of Battle Abbey.[12] He had settled in England by 1068 and held a number of other manors in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire as Tenant-in-chief before having them confiscated by King Henry I between 1102 to 1118.

By 1118 the majority of the former estates of Erneis de Buron had been granted to Geoffrey FitzPayne Trussebut, who later founded the Augustinian Warter Priory in 1132. After Geoffrey's death, his lands were initially seized for a period of time by King Stephen of Blois and many of his lands were granted to Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester around 1142.[13] The lands were eventually returned to Geoffrey's grandson, William Trussebut the Younger, Lord of Warter and were afterwards known as the Trussebut Fee. His eldest son, Geoffrey, and second son, Robert, each held the manor successively - both dying without issue. The Trussebut Fee was then partitioned between their three sisters Rohese, Hilary and Agatha in 1194.[14]

A Yorkshire charter of 1194 recorded the manor as a Knight's fee allotted to Agatha Trussebut.[15] She was married to William d'Aubigny, Lord of Belvoir, one of the senior Sureties of the Magna Carta of King John I. When Agatha died in 1247, lordship of Bracken passed to her daughter, Isabel d'Aubigny, who had married Sir Robert de Ros, Lord of Helmsley, the great-grandson of William the Lion, King of Scots. De Ros, whose forebear had assumed the arms of Trussebut of Warter, further inherited the entirety of the Trussebut Fee through his marriage to Isabel.[16] Due in part to his grandfather's membership in the Order, Sir Robert remained a principal benefactor to the Knights Templar throughout his life - allowing the Order to benefit from a number of his manors.

A collection at Berkeley Castle Archives provides the descent of the manor in the 13th & 14th centuries, recounted below:

"The manor was acquired by Samson Foliot in 1271-2 except for a holding of a croft and 2 bovates of land which was sold separately to him. When forfeited by the Contrariant Henry Lord Tyeys it was granted to Geoffrey le Scrope in May 1322 (at first for life but then to him and his heirs in July), and probably remained in his hands until Feb. 1329 when he was granted an Exchequer annuity in its place. It then passed to Tyeys's sister Alice and was inherited by her son Gerard de Lisle on her death in 1347. In 1350 Gerard exonerated the sheriff of Yorkshire for profits of the manor taken by the sheriff since Alice's death, and he held it at his death in 1360. It was granted to his widow Elizabeth (d. 1362) in dower, with half of the manors of Kingston Lisle and Fawler, in exchange for those of Mundford, Fritwell and Lydiard Tregoze, which had originally been assigned to her. Warin was described as lord of Bracken in 1364."[17]

A 1415 Knight's fee in Bracken was held by the widow of Roger Scrope, 2nd Baron Scrope of Bolton[18] and an enfeoffment of 1439 records John, Lord de Scrope.[19]

Later in 1535 John Scrope, 8th Baron Scrope of Bolton was noted to have collected rental for Bracken.[20] The manor was held by the Barons of Bolton until the death of Emanuel Scrope, 1st Earl of Sunderland and 11th Baron of Bolton, who had been raised to the Earldom of Sunderland in 1627. After his death in 1630, his eldest daughter Mary inherited Bracken. She later married Charles Paulet, 1st Duke of Bolton, at the time 6th Marquess of Winchester, in 1655. The manor passed in 1699 to their daughter Jane, who married John Egerton, 3rd Earl of Bridgewater.

Accounts of the Bridgewater Estate in 1748 note rent being taken in Bracken, presumably for John Egerton, Bishop of Durham.[21] His daughter, Amelia Egerton, Lady Hume, inherited the manor following his death in 1787. In 1798 Sir Abraham Hume, 2nd Baronet and Amelia had the estate of Bracken surveyed by Ralph Burton. It was found to contain 660 acres, 2 roods and 17 perches of demesne land.[22]

The seventh edition of A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, describes the manor in the late 1850s as:

"BRACKEN, a township, in the chapelry of Kilnwick, union of Driffield, Bainton-Beacon division of the wapentake of Harthill; E. riding of York, 6¾ miles (S. W. by S.) from Driffield; containing 33 inhabitants. It is on the road from Beverley to Malton, and comprises about 600 acres. The village was formerly populous; and contained a chapel, the cemetery belonging to which remains undisturbed."[2]

As part of the estate of John Egerton, Viscount Alford, the manor passed to his eldest son John Egerton-Cust, 2nd Earl Brownlow in 1863. It then passed to the second son Adelbert Brownlow-Cust, 3rd Earl Brownlow when he succeeded in the Earldom of Brownlow and Viscountcy of Alford on the death of his elder brother in 1867.

In 1894-95 the manor was recorded in The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales:

"Bracken, a hamlet and a township in Kilnwick parish, in the E.R. Yorkshire, 6 miles SW by S of Great Driffield. Acreage of township, 677; population, 25."[23]

Lord Brownlow died without heirs in 1921 with the earldom and viscountcy becoming extinct. An indenture in 1923 recorded the transfer of the manor to the Rev. Dr. Robert Edleston, Baron de Montalbo.[24] The Law of Property Act of 1925 abolished copyhold throughout the United Kingdom by converting existing tenures to freehold and effectively separating them from the lordship. In 1953 the lordship was inherited by Edleston's sister, Sarah Edleston. In 1969 it was vested in the Hanby Holmes family who held the title, demesne land and manorial rights until they were later passed by deed of conveyance to the current owners in 2023, just prior to the coronation of King Charles III.[25]