Brooke

Location

The exact location of the mansion or manor house, later known as "Brooke's Court", is unknown and all physical traces of it have been lost. It was said by the Somerset historian Collinson to have been situated "without the walls (i.e. of the town of Ilchester) towards Montacute", which is to the south, thus probably to the west of the ancient estate of Sock Dennis, also situated to the immediate south of the town. Most of the estate lay in "Ilchester Mead" and included land "near the meadow of Sock and Martock". Possibly the name derives from the brook or stream, now known as Bearley Brook, which separates Ilchester from Sock Dennis and flows into the River Yeo 600 metres below Pill Bridge. The land extended to Pill Bridge, in the west, for the maintenance of which the estate was liable.

Descent

Brooke

The Brooke family (anciently "de la Brook" or "At-Brook") originated at the estate of "la Brook" next to (juxta) the town of Ilchester in Somerset, and later resided at Holditch in the parish of Thorncombe and at Weycroft in the parish of Axminster, both in Devon, both fortified manor houses. Following the marriage of Sir Thomas III Brooke (died 1439) of Holditch in the parish of Thorncombe, Devon to the heiress Joan Braybroke, suo jure 5th Baroness Cobham (died 1442), he moved his residence to the manor of Cobham, Kent. The descent of the estate of Brooke is given as follows by Raphael Holinshed (c. 1525–1580?) in his Chronicles of England, which is followed by the Somerset historian Collinson (d.1793):

Henry I de la Brooke (fl. 13th.c.) established the estate from lands which he acquired both through his marriage to a daughter of Roger de Gouvis (d. 1231), lord of the manor of Kingsdon (2 miles north of Ilchester), and through his own purchases.

William de la Brook, of "the Brook-juxta-Ivelchester";

Henry II de la Brook, who married Nichola Gonvile, a daughter of Bryan Gonvile (or Gonevile). It was possibly this Henry de Broc (or his son) who first acquired the manor of Holditch in Devon (since 1844 in Dorset) from Reginald II de Mohun (1206–1258), Feudal baron of Dunster in Somerset, who had inherited it from his first wife Hawise Fleming, daughter and heiress of William Fleming.

Henry III de la Brook;

Henry IV de la Brook (d.1324), who married a certain Elizabeth;

John de la Brook (d.1348) (alias "At-Brook"), who married Joan Bardstone, a daughter of Sir John Bardstone. In 1325 Brooke was a substantial property held in-chief from the crown which contributed a substantial sum to the fee farm of the borough of Ilchester. By 1331 the estate comprised 84 acres of arable land, and 46 acres of meadow. He died holding a messuage (i.e.house) with a curtilage (i.e. court-yard) and garden with one carucate of land at "the Brook without the walls of the town of Ivelchester", which he held by feudal tenure from the commonalty of that town and also held land at Sock Dennis, Bishopston and Kingston;

Earth

Following the attainder of the 11th Baron, the estate of Brooke was granted by the King to Joseph Earth (d. 1609) of High Holborn, London. His heir was his brother Roger Earth, from whom it passed by means unknown to Sir Henry Berkeley of Yarlington in Somerset.

Berkeley

Sir Henry Berkeley of Yarlington was a Member of Parliament for Ilchester. His daughter and heiress was Dorothy Berkeley, wife of Sir Francis Godolphin (1605–1667).

Godolphin

Sir Francis Godolphin (1605–1667) married Dorothy Berkeley, the heiress of Brooke. In 1759 the manor of Brooke was owned by his grandson Francis Godolphin, 2nd Earl of Godolphin (1678–1766). The estate by then consisted of little else than the ownership of Pill Bridge.