The Bromehead family were involved in our firm
for 55 years from 1810 to 1865. During the early period
they were extremely successful but towards the end of
the period changes in the law destroyed their practice.
John May Bromehead, the first of his family to be associated with the firm, was
born in Southwold, Suffolk, the son of Robert Bromehead and Mary May. Bromehead's
paternal family had been settled in Eckington, Derbyshire since at least 1733
whilst his maternal family was one of the most prominent in Southwold. On both
sides Bromehead came of merchant stock. Bromehead probably trained in Norwich
and on being admitted as an attorney and solicitor went into partnership with
Thomas Walker of Spilsby, Lincolnshire in the firm Walker and Bromehead. Thomas
Walker was a member of a long established legal dynasty in Spilsby but perhaps
the most noticeable thing about him was that he was an old man. This was valuable
experience for Bromehead when he went into partnership with a 79 year old founder
of our firm in 1810.
The partnership between John May Bromehead and Thomas Walker lasted until 1810
but it appears that they parted as a result of a disagreement over the management
of the firm.
Whilst Bromehead was in Spilsby he married Martha Nowill, daughter of Thomas
Nowill, who was Master Cutler of Sheffield in 1788. Click
here for further information on the Nowill family.
Mr and Mrs Bromehead were friends of Sir John Franklin the famous explorer who
died trying to find the North West Passage to the Pacific. Many years later Lady
Franklin recorded in her diary her first meeting with Mrs Martha Bromehead by
which time she was "the widow of a very eminent solicitor".
John May Bromehead entered into partnership with Jephtha Foster with effect from
1 July 1810. The partnership agreement survives. John May Bromehead was at pains
to provide that he was to take upon himself the sole management and conducting
of the practice. Mr Foster was to take one third of the profits and Mr Bromehead
two thirds. Bromehead with financial assistance from his father-in-law also agreed
to buy the James Street premises which were Foster's home and offices for £700.
Bromehead was admitted as a proctor of the ecclesiastical courts in Lincoln and
succeeded Mr Foster as Registrar of the Prebendal Court of Louth. In 1824 he
was appointed Steward of the Bail of Lincoln, an office under the Duchy of Lancaster
on account of his success in recovering rents owed to the Duchy some of which
had been in arrears for 10 years. Again, that office survived in the firm until
the abolition of manorial jurisdictions in 1925.
In 1825 John May Bromehead took his eldest John Nowill Bromehead, who had trained
with him, into partnership. A younger son, Edmund Arthur Bromehead was also articled
to his father but had not completed his training by the time of John May Bromehead's
death on 7 March 1832. There is a long tradition of probate lawyers being unable
to satisfactorily make Wills themselves. John May Bromehead did not challenge
that tradition and probate was only granted following an affidavit of due execution.
By his Will John May Bromehead made his gifts to his eldest son conditional upon
John Nowill Bromehead completing Edmund Arthur's training and admitting him to
partnership in the firm. This duly took place and thereafter the Bromehead brothers
practised in partnership until John Nowill Bromehead's death in 1844.
John Nowill Bromehead married Susannah Soulby and had a family. None of that
family entered the firm but one of John Nowill Bromehead's sons became Town Clerk
of Cape Town.
Although one of John May Bromehead's daughters left a memoir of her childhood
we do not have very detailed descriptions of either John May Bromehead or John
Nowill Bromehead. We do know that John Nowill Bromehead lived at 6 Eastgate,
Lincoln (now the Black Horse Chambers Restaurant) whilst Edmund Arthur Bromehead
continued to live with his mother in the James Street premises. Edmund Arthur
Bromehead did not wish to be a lawyer he wanted to be a sailor. Both brothers
involved themselves in Tory politics in the 1830's and 1840's. Edmund Arthur
Bromehead rose highly in local freemasonry.
Mrs Martha Bromehead died in 1855. Her late husband's law library had not been
left to her lawyer sons and so following her death it was put up for auction.
There are very few records of the contents of provincial lawyers' law libraries.
We are fortunate to have a complete list of all the books which John May Bromehead
owned at the date of his death.
Edmund Arthur Bromehead continued in active practice until 1861. However, in
1857 the practice was almost entirely destroyed. In that year Parliament took
both the matrimonial jurisdiction and more importantly the probate jurisdiction
away from the Church courts and gave them to new Courts of Matrimonial Causes
and Probate. The firm received minimal compensation from the Treasury for the
loss of fees due to the Registrar of the Prebendal Court of Louth. More significantly
probate work could now be carried on by all attorneys and solicitors and not
merely by the very small group of Proctors. In 1850 Charles Dickens had described
the Registrars in Lincoln as rolling in carriages (in the Bromehead's case "a
very superior town built chariot in excellent condition with boxes, cushions
etc complete") and the Proctors as growing rich. Within a decade all had evaporated.
In 1861 Edmund Arthur Bromehead took into partnership Henry Kirke Hebb. In reality
this was a retirement and Hebb took over the firm. Bromehead moved to the Lake
District where he died in 1865. Hebb moved the firm away from the James Street
property and into Downhill commercial Lincoln.
The Bromehead family still survives. A branch is flourishing in South Africa.
More History:-
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