312 Broughton Gifford. 
signment of the profits of the manor of Oxsand in Salop. The 
purchase money was £280. And thus we part with the first 
branch of the Shrewsbury family. 
The pedigree of Palmes shows who the purchaser was. His 
descendants still live at Naburn, four miles from York. It further 
appears from his inquisition and will, that he died 11th Nov., 1516, 
at St. Dunstan’s in the West, Faringdon Ward Without, that he left 
his Broughton property to his wife for her life, and then entailed 
it on his sons in succession. The value of the half manor is given 
at £18. His eldest son Brian (for whom his father provided that he 
should not come of age till he was 22) died in possession 19th Oct., 
1528, zt. 29. His son Francis died shortly before Feb., 1568, seized 
of our half manor: the exact date cannot be ascertained, as the latter 
part of the inquisition containing it has been destroyed. Another 
Francis succeeded. In the summer of 1579 he sold our half manor 
and other property in the neighbourhood to William Brunker. 
This family was settled at Melksham, and had been previously 
connected with Broughton. The grandfather of the purchaser had 
married a daughter of Golding, a name of long standing and much 
respectability among the yeomen of the parish. Robert Brounker 
(whom I suppose to be of the same race) was admitted copyholder 
here by grant of Robert May 1565. His name often occurs afterwards 
in the court rolls. In 1624 there is a presentment that “Robert 
Bronker is deceased since the last court, and his wife to be taken 
tenant according to the custome, and the house is in great decay.” 
The purchaser was succeeded in the half manor by his son Henry. 
He in his turn by his son William, who sold the property in 1622 
to Sir John Horton, of whom we shall hear again. 
1 Such particulars as I have been enabled to collect of the Brounker family 
from Coles’ Escheats, Harl. MSS., Wilts Visitations, old deeds, and the 
Melksham Parish Registers, I have incorporated in my pedigree of the family. 
From the Wilts fines they appear to have begun their purchases in the county 
1535, and to have settled at Melksham nine years afterwards. There were 
family connections and pecuniary dealings between them and the Smythes of 
Corsham. John Smythe (who died 1538) married Joan daughter of Robert 
Brounker. The second son of this marriage was Thomas Smythe, farmer 
of the customs to Queens Mary and Elizabeth. He died 1591. His eldest 
surviving son was the ancestor of the Viscounts Strangford, The Smythes 
