Margaret Bromley née Lowe (died 1657) was a noted English Puritan of Staffordshire origins. She married Sir Edward Bromley, a noted lawyer and judge of the period. After his death she established a base for sheltering and supporting nonconforming ministers at Sheriffhales. Leaving the area during the English Civil War, she spent the final years of her life at Loughborough.
Origins
Margaret Bromley is identified by the heraldic visitation of Staffordshire as the daughter of Nicholas Lowe of Tymore, Enville, Staffordshire.Visitation of Shropshire, 1623, volume 1, p. 78. This Enville connection has been accepted by several authorities since, including successive volumes of The History of Parliament, which name her father as Nicholas Lowe of Enville. It is true that a family named Lowe had a long history as landowners in the region and were once the lords of the manor of Enville: it passed to the Grey family in the 15th century when Eleanor Lowe, heir of Humphrey Lowe, married Robert Grey, son of the notorious marcher lord Reginald Grey, 3rd Baron Grey de Ruthyn.Vaughan, p. 5
However, the house known as Tymore or Timmor was not at Enville: the Victoria County History locates it rather at Fisherwick, near Lichfield,Greenslade (ed). Townships: Fisherwick with Tamhorn, note anchor 172 on the other side of the county. It was part of the manor of Lichfield, which was held by the Bishop of Lichfield,Greenslade (ed). Townships: Fisherwick with Tamhorn, note anchor 139 although leased to the corporation of Lichfield. Parts of Tymore, including the house, some of the land and other rights, were leased for £100 to Michael Lowe and his heirs in October 1581, using the archaic device of fine of lands, by Peter Roos or Ross.Collections for a History of Staffordshire, volume 15, p. 138. Ross had himself purchased Tymore earlier that year for 400 marks.Collections for a History of Staffordshire, volume 15, p. 135.
It seems certain that Margaret Lowe's father was Michael Lowe, the sole Lowe to be mentioned as a tenant of Tymore and the only Lowe resident at Tymore whose will was filed with Prerogative court of Canterbury in the relevant period.Index of Wills Proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 1584–1604, p. 269. The detail of the will makes clear that he was the father-in-law of Edward Bromley. Written in July 1593,Public Record Office: PROB 11/83/159, Part 1. shortly after Margaret's marriage, and proved on 13 Feb 1594,Public Record Office: PROB 11/83/159, Part 2. it refers to two sons-in-law, George Abney and Mr. Bromley, and three daughters, Margery, Margaret, and Katherine. In his will Michael Lowe mentions his study in the Inner Temple, London, and his law books, as well as his study in Tymore, Staffordshire. His daughter Margery married George Abney and Margaret married Edward Bromley. Katherine was unmarried at the time of writing. Large numbers of relatives are mentioned in his will including Michael Lowe, a nephew and namesake, who received a considerable bequest.
It is known that Michael Lowe's wife, Margaret, was buried on 1 April 1584.Greenslade (ed). Townships: Fisherwick with Tamhorn, footnote 172 She was the daughter of Simon Biddulph, a mercer of Lichfield, just as Michael was the son of a Lichfield mercer, Humphrey Lowe.Greenslade (ed). Lichfield: Town government, note anchor 134
Hence the parents of Margaret Bromley née Lowe were:
Michael Lowe (died 1593-4), son of Humphrey and Joan Lowe of Lichfield. Margaret Biddulph (died 1584), daughter of Simon and Margaret Biddulph of Lichfield.
Margaret Bromley's date of birth is unknown, but as her sole marriage was in 1593 it was probably in the early 1570s. Margaret's immediate family, if related to the Lowes of Enville, as seems possible, were a very junior branch of the family. They had only recently become fairly substantial landed gentry with interests in several parts of Staffordshire and neighbouring Derbyshire. However, Michael Lowe's background lay in the urban ruling group in Lichfield, rather than the landed gentry, and both his considerable wealth and enhanced status were the outcome of his career as a lawyer. Humphrey Lowe and Simon Biddulph or Biddle, Margaret Bromley's grandfathers, both appear repeatedly in the lists of the town's officials, particularly the bailiffs, as do her uncle and cousin, both also called Simon Biddulph.Harwood, p.418-24. There is evidence that the small, close group of families that dominated Lichfield was strongly Protestant even during the Marian persecutions. Margaret's grandmothers, Margaret Biddulph and Joan Lowe, are listed among the supporters of Joyce Lewis a Protestant martyr burnt at Lichfield in 1557.Greenslade (ed). Lichfield: Town government, note anchor 138 The Biddulphs, as much as the Lowes, acquired country properties close to their urban base, with substantial estates at Elmhurst Hall.Greenslade (ed). Townships: Curborough and Elmshurst: Estates. and Hammerwich.Greenslade (ed). Townships: Hammerwich, note anchor 88. Lichfield's records refer to the elder Simon Biddulph always as a mercer, while the younger is described as a gentleman, reflecting the social ascent of these merchant families into the rural landed class. However, Michael Lowe seems to have wanted a country retreat close to Lichfield rather than an investment in agriculture. At Tymore he took on only three of the farming tenants, with their tofts, cottages and orchards, and only 80 of the 300 acres of grazing. Prominent among what he leased were 100 acres of flooded land and fishing rights on the River Tame, more suitable for sport and leisure pursuits than for economic exploitation.
That Michael Lowe's focus and commitment remained at Lichfield is made clear by his 1571 grant of houses and 45 acres of land there to fund provision of clothing and coal to 12 poor local men annually – a grant that was confirmed in his will.Greenslade (ed). Lichfield: Charities for the poor: Michael Lowe's Charity, note anchor 70, and attached footnote. This was the origin of Michael Lowe's Charity, which grew in income and scope over the next three centuries. In 1980 it was merged with nine other charitable funds to form Michael Lowe's and Associated Charities, which continued to emphasise provision of fuelGreenslade (ed). Lichfield: Charities for the poor: Michael Lowe's and Associated Charities, note anchor 110. and it plays a part in combatting poverty in the area to the present.
It seems likely that it was around Lichfield, rather than Enville, that Margaret Lowe and her sisters grew up, and that they came to maturity while living at least some of the time at Tymore. Their mother died while they were still children. Perhaps sensing that his profitable lessee was approaching death, Peter Roos sold the Tymore estate to William Skeffington in November 1593:Collections for a History of Staffordshire, volume 16, p. 131. The Skeffington family had held Fisherwick itself since the 1520s and Sir John had handed it over to his son William in 1587, so this was a natural extension to his estates in Staffordshire.Greenslade (ed). Townships: Fisherwick with Tamhorn, note anchor 105 In 1594 Skeffington leased the house at Tymore to Bartholomew Farmer for ten years,Greenslade (ed). Townships: Fisherwick with Tamhorn, note anchor 173 so it must have been vacated by Michael Lowe's family before or at that date.
As they were their father's heiresses, Margaret and her two sisters cannot have had surviving brothers. By some point in 1594 all three seem to have moved from Tymore to join their recently married husbands. Nevertheless, they seem to have remained close to easch other. Margaret and Edward Bromley were to remain childless, so her most important male relatives were to be her nephews, the sons of her sisters: these included Oliver BromskillFletcher (1894), p. 73. and James and Thomas Abney.Fletcher (1894), p. 70.
Marriage
Members of the Lowe family were prominent in the Law and it was probably through connections in the profession that Margaret's marriage was arranged. On 5 July 1590, the parliament or governing body of the Inner Temple allowed Michael Lowe a chief clerk of the King's Bench, lifetime's access to a study he had helped repair above the Inn's buttery.Inderwick, volume 1, p. 368. At the same time it granted permission to use the study to his nephew, Humphrey Lowe, and to Edward Bromley, a young lawyer who was called to the bar at the same meeting. Michael Lowe, was given a supervisory role in Bromley's work in November 1590.Inderwick, volume 1, p. 371. They were joined in their chamber by George Abney, who was admitted to the Inner Temple in April 1591.Inderwick, volume 1, p. 373. and paid his share of the repair bills.Inderwick, volume 1, p. 407. It seems that the working relationship between Bromley and the Lowes was close and culminated in his marriage to Margaret Lowe, which took place on 18 April 1593. Moreover, Abney also married into the Lowe family by the same route.
Edward Bromley was a son of Sir George Bromley, a prominent politician and lawyer, a nephew of Sir Thomas Bromley, a former Lord Chancellor, and had already been returned three times as MP for Bridgnorth.Hasler (ed). W. J. Jones. Bromley, Edward (1563-1626), of Shifnall Grange and Bridgnorth, Salop. However, he was Sir George's second son, with only a small inheritance of property at Shifnal and Bridgnorth. His and his wife's status was transformed in February 1610, when, in a few weeks, he was made Serjeant-at-law and a Baron of the Exchequer, inherited the family estates on the death of his nephew and was knighted.Thrush and Ferris (eds). Simon Healy. Bromley, Edward (1563-1626), of the Inner Temple, London and Hallon, Worfield, Salop.
The couple remained childless. When Sir Edward Bromley died in 1626, disputes about the inheritance of the family estates had already begun. The codicil to his will showed that he had been forced to sacrifice some of the lands he had intended as part of Lady Margaret's jointure to placate the Davenports, his great-niece and her husband,Fletcher (1893), p. 227. who were ultimately to acquire the main estate at Hallon, next to Worfield,Visitation of Shropshire, 1623, volume 2, p. 492-3. after protracted litigation.Randall, p. 88-9. As compensation, he left her all his moveable property, although he had originally intended to give her only the use of it during her life and the right to bequeath £400-worth in her own will. For everything not relating to the property dispute, Lady Margaret was appointed executrix. Sir Edward set aside £100 for a monument "to be set up in Shifnall Church, or elsewhere, to me and my wife Dame Margaret." However, he directed that his burial itself be "without funeral pompe," probably an indication of Puritan views. In the event, Sir Edward was buried in the church at Worfield, where Margaret subsequently had the prescribed monument built, with an inscription attesting her role: "Dame Margaret his wife according to his will did dedicate This monument to his memory."Randall, p. 49. Margaret is portrayed lying at Edward's side but was never buried in the tomb.
Sheriffhales
The Bromleys had property at Sheriffhales, a parish then divided between Shropshire and Staffordshire,The Register of Sheriffhales, p. iii. and Sir Edward had left a small sum for the poor of the parish. Lady Margaret settled at Sheriffhales after his death and it became her base for the support of Puritan ministers. Her presence locally is first noted in the parish register in 1630, when her servant Robert Cowper died.The Register of Sheriffhales, p. 56. She seems to have taken steps to manage and invest her wealth. In 1636, for example, she leased a meadow at Worfield from a consortium of businessmen: William Whitmore, George Whitmore and John Weld of Willey.Shropshire Archives, document reference: 5586/2/1/347, at Discovering Shropshire's History