Wesbroom

It seems that the name comes from a settlement near Woolpit in Suffolk, and meant “village in the broom”. A feoffment document from around 1211 puts it somewhere between Drinkstone, Hegeset (Hessett) and Longchippinglond. It has been said that the first known member of the family was Aylmer de Westbron, recorded in 1086. There were certainly people with the name in the early 13^th century. The Phillipps records mention Agnes de Westbrom, who had land next to “a field called Bradelond”; Almer de Westbrom whose land was “in fields of Hegesete”; and Odo de Westbron, who was a witness to a feoffment document in the same area.  The places where the Wesbroom name and its variants were recorded were almost all part of the estates of the Priory of St Osyth near Clacton in Essex.  These lands were surrendered to the crown in 1539, and were later sold by Edward VI to Sir Thomas Darcy, who became Lord Darcy of Chich.  An account roll of his son John lists the manors owned as Great and Little Clacton; Weeley; Great and Little Oakley; Fingringhoe; Peet Hall in Peldon; West Mersea; Southminster; Thorpe, Kirby and Walton within the Soken; Great Holland, Old Hall and New Hall in Beaumont; Mose; Lawford; and the manors of Elmswell, Woolpit and Norton in West Suffolk.

The next reference to a Westbroom is in a deed of 31 Oct 1464 in Wetherden, Suffolk. A grant was made by John Hessete to six men including John Westbroom of a piece of land in the parish called Townland.

The next reference to a Westbroom is in a deed of 31 Oct 1464 in Wetherden, Suffolk. A grant was made by John Hessete to six men including John Westbroom of a piece of land in the parish called Townland.

These three generations lived in Layer de la Haye and in nearby Abberton. A son of the Thimble Westbroome born in 1582 was called Thomas, and he was admitted, in his 11th year, to Colchester School on 27 July 1640.  We find, on the IGI, Anne Westbroome, born c.1550 in Colchester, marrying Sibert Crowe in 1570, but cannot connect her to the Layer family. A Thimble Wesbroom died in 1705 and was buried in Little Clacton.  A Mary Wesbrome died in 1686 and was also buried in Little Clacton.

Various descendents of Thomas Rogers (1588 - 1638), one of the Pilgrim Fathers, have traced their ancestry back to Thomas Westbrome, reportedly born c. 1526 in Amber, Essex.  Whether this is the same Thomas as in the above tree is not clear, but they claim that a daughter, Katherine, married Tobias Makin, and became the mother-in-law of Rogers.

It seems that one branch went to London. Grace Westbroome was born there in 1600 and married Thomas Lowe in 1624. A Phillip Wesbroom was the father of Phillip, 1606, and Thomas, 1609, in Stepney.  It may be this Thomas who married Maria and had a son, also Thomas, who was buried on 30 January 1634/35 in St Martin in the Fields.

There are variants of the name - Westbrown(e) and Wesbrown - which are found in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, in London and Essex.