Three Generations in the Church

Our branch of the Brougham family landed in Ireland because the Rev. John Brougham (1748-1811), needed to make an independent living. He managed to achieve one through an education, an early career as a priest in the Church of England, then an appointment as rector in the Church of Ireland.

Panorama depicting the Front Court of King’s College Cambridge.

Here, above, is where Rev. John Brougham attended school: Kings College, Cambridge. He graduated BA in 1771 and MA in 1775 and was a fellow of Kings from 1776 until 1778.

Here, above is where Rev. John Brougham had his early career: Ely Cathedral. On 24 February 1778 he was ordained deacon of Ely Cathedral and on 7 March he became a priest.

Seven years later, on 17 October 1785 he was appointed rector of Ballyhaise and Balleborough in the diocese of Kilmore, a living held in plurality, meaning that in exchange for his priestly services he could hold more than one benefice or source of income at a time. Ballyhaise was at the time an estate village, owned by the Taylor and Newburgh families. It was built to support what at the time Rev. Brougham arrived, was a failing linen industry.

Rev. Brougham would have know this building Ballyhaise House, built for the Newburghs, a local landowning family, in the early eighteenth century.

Thus did our branch of the Broughams land themselves in Ireland in 1785 with a living from the Church of Ireland, entitled at the time, to revenues from: tithes, rentcharge, ministers’ money, stipends and other fees. They seem like solid members of the Protestant Ascendancy, a minority of landowners, Protestant clergy, and members of the professions, all members of the Established Church.

Rev John Brougham’s son, Rev. Henry William Brougham (1797-1831) followed his father’s profession as did his grandson, Edith’s father Rev. Henry William Brougham (1827-1913).

Portrait of Jonathan Swift by Charles Jervas, 1710

These guys bring to mind another Anglo-Irish clergyman from an earlier generation, Dr. Jonathan Swift, Dean of Dublin Cathedral who wrote:

I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and 60 wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasie, or a ragout.
Quote from A Modest Proposal for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the public. A 1729 satire by Jonathan Swift.

We descend from three generations of clergy in Ireland. That would end with Edith Alice’s father.