All Things Brougham
Birmingham Broughams
No record of Brougham’s in Birmingham can be found until the arrival of Henry Brougham (1836 -1908), who was born in Lincolnshire and then moved to Sheffield before Henry went up sticks again with his family to Birmingham. It is Henry’s family that first established Brougham roots in the city.
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Henry Brougham (Snr), (1836 - 1908) was born in Morton Lincolnshire 1836, the first child of William Hutchinson Brougham (1837 – 1903) and his wife Mary. Henry moved as a young child with his family to Sheffield around 1839/40. It was in the growing city that he grew up and later worked as a carrier and leather dresser. Around 1870, it was these skills that he took to Aston, Birmingham, 90 miles away, now with his own young family: wife Hannah, and his Sheffield and Rotherham born children:
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Henry Brougham (Jnr) (1863-1941)
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William Hutchinson Brougham (1864-1905)
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Anne Maria Brougham (1866- )
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Frederick Torton Brougham (1867 - 1868)
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Walter Torton Brougham (1860-1876)
We are not sure of the exact reason for the move to Birmingham, but it is likely to have been for work. While in Aston, the family seemed to move around the suburbs but remain in the same profession, running his own business as a tradesman carrier out of Bagot Street. His eldest two sons, Henry (Jnr) and Walter H, joined him in the family business and learnt the leather trade. Henry Brougham (Snr) died in 1908, 10 years before his wife Hannah. They are both buried in Yardley Cemetery.
Yardley Cemetery Burial records showing Henry Brougham burried in the same plot as his son William Hutchinson Brougham
Several of Henry's children die young, 7 months, 16 and 41 years.
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Walter, the youngest of the children born in Rotherham dies a young man, at the age of 16. He was buried in Witton Cemetery in June 1876.
William Hutchinson also dies relatively young, aged 41; buried Yardley Cemetery April 1905. Probate shows he left effects of £234. His father and mother who die after him are burried in the same plot at Yardley Cemetery.
Plot 8399 where, William Hutchinson Brougham, along with his father and mother, Henry and Hannah, are burried. The inscription on the main stone reads:
In loving memory of
William Hutchinson Brougham
of Golden Hillock Road
who died April 8th 1905
Aged 41 years
Dearly loved and sadly missed
​Anne Maria Brougham remained single for a large part of her life. By 1911 she was running a successful boarding house, at 1 Melrose Villas, Coventry Road, South Yardley. Her 82 year old mother, now a widow of 3 years, was living with her. In 1915 Anne Maria married Samuel E Blakemore. He was in the leather trade like her family and quite possibly that is how they met. Anne Maria’s husband died in 1944, leaving her a widow and single again for the last 6 years of her life; she passes in the spring of 1952.
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Frederick Torton Brougham (1867 - 1868). He was born on 25 November 1867 on Frederick Street, Rotherham – perhaps the street gave him his name? He dies an infant in June 1868, buried at Moorgate Cemetery in Rotherham.
Henry Brougham Jnr (1863-1941) married the much younger Elizabeth Doris Dew (1879-1956), in Aston, Birmingham, and together they had 7 children:
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Doris Annie Brougham (1898-1968),
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Henry Brougham (1899-1918),
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Gladys Victoria Brougham (1901-1946),
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Leonard William Brougham (1904-1927),
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Marjorie Florence Brougham (1907-1978),
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Frederick Albert Brougham (1910-1969),
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Eileen M Brougham (1915-1987).
Their eldest son, Henry Brougham, born in 1899, enrolled with The Devonshire Regiment and went to France, where sadly, like 750,00 other British men in WW1, he died on 27th September 1918, just 7 weeks before armistice day. He is remembered on the memorial at Vis-En-Artois, in the Pas de Calais Region of France. Henry's war records have not been located.
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Vis-En-Artois, in the Pas de Calais Region of France where Henry Brougham (1899 - 1918) is remembered
The family were to have further heart break later as their fourth born, Leonard William Brougham, was also to die very young on 27th October 1927 at the age of 23. He died from heart problems triggered by influenza. Leonard was a railway goods checker and an army reservist. His father Henry (Jnr) registered the death. Leonard is buried in Yardley Cemetery and Crematorium.
Henry (Jnr) lived till he was 78, dying of a brain haemorrhage in Hodnet Hall Annex hospital on 21 August 1941 while on a trip to Shropshire. Retired from the leather business, he was living in the Hall Green area of Birmingham at the time of his death. He, like many of his family, was buried in Yardley Cemetery. His wife, Elizabeth lived another 15 years and in 1956 was buried by his side.
Plot 42070 at Yardley Cemetery where Henry (1863-1941), his wife Elizabeth (1879-1956) and son Leonard (1904-1927) are burried
The Taunton Connection
Two of Henry (Jnr) daughters, Doris Annie Brougham (1898-1968) and Eileen M Brougham (1915-1987) married and settled in Taunton. A third sister would also die there. Frederick, the youngest son would run a Taunton public house and hotel. Another daughter would die in Weston Super Mare, just 28 miles north of Taunton on the coast. We are not sure what the pull of Taunton was for the family – it’s possible that Henry (jnr) and
Elizabeth relocated there for a while, before heading back to Birmingham in thier older life. It’s possible one of the children went their first and the others followed on behind.
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The younger sister, Eileen M Brougham, would marry first, in Taunton, shortly after the second world war, in July 1948. Her husband was William A Scott. Eileen M died in March 1987 in Taunton Deane, Somerset.
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Doris Annie Brougham married late in life at the age of 54 marrying George Leslie Harmer in January 1953 in Solihull. She would out live her husband and die in Taunton, on 20 March 1968, aged 69. Doris Annie left an estate of £9001.
The twist in the tale though is that Doris Annie Brougham married the widow of her late sister Gladys Victoria Brougham. It was Gladys who first set her sights on George Leslie Harmer. They married and lived in and around the Birmingham area. Gladys, like her other two sisters would, however, end her days in Taunton. Following her death, she was brought back north to be buried on 21st November 1946, in Christ Church, Yardley Wood. Gladys had died young, just 45 years old. Six years later, Doris would marry George and move to Taunton. This is the tale of two sisters marrying the same man and ending their days in Taunton, a long way from Lincolnshire, where their great grandad first set off for Sheffield.
The fifth child, Marjorie Brougham (1906-1978) was born on 26th May when her mother was still only 26! Baptised shortly after on the 6th June. Marjorie married Albert G Hillcox around April 1934. 2 year later she was to have her first son David. We don’t know how much about Marjorie’s life until on 3 August 1978, Marjorie dies in Weston Supper Mare, 28 miles north of Taunton on the coast. Probate showed an estate of £17,983.
The youngest son of Henry (Jnr) and Elizabeth, Frederick Albert Brougham, was born on 26 February 1910. Aged 25, he married Kathleen Roberts on 14 September 1935 in Warwickshire. They probably met through work, he was a window dresser and she a shop assistant. At some point in his life he moved to Taunton and became the Licensee of The Crown and Sceptre public house and hotel on Station Road. They had two children, possibly more, during their marriage. Frederick Albert died on 25 May 1969 in Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, at the age of 59. He was cremated 4 days later in Taunton on the 29th May.
The reseach of Peter Brougham Wryly lists a few other Brougham's in Taunton - see the Brougham GRO Index.
Brougham Burials in Birmingham
Brougham's found in Birmingham City Council owned cemeteries source: Bereavement Services | Birmingham City Council. The same details can be found on FindAGrave.com
AllThingsBrougham is not currently sure how Bridget Brougham (d1965) fits into the other Birmingham Broughams. Probate documentation suggests there is a Peter Patrick Brougham - we suspect this is likely to be her son, but it could be brother, father or husband. Brougham is likely to be her married name. The last few electoral registers prior to her death suggest that she is living alone. We have identified a Peter P Brougham who marries a Rae Jeffery in 4th Qtr 1964 in Birmingham. Investigations are ongoing.
