Francis Brocke

1585 – 1638

✓ Validated against records · 2026-07-02

Francis Brocke was baptised at Belton, in the Isle of Axholme, on 26 March 1585 — set down in the register's Latin as “Franciscus, son of Robert”: a son of Robert Brock and his wife Anna Fox, and one of their seven children. On 30 January 1611 he married Elizabeth Taylor at Belton, a girl of the same parish.

Nine children followed across eighteen years — Alexander, Ann, Maria, George, John, Robert, Henry, Elizabeth and Francis — and the register keeps the age's hard ledger alongside its joys: Ann lived five days, John one, Elizabeth a year, and the last child, Francis, two days. One entry stands apart: Robert, in May 1624, was christened not at Belton but “apud Butterwicke” — at the chapel out by the Trent. It is through George, baptised in October 1619, that this line descends.

Francis was a yeoman — a farmer holding his own land — and the register says so itself, burying him on 20 December 1638 as “Ffrancis Brock, yeoman,” aged fifty-three. He died on the eve of the kingdom's break: when the Protestation oath was tendered to every man of Belton in 1641/2, his name is absent from the roll. The war, and all it would do to his parish and its registers, fell to his children.

Composed from validated records · 2026-07-02

Baptism: 26th March 1585 in Belton in Axholme
Marriage: 30th January 1611 to Elizabeth Taylor
Death: December 20th 1638
Parents: Robert Brock and Anna Fox
Siblings: Francis Brock baptised March 26th 1585 Belton Isabella Brock baptised January 27th, Belton Richard Brock baptised January 12th 1588 ,Belton Anna Brock baptised August 25th 1591 died August 12th 1597 Belton Ellina Brock baptised July 22nd 1593, Belton Susanna Brock baptised June 20th 1596 Elizabeth Brock baptised October 26th 1597
Children: Alexander Brock baptised December 18th 1614, Belton Ann Brock baptised April 13th 1617, Belton died April18th 1617 aged 5 days Maria Brock baptised May 17th 1618, Belton George Brock baptised October 17th 1619, Belton John Brock baptised February 14th 1621 died February 15th 1621, Belton aged 1 day Robert Brock baptised May 10th 1624, Belton Henry Brock baptised April 27th 1628, Belton Elizabeth Brock baptised January 11th 1630 Belton died January 24th 1631 aged 12 months Francis Brock baptised December 7th 1632, Belton died December 9th 1632 aged 2 days
1638: Death of Francis Brock, Yeoman, aged 53 years
1641/2: *Francis Brock is not listed on the 1641/2 Protestation returns so had presumably died before then, as the Belton returns specifically report "not anyone hath refused"

In your grandmother’s words · from her notebook

Family

Parents

RBFatherRobert Brocke1544–1611 AFMotherAnna Fox1562–1601

The children of Robert & Anna

Francis Brocke b. 1585this page · · · · · ·

Marriage

ETSpouseElizabeth Taylorb. 1595

Children

GBChild · the line continuesGeorge Brockmain line1619–1656

Life

Confirmed — anchored to a recordEstimated — inferred

1585

Baptised

26 March 1585

Bapti: Franciscus Brock, filius Roberti — the 26th [of March], 1585.— Baptism register, Belton (1585)

The record image is with the family — family sign-in

Confirmed in index record Evidence

Found in an index or transcript — the original page not yet read:

Baptism register, Belton (1585) — Belton (All Saints), Isle of Axholme — Lincolnshire Archives; indexed in Lincolnshire Baptisms (findmypast) as “Franciscus Brock.” The entry names his father — the link up to Robert Brocke. index entry — original not yet seen

1611

Married Elizabeth Taylor

30 January 1611

Nupti: Ffranncis Brock et Elizabeth Taylor — tricesimo [the 30th of January], 1611.— Marriage register, Belton (1611)

The record image is with the family — family sign-in

Confirmed in index record Evidence

Found in an index or transcript — the original page not yet read:

Marriage register, Belton (1611) — Belton — Lincolnshire Archives. Old-style January 1611 (early 1612 by modern reckoning). The register page is shown on Francis's page. from Mum’s research
Marriage register, Belton (1611) — Belton — Lincolnshire Archives. Old-style January 1611 (early 1612 by modern reckoning); cross-indexed on FamilySearch (mangled to “Frauncis Brocket,” filed under February). Both parties of Belton. index entry — original not yet seen

1626

The drainers come

In 1626, when Francis was in his forties, Charles I contracted the Dutch engineer Cornelius Vermuyden to drain Hatfield Chase and the Isle of Axholme. Within a decade some seventy-five thousand acres of fen had been re-cut, embanked and enclosed — a third of it passing to Vermuyden and his investors, most of that the commons the Islanders had always lived off. The commoners of the manor of Epworth — the common-country of Belton, Haxey and Epworth — fought back at once: lawsuits from 1627, riots against the works from 1630.

So the last dozen years of Francis's life were the first dozen of the Isle's great quarrel. A Belton yeoman of those years farmed his own land while the commons around him were staked, flooded, drained and fought over. The quarrel would outlive him by generations — his son George's page carries what it became.

Historical context Evidence

Background composed for this site from published history. It frames the family’s world; it is not one of Mum’s records.

1638

Died

20 December 1638

Sepult’ Ffrancis Brock yeoman — vicessimo die [the 20th of December], 1638.— Burial register, Belton (1638)

The record image is with the family — family sign-in

Read at the image record Evidence

Confirmed against the original record, read at the image:

Burial register, Belton (1638) — Belton — Lincolnshire Archives; read at the register image (findmypast browse, Belton PAR 1/2), 21 July 2026 — confirming Mum's transcription letter for letter. The register gives his trade: yeoman. He was buried among a labourer and a tailor — the line above buries “Ffrancis Burr, labourer”, the line below “Joh'es Legat, taylor”: this clerk recorded his parish's occupations, and the page shows it. read at the image

1641

Absent from the Protestation returns

1641

…not anyone hath refused.— The Protestation returns, Belton (1641/2)

Confirmed in index record Evidence

Found in an index or transcript — the original page not yet read:

The Protestation returns, Belton (1641/2) — The Protestation oath of 1641/2 was tendered to every adult man, parish by parish; the Belton return survives, and Francis Brock's name is not among the signatories — he had died before the oath came round. The return itself reports that of those present, none refused. Negative evidence, from our research. index entry — original not yet seen

Records & papers

1 record image is with the family — family sign-in

Our research

His will, at Lincoln

Open research · the Stow probate series

Francis left a will. The printed index to the Archdeaconry of Stow’s probate acts (British Record Society vol. 57, p. 22) records, under Brocke: “Francis, yeo, Belton 1638–40, 53.” The document itself has not been read — it lies in the Stow series at Lincolnshire Archives.

Photograph order drafted — Lincolnshire Archives, together with Robert’s 1611 will and the wider Belton Brocke probates — a purchase, and the family’s decision.
What it may settle: the children living in December 1638; who stood heir — his eldest son Alexander, or George (see George’s page for the York question); the land he held.