Francis Brocke

1655 – 1705

✓ Validated against records · 2026-07-02

Francis Brocke was baptised at Belton, in the Isle of Axholme, on 28 December 1655 — a son of George Brock and his wife Alice. He came of Belton stock, an Axholme family of the drained levels; but it was a few miles south, at Haxey, that Francis settled and raised his own children.

There, between 1686 and 1704, seven were baptised — Robert, Francis, George, Thomas, Susanna, and the twins Elizabeth and Anna, of whom Anna lived only four days. It is through Thomas, baptised in 1692, that this line runs on. Their mother was, in all likelihood, the Margaret who kept the name to the last: “Margaret Brock, a widow,” buried at Haxey in 1736.

Francis himself was buried at Haxey on 6 November 1705. Behind him the line reaches back into Belton and into the unsettled middle of the century — his father George's generation, whose own records the Civil War had worn almost to nothing.

Composed from validated records · 2026-07-02

Birth: 1655 Baptised 28 December 1655 in Belton
Marriage: Name is not recorded but strong candidate is Margaret who dies a widow at Haxey in 1736
Death: Likely dies in 1705 Francis Brock, Haxey
Parents: George Brock and Alice from Belton (no record of their Marriage however)
Siblings: To George and Hellina Alexander Brock 05 March 1643 in Belton Elizabeth Brock 28 October 1645 in Belton To George and Alice (who possibly died 1692) Susanna Brock 7th January 1651 in Belton George Brock 15th March 1653 in Belton (to Alice and George) Francis Brock 28th December 1655 in Belton (to Alse and George) Peter Brock 6th Feb 1656 in Belton (to Alice and George)
Children: Robert Brock baptised June 29th 1686, Haxey ???? Francis Brock baptised October 1st 1688, Haxey (possibly marries Susannah Wake in 1713 and dies 1723. Susanna possibly remarries John Ryther 1725 ) George Brock born 1690, Haxey Thomas Brock baptised January 14th 1692, Haxey Susanna Brock baptised November 15th 1696, Haxey (possibly marries Anthony Jackson 1721) Elizabeth Brock baptised May 7th 1704, Haxey Anna Brock baptised April 20th 1704, Haxey dies April 24th 1704
1704: Birth of twins, Elizabeth and Anna. Sadly Anna dies after just 4 days
1705: Burial of Francis Brock, most likely candidate as there are no more children in Haxey to a Francis Brock until after his son is married in 1713
1723: Burial of a Francis Brock, but mostly likely his son Francis born in 1688.
1736: Burial "Margaret Brock, a widdow (sic)"

In your grandmother’s words · from her notebook

Family

Parents

GBFatherGeorge Brock1619–1656 ABMotherAlice Brockd. 1692

The children of George & Alice

· · · Francis Brocke b. 1655this page ·

The children of George & Hellinor Sealand

Marriage

Children

TBChild · the line continuesThomas Brockmain line1692–1741

Life

Confirmed — anchored to a recordEstimated — inferred

1655

Baptism, Belton

28 December 1655

Francis Brocke, son of George and Alce, baptised 28 December 1655 at Belton.— Baptism, Belton (1655)

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

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research, cited — not yet re-verified at the image:

Baptism, Belton (1655) — Francis Brocke, son of George and Alce (Alice), baptised at Belton, Isle of Axholme, 28 December 1655 — Belton parish register (Lincolnshire Archives; the clip in Janet Brock's notebook), cross-confirmed on FamilySearch, England/Lincolnshire Parish Registers (parents given as “George, Alce”). from Mum’s research

1704

The 1704 twins

1704

Birth of twins, Elizabeth and Anna. Sadly Anna dies after just 4 days— From Janet Brock’s research

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research notebook.

1705

Burial, Haxey

about 1705 at Haxey

Francis Brock, buried at Haxey — 6 November 1705.— Burial, Haxey (1705)

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research, cited — not yet re-verified at the image:

Burial, Haxey (1705) — Francis Brock, buried at Haxey, 6 November 1705 — the likeliest of the parish's Francis Brocks (no further child to a Francis at Haxey until after his son's marriage in 1713; the son Francis was himself buried there in 1723). Recorded by Janet Brock. from Mum’s research

1736

His widow

Margaret — his wife — outlived him by some thirty years, and was buried at Haxey in 1736, the register naming her only “Margaret Brock, a widow.”

Records & papers

5 record images are with the family — family sign-in

Our research

Francis's wife, and the marriage that isn't there

Open research · Belton & Haxey, Isle of Axholme

Francis's own line is secure — his Belton baptism names his parents, and his children fill the Haxey register. It is the woman beside him, and the generation behind him, that stay dark.

The missing marriage

No marriage survives. Francis married about 1685 (his first child was baptised in 1686), but no record of it has been found — searched exhaustively on findmypast (out to fifty miles) and FamilySearch (England-wide, 1676–1692). A Francis Brock married a Margaret in Buckinghamshire in these years, but that is a different family, a hundred and fifty miles off. The Restoration-era registers of Belton and Haxey have gaps, and his bride may have come from a parish whose record is lost.
Even her name is an inference. The Haxey baptisms of this period name only the father (as Thomas's 1692 entry does), so Margaret's name rests on a single later clue — the “Margaret Brock, widow” buried at Haxey in 1736. It is the natural reading, but her maiden name is wholly unknown.

The generation behind

Francis's parents, George Brock and Alice, married at Belton with no surviving record of it either — the same mid-century gap. That generation is the next rung up: George Brock (1619–1660), whose life ran straight through the Civil War, and whose Belton register still carries its scars — the Latin giving way to English, the near-blank Commonwealth years, a new clerk's hand taking over.