Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/415

 he endeavoured to soften the law as to the execution of heretics. A considerable collection of his letters is preserved among the archives of the city of London. It appears from them that previously to 1580 he occupied a house near the Old Bailey. In 1580 and 1583 he had a house next Charing Cross, and at the same time a country residence in Essex. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Adrian Fortescue, K.B., and by her had four sons and four daughters. His eldest son was Sir Henry Bromley of Holt Castle, Worcestershire, from whose descendants the property passed to John Bromley of Horseheath Hall, Cambridgeshire, the ancestor of the now extinct barons of Montfort of Horseheath. One of Bromley's daughters, Elizabeth, was first wife to Sir Oliver Cromwell of Hinchinbrook Castle, Huntingdonshire, uncle and godfather to the Protector; another, Anne, married Richard Corbet, son of Reynold Corbet, justice of the common pleas; Muriel married John Lyttelton of Frankley, ancestor of the present Barons Lyttelton, who was implicated in Lord Essex's plot ; and the fourth, Joan, married Sir Edward Greville of Milcote. Two books were dedicated to him: 'The Table to the Year-Books of Edward V,' published 1579 and 1597, and a sermon preached at St. James's, on 25 April 1580, by Bartholemew Chamberlaine, D.D., of Holiwell, Huntingdonshire, published in t584.



BROMLEY, VALENTINE WALTER (1848–1877), painter, great-grandson of (1769-1842) [q. v.], was born in London on 14 Feb. 1848. From his childhood he manifested a remarkable faculty for art, both as an original designer and as a depicter of nature. He was especially remarkable for invention and swiftness of execution. He contributed largely to the 'Illustrated London News,' and illustrated the American travels of Lord Dunraven, whom he accompanied in his tour. He was an associate of the Institute of Painters in Water Colours, and was an exhibitor at the Royal Academy at the time of his death. He died very unexpectedly of congestion of the lungs, on 30 April 1877, just as he had undertaken an important series of illustrations of Shakespeare and the Bible. He was a thorough artist, as full of animation and energy as of talent, and greatly beloved for his affectionate temper and warmth of heart. He had been married only a few months to a lady artist of considerable mark, Ida, daughter of Mr. John Forbes-Robertson. His picture of 'Troilus and Cressida' is engraved in the 'Art Journal' for 1873.



BROMLEY, WILLIAM (1664–1732), secretary of state, was descended from an old Staffordshire family, which traced its descent from Sir Walter Bromley, a knight in the reign of King John. He was the eldest son of Sir William Bromley, knight, and was born in 1663-4, at Baginton, Warwickshire, which had been purchased by his grandfather (, Antiquities of Warwickshire, i. 232). In Easter term 1679 he entered, as a gentleman commoner, Christ Church College, Oxford, and on 5 July 1681 proceeded B.A. Shortly after leaving the university he spent several years in travelling on the continent, and in 1692 he published an account of his experiences under the title 'Remarks in the Grande Tour lately performed by a Person of Quality.' This was followed in 1702 by 'Several Years through Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, Prussia, Sweden, Denmark, and the United Provinces, performed by a Gentleman.' Having in 1689 been chosen knight for Warwickshire in the parliament that met at Westminster, he was one of the ninety-two members who declined to recognise William III. In March 1701-2 he was returned for the university of Oxford, which he continued to represent during the remainder of his life. By the university he was, in August 1702, created D.C.L. In 1701 he was appointed by the commons a member of the committee of public accounts, and in 1702 he was chosen chairman of the committee of elections. He was an ardent supporter of the high-church party, and in 1702, 1703, and