BRERETON, William (c.1569-1630), of Ashley, Cheshire

The Breretons of Ashley were descended from Richard, the younger son of Sir William Brereton of Brereton Hall and lord chief marshal of Ireland to Henry VIII. Richard established a cadet branch of the sprawling Brereton family by marrying the heiress of George Ashley of Ashley. F. Dwarris, ‘Mem. of Brereton Fam.’ (Cheshire Archives, transcript), 18; Vis. Cheshire ed. J.P. Rylands (Harl. Soc. xviii), 45. Brereton himself served as sheriff of Cheshire in 1608-9, and was unanimously elected junior knight of the shire in 1624 after being recommended to the assembled voters by Sir Richard Grosvenor*. Pprs. of Sir Richard Grosvenor ed. R. Cust (Lancs. and Cheshire Rec. Soc. cxxxiv), 1-7; R. Cust and P. Lake, ‘Sir Richard Grosvenor’, BIHR, liv. 40-53.

Brereton made no recorded speeches in the Commons, and most of his committee appointments concerned private measures for individuals: Wolferstone (14 Apr.), Fisher (19 Apr.), Goathland manor (20 Apr.), Scudamore (21 Apr.), Somervyle (26 Apr.), Poyntz (30 Apr.), Morgan (1 May) and Darcy (7 May). CJ, i. 766a, 770a, 771b, 772a, 775a, 694v, 696a, 785b. No direct connection has been found between Brereton and any of these bills. Brereton was also appointed to public measures concerning supersedeas (9 Mar.) and the sealing of original writs (30 Apr.), as well as to the bill to incorporate the London Apothecaries (22 April). Ibid. 680b, 772a, 695a. In addition, he was named to joint conferences to investigate abuses in the Exchequer (30 Apr.) and to prepare charges against the bishop of Norwich, Samuel Harsnett (15 May). Ibid. 695a, 705a.

When Brereton died in 1630, apparently intestate, his entire estate was located in Cheshire and included the manors of Ashley, Ley and Wimbosley, 1,300 acres of pasture, meadow and heath and 44 messuages spread around the county. Cheshire Inquisitions (Lancs. and Cheshire Rec. Soc. lxxxiv), 74-5. A monument to Brereton and his wife survives in Bowden church. Dwarris, 18. No member of his immediate family subsequently sat in Parliament.