Sir Berney Brograve, 1st Baronet

Sir Berney Brograve, 1st Baronet (10 October 1726 - 23 February 1797) was the eldest son and heir of Thomas Brograve (1691–1753) of Great Baddow, Essex, and his wife Juliana Berney. He was a descendant of Sir John Brograve (d. 1613), Attorney-General to the Duchy of Lancaster. Juliana Berney was descended from Sir Richard Berney, 1st Baronet of Parkhall.

In 1733 Thomas Brograve purchased the manors of Waxham and Horsey in Norfolk, and so began the “notorious” Brograve family of Waxham. Initially they lived at Waxham Hall, which had been built in the 16th Century by the Wodehouse family.

Berney and the Brograve Mill (which he built to drain the land at Brograve Level), where he is said to have hidden from the devil, and he is also reputed to have had a mowing match for his soul with the devil at Worstead.

In 1761 Brograve married Jane, eldest daughter of Edward Hawker of Great Baddow, Essex. They had four children, only two of whom survived, including Ann who married Dr John Rye, the founder of The Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners' Royal Benevolent Society. After his first wife’s death Brograve married secondly, in 1769, Jane Halcott, sole heiress of Matthew Halcott of Litcham. Most of their eleven children died in infancy, and their son, George succeeded as 2nd Baronet in 1797. A granddaughter married Sir William Beauchamp-Proctor, 3rd Baronet, in whose family the name of Brograve descended as a given name.

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