THOMAS REEVES BRINLEY

Birth 1591 • Exeter, Devon, England
Death 15 OCTOBER 1661 • Datchett, Buckinghamshire, England
my 8th Great Grandfather who died on Oct. 15 1661 (I don't know when he was born).

His daughter, Griselle Wase Brindley Sylvester, (1635-1687) married Capt. Nathaniel Gascoigne Sylvester (1610-1680) in the American Colonies, namely Sylvester Island, (Long Island) New York.

The following was posted earlier in the year, when I tried to learn a bit more about the history of his life.

Background info (short) for us colonials who know so little of Charles I and Cromwell.

Charles I of England, (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649.

After his succession, Charles quarrelled with the Parliament of England, which sought to curb his royal prerogative. Charles believed in the divine right of kings and thought he could govern according to his own conscience. Many of his subjects opposed his policies, in particular the levying of taxes without parliamentary consent, and perceived his actions as those of a tyrannical absolute monarch. His religious policies, coupled with his marriage to a Roman Catholic, generated the antipathy and mistrust of Reformed groups such as the English Puritans and Scottish Covenanters, who thought his views were too Catholic. He supported high church Anglican ecclesiastics, such as Richard Montagu and William Laud, and failed to aid Protestant forces successfully during the Thirty Years' War. His attempts to force the Church of Scotland to adopt high Anglican practices led to the Bishops' Wars, strengthened the position of the English and Scottish parliaments and helped precipitate his own downfall.

From 1642, Charles fought the armies of the English and Scottish parliaments in the English Civil War. After his defeat in 1645, he surrendered, [however] Charles forged an alliance with Scotland, but by the end of 1648 Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army had consolidated its control over England.... [Charles] was tried, convicted, and executed for high treason in January 1649. The monarchy was abolished and a republic called the Commonwealth of England was declared. The monarchy was restored to Charles's son, Charles II, in 1660.  

Source: Wikepedia.

I'll leave history with Cromwell for you to learn about elsewhere (a suggested source is here at Wikepedia.)

Thomas Brinley, Royal Auditor for Charles I and Charles II

My ancestor, Great times 8 grandfather through our Ada Swasey Rogers family tree, lived, worked and died in Dachet, England, right across the River Thames from Windsor Castle.

The town of Dachet is well recorded in history, and has a good site for further information HERE.

"The earliest settlement of the present village was centred around the church which is on an ‘island’ of high ground in otherwise low lying land and was probably a pre-Christian fortified site. Opposite, on the south side of the Green, is the Manor House range of buildings dating from the 1500s. At that time the characteristic Greens did not exist and a stream ran through the centre of the village widening to a pool in front of the Manor House; this was culverted in the 1840s to create the dry land of the present Greens.
"Datchet’s characteristic Victorian ‘mock Tudor’ architectural style was introduced when the Manor House was restored and re-fronted in about 1870.  
First known photograph of Dachet, around 1870

From left: Old Manor House; Manor House 1 & 2, newly re-fronted in mock-Tudor style and patterned roof tiles; Manor & Manor Green Cottage; Manor Hotel all whitewashed before any rebuilding; next white building is White Hart on opposite corner of High Street, with barns at back; Morning Star and ‘Temples’ building; old cottages; sign post pointing down Queens Road; gaslight in centre of village (no drinking fountain or Jubilee oak & cross yet); Royal Stag sign (pub out of shot); old cottages replaced by Bank & Bank House.

A business in one part of the Manor House

Dachet Manor House:

" ...A group of families ... probably lived at the Manor House in the 1800s and perhaps as far back as the early 1700s. Before that, although the evidence is very slight, it seems to have been occupied by royal officials, part of a group based in London but also living conveniently close to the Castle in Windsor, Eton and Datchet. The most significant character was Thomas Brinley, whose tombstone in the church is frequently visited by Americans seeking their ancestors. This black marble slab has been re-set in the chancel floor behind the altar and is easily seen. The inscription reads:

HERE LYETH Ye BODY OF THOMAS BRINLEY

ESQ BEINGE ONE OF THE AUDITORS OF

THE REVENNUE OF KINGE CHARLES THE

FIRST AND OF KINGE CHARLES Ye SECOND

BORNE IN THE CITTY OF EXETER HEE

MARRYED ANNE Ye DAUGHTER OF WILLIAM

WASE OF PETWORTH IN SUSSEX GENT

WHO HAD ISSUE BY HER FIVE SONNES AND

SEAVEN DAUGHTERS HE DIED Ye 15TH DAY OF

OCTOr IN THE YEARE OF OUR LORD 1661 

 Source:

http://www.datchethistory.org.uk/Link%20Articles/manor_thomas_brinley.htm

I'll have more about him tomorrow.