THE COLMORES AND THE SMALLBROKES

[Dennis Williams]

Now for something a little longer in the telling...two for the price of one...

THE COLMORES AND THE SMALLBROKES - An everyday story of Countryfolk…with thanks for help from the incredible Carl Chinn, Bill Dargue, and others too numerous to mention...

In Georgian and Regency Birmingham the Colmore Family were very wealthy woollen and linen drapers. Over the years they accumulated huge amounts of money, and invested it mainly in real estate. One of these estates, was on the north side of town, and in the centre of this parcel of land, one of them built New Hall, a very large family mansion - pictured nicely in Westleys 1731 Map, although the Hall was probably built in the reign of James I, circa 1600.



In the centre of a beautifully wooded park, and only half a mile from the centre of the Town, it was the principal family seat for three generations of Colmores. Then, Charles Colmore, the last male resident died, leaving the property to his widow Ann Colmore. One of his brothers, Thomas, also a wool merchant of Bread Street, London, survived him however, and there was a codicil to the will which said that at the death of Ann, if he had children, they would inherit the estate.

But meanwhile the Town was gradually creeping up around the estate, and came close on all sides of the property, which greatly increased its value, and was was anxiously desired by the City fathers for development and expansion of the town.

Briefly, there followed a deal of inter-family skirmishing for land parcels and selling rights, but Ann Colmore, Charles’ widow, cleverly acted as mediator, and even got the Law involved with an Act of Parliament in 1747, which cleared away all the existing difficulties. Under the provisions of this Act, the whole estates were laid out in spacious Streets, and named after the beneficiaries…you can ony dream of the sums involved as the parcels of land were built upon. Charles, a businessman to the end, actually made them richer by cleverly ceding some of this land to build St Paul’s Chapel, which had the effect of encouraging house building built round it, thus more than doubling the rental values from that which the agricultural rent would have brought in before the Church was built. Consider the roster of familiar street names we know today..

COLMORE Row, Great CHARLES Street, Little CHARLES Street, LIONEL Street, JAMES Street, EDMUND Street, and GEORGE Street for the lads; ANN Street, CHARLOTTE Street, CAROLINE Street, MARY Street, MARY ANN Street, and HENRIETTA Street for the gals….not bad for a bunch of wool merchants…

Charles Colmore

However, that’s the 'Simple Simon' story – for the road to great wealth was not without a few rocks and boulders strewn along the way..
Enter the Smallbroke’s, who can trace their ancestors back to the twelth century, but were mainly well known as yet another influential family from Yardley (cough cough) - Richard Smalbroke built and lived in Blakesley Hall in 1590 - but who also had financial fingers in large plots of land around Birmingham, and were great rivals to the Colmores, as we shall see later…





Carl Chinn dug out little book by a Marie Fogg entitled “The Smallbroke family of Birmingham 1550-1749”, and she researched this family exhaustively, and discovered some rather horrifying tales of greed and corruption, the likes of which we haven’t seen since oooerr...last week….

The men were not all that pleasant evidently. For instance she quotes that in the late 1580s Thomas Smallbroke had loaned money to a Thomas Lane, a smith, who then suffered a great “dearthe”, in other words, he was skint. Unable to pay back the £28 he owed, he was forced to sell his High Street home to Smallbroke, and was then ordered to leave immediately. His wife was sick and couldn’t move easily, so Smallbroke got the bailiffs in and evicted them into the Street, as you do, Lane’s poor wife dying shortly after. Nice chap…

Notwithstanding his great munificence, in 1547 Richard Smallbroke was one of the governers of the Gild of the Holy Cross, a sort of local trust, funded by wealthy benefactors which ostensibly looked after both the spiritual and physical well being of the townsfolk. The new King Edward VI, upon his accession, then decided to break up these “religious” foundations and trouser their assets for the State. But our High Bailiff Richard Smallbroke successfully petitioned the King for the return of some of the money to endow a School in his name, and so he jolly well did …”let vanity be thy name”. Thus, in 1552, the King Edward VI Schools Foundation was formed, to which I, for one, am eternally grateful.



The King also granted them 125 acres of land to build upon, and thus twenty new governers were appointed to oversee the whole venture.

Amongst those governers in 1552 were the Colmores - William the elder, and William the younger…and they all lived happily ever after..
until a large elephant entered the room…but first some more about the Colmores:

The original forbears of both William the younger and William the older, seemed to have originally come from Solihull, where all troubles usually start (those Car Parks!), and where John de Colmore was noted 1364, and in 1469 other Colmores, Richard and Joan Colmore, and Robert and Elizabeth Colmore were linked with the very powerful Gild of St Ann of Knowle, then listed as part of Birmingham. And from an early date, all the family were involved bigtime in trade and real estate…owning huge tracts of what was to become modern Birmingham. They also dealt in fabrics and silks, and when William’s sister married Thomas Smallbrook in 1570 it seemed that the merger of two very powerful familes would form a very prosperous alliance…

Or so you might think…to be continued...

 

[Dennis Williams]

Re: Some great men of Birmingham..

William wrangled over the marriage settlement for his sister Elizabeth, and then Thomas persuaded his ma-in-law Joan, to petition the the Privy Council gainst her own 'natural son' for the £400 she said her son owed her. So she was off her son's Christmas card list...

The charge was dismissed, but old Thomas followed up the case with a number of other “vexatious lawsuits” that gave William the right old hump. We know Thomas was a ruthless and vengeful man, but then the biter was bit nicely when in 1604, he and his mate Ambrose Coleman, a young rellie of William the elder, were accused of stealing documents from the chest belonging to King Edward’s School, of which both were governers of course. So the two men then, as you do, grassed up William the elder and said it was all his fault, and was a dastardly plot of his to gain supreme control over the now very valuable assets of the School. As an added extra, Richard Smalbroke was also suing William and his sons for, amongst other matters, “assault, destruction of property, riot, terrorizing witnesses to prevent their testimony, defamation, and conspiracy”. Good job he didn't let his dog bark too loudly or he'd have had him for that too no doubt....

Seemingly, in Court, during the 18 month hearings, it came out that the three Colmore sons chased Thomas, and his son Richard, plus a servant, through the streets, and shot at them, missing, but putting holes in a woman’s washing, who was NOT best pleased by all accounts... They also circulated scurrilous leaflets about the Smallbrokes. Thomas was also attacked and beaten by "a roistering party of Colmores” whilst on his way home from London in April 1603, then in the July of the same year, while he was supervising a building of a barn in Bordesley, one of the Colmores “did suddenly and unawares surprise" his namesake and struck at Smallbroke’s head with a hunting staff. The blow missed, whereupon the Colemore then whipped a pistol out of his hose, and tried to shoot his uncle. Again he missed...badly needed to go to Specsavers methinks?

But matters got even worse. The younger Colmores failed in yet another attempt to shoot Smallbroke. Their father was enraged and most irreligiously and profanely swore and protested ‘many times by the blood of God that he would his son had well boxed Smallbroke – that he would to God he had sped him!’ Eventually Smallbrook managed to obtain a warrant for the arrest of Thomas Colmore. Afeared of the consequences, the town constable dithered until Sir Thomas Holte forced his hand and issued a warrant against one of Colmore’s servants.

With support from the Under Bailiff and one of Holte’s men, the constable bearded the Colmores in their den, the ‘Lamb’ in Bull Street. Seeking to arrest the servant they were confronted by the Colmore brothers who swore that ‘they would die first on any many that laid hands on him’. Thomas Colmore then thrust murderously with his rapier at the constable. In the ensuing scuffle the officers of the law were badly beaten and their task was made impossible by the arrival of the Colmores’ father, William, with a party of twenty men who were brandishing pikes.


Lion and Lamb pub on the left side of Bull Street...scene of crime...

At last the Colmores were brought to book at Warwick Assizes in 1603 – but after bribing the witnesses against them the case was dropped. Almost in desperation Smallbrook went to the highest court in the land, the Court of the Star Chamber. He won his case but was left with heavy legal fees. As for William Colmore he received a substantial fine whilst two of his sons were committed to prison, plus each was also ordered to wear a paper on his head explaining his offence and to do so in an open place in Warwickhire. Terrifying.

The money was never paid and the young men remained free. No paper hat wrearing was reported either, anywhere...

For the record, neither he, nor his sons, were Government ministers of any denomination...just in case you were wondering...

 

[Dennis Williams]

Re: Some great men of Birmingham..

So let Carl tell you a bit more;

"Edward Colmore was one of the two who managed to evade the justice of even the Star Chamber. He did so by putting forward "false suggestions and pretences of reformation of his life and behaviour". Duly unchastened, Edward went on to terrorise a clergyman, Simon Grover of Hampton-in-Arden. It was this action that led to Edward's second appearance before the frightening Star Chamber.

Simon Grover damned Edward Colmore as "a man of a very covetous mind and craftye disposition and very contentious amongst his neighbours and one that seeketh by unlawful courses and practices to inrich himself to the greate ympoverishinge" of the king's subjects in Warwickshire. Moreover, because he had got away with his earlier crimes, he had become "the more imboldened to committe the like offences and misdemeanours". Colmore had instigated "a feyned and frivolous suite in law" to draw money from Simon Grover. The clergymen then went on to accuse Edward Colmore of a list of disgraceful actions including perjuries, false oaths, bad practices, frauds, deceipts, and other misdemeanours.

Appearing before the Star Chamber was a fearful thing. It was held in secret and had no juries, while there was no right of appeal to its sentences. Yet Edward Colmore seems once again to have emerged unscathed. By now, the Star Chamber was used more as a political weapon against the enemies of the king and Edward does not appear to have been amongst them. His rise in status continued and, by 1634, legal documents were giving him as a gentleman and no longer as a merchant. He had successfully entered the landed gentry.. It may well have been Edward who erected the Colmores' residence at New Hall, hence Newhall Hill, Hockley, and Newhall Street, Hockley. For a time in the 1700s, the bottom end of Newhall Street was known as Mount Street and the top end as Newport Street. It is likely that the hall itself was approached from gates which stood at what is today the junction of Newhall Street and Great Charles Street.

In 1754, an advertisement stated that New Hall was "near Birmingham", but as Francis White put it expressively in 1850, Birmingham was a speedy traveller and "marched over the premises, and covered them with twelve hundred houses, on building leases".

Another William Colmore proved himself as belligerent as his predecessors. Like other leading Birmingham men, he was a Parliamentarian during the English Civil War and, in 1645, was made the Sheriff of Warwickshire. He was also promoted from captain of foot to colonel of a regiment of horse.
Based in the Parliamentary stronghold of Coventry, Colmore was a moderate and withdrew from active affairs after the beheading of King Charles I. It was probably for this reason that he was able to maintain his position after the Restoration of Charles II.

By the early-18th century, William's grandson, another William, was styling himself no longer of Birmingham but of Warwick. He had estates in Snitterfield, as well as in Shropshire and Aston and Birmingham. William died in 1724 and because of legal action within the family, his land was ultimately inherited by his second son, Charles".


The Colmore group- Charles's family


Which is basically where we came in...'cept to note that after both the protagonists died a few years after the Court case, the families continued to prosper financially. And how. Thomas Smallbroke's second son Thomas took on the wheeling and dealing for his lot, and above all - married well.

He first married Elizabeth Rotton, whose family owned most of Kings Norton, and who built Stratford House at Camp Hill.



His second wife was Mary Phillips, whose family gave the land for St Philips Cathedral, so they weren't short of a few bob; and his third, Hannah Cookes had lots of land in Handsworth. Quite why these girls died off rather conveniently for his property portfolio is not mentioned in the depatches I've read so far...

Of course the Colmores fared even better...but that's another five pages...

But not to be outdone, Richard's own son, another Richard, also married three times...and one of them a Rowington no less.. and so it went on...the culmination I suppose is that one Smallbroke took the cloth and became the Bishop of Lichfield, and it was he who had the Smallbrook Street named after him...but he had no sons and although the Smallbroke name effectively ended there, the lands were left to his sister Catherine, who only married the Reverend William Vyse, who owned most of Hockley and Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire....need i go on? Poor souls..

Here endeth the lesson...sorry it took so long...

 

[Dennis Williams]

Re: Some great men of Birmingham..

Right, here are a few old pics of the Smallbroke faimly Street..apologies if many have been on before...these are of SMALLBROOK STREET through time

 

[Vivienne14]

Blimey this thread is lively!! What a wealth of info and colourful snippets. Struggling to keep up. Must work hardier like Bloye's lovely creature on the old Birchfield Harriers Stadium (now Greyhound Racing). Lyn - keep those eyes peeled on the bus as you glide past this one. Make sure it doesn't go anywhere! Viv.

 

[mikejee]

Re: Some great men of Birmingham..

Dennis
The first picture on poat 46 is looking down dudley St. very little of smallbrook st is shown. You can see the end of the name "Kings ead on the side of the building in the centre

 

[Vivienne14]

Re: Some great men of Birmingham..

I've enjoyed reading your posts on the Colmores and Smallbrooks Dennis. Also nice to see all the photos together. Funny how you imagine that these people would surely be Birmingham residents. But obviously not necessarily. Interesting that they settled elsewhere. Many thanks. Vv.