Sir William Brockman

On the outbreak of the Civil War, the recently-knighted Sir William Brockman remained loyal to King Charles I and the Royalist cause.

In 1642, Sir William was appointed High Sheriff of Kent by the King, but almost immediately he was arrested and imprisoned in Winchester Palace in Southwark, in London.

The action seemed to have been a tactic to remove potentially influential Royalist supporters from the scene, and Brockman was replaced as Sheriff by Sir John Honeywood.

William remained in custody until August 1645, although from June 1644 he transferred back to Kent, on the grounds that his health was deteriorating in the squalid London prison, to the fortified manor house known as Westenhanger Castle, only a couple of miles from his home at Beachborough.

Meanwhile, the Royalist strength had been boosted by Sir William, who had managed to bring in a large force of reinforcements, numbering about 800 men, during the preliminary skirmishing.

The battle continued in this way until midnight, still in rain, around which time the surviving Royalists were driven into a churchyard where they regrouped and prepared for the next phase.

In somewhat flowery prose, the 1836 edition of Burke's Commoners summed up the Battle of Maidstone as follows: "Few actions displayed more of that chivalric courage and devoted resolve which characterised the adherents of the King during the civil wars than this.

[2] Letter from L. Fairfax, with an Account of the Victory over the Kentish Forces at Maidstone:[3] To the Right Honourable the Earl of Manchester, Speaker of the House of Lords, pro Tempore, at Westm'r.

As one of very few notable and documented Kentish Englishmen from his era, Sir William is of some interest to descendants of his relatives that now live in the US and Australia today.