Family and Education

b. by 1523, s. of John Brigandine of Southampton by Alice, da. of Oliver Squire of Southby, near Portsmouth. m. Catherine.1

Offices Held

Biography

John Brigandine’s mother took as her third husband Edward North, and it was evidently to his stepfather, by then Lord North and a magnate in neighbouring Cambridgeshire, that Brigandine owed his return for Huntingdon. Nothing has been discovered of his upbringing and early career unless (which seems unlikely) he was the servant of Cromwell mentioned in several letters of Christopher Hales in 1533 and 1534: this young man, whose lands were in the custody of Hales, was apparently of a Tenterden family and may himself later have served as bailiff there.2

By 1544 Brigandine had become an officer in the King’s forces, taking part in that and the following year in the raids upon Scotland: early in 1546 he was sent to Antwerp with John Brende as a commissary of musters for the 3,000 footmen of the King’s German mercenary Conrad Pennynck. When stationed at Cap Gris-Nez near Boulogne in 1547 he wrote to seek Paget’s support for his promotion by the Protector Somerset to the office of marshal or vice-marshal: the appointment did not come his way and even the captaincy which he held had lapsed by the time of the peace treaty with France in March 1550. In January 1551 the Privy Council sent him to Germany as an intelligence agent and he remained there until recalled some 12 months later. If he did return to England his stay was brief, for towards the end of March 1552 he again travelled through the Netherlands to join Pennynck at Hamburg. Brigandine’s missions to the Protestant forces in Germany must have come to an end under Mary but in May 1560 Bishop Quadra reported to the Duchess of Parma that he had been sent to Germany to beg help for Elizabeth.3

When Lord North made his will in March 1563 he left Brigandine and his wife Catherine an annuity of £10 in addition to one of £10 already given to them: to this bequest was attached the interesting proviso that if at any time during his wife’s lifetime Brigandine should leave the realm without the Queen’s licence for a specific purpose the annuity should be kept by North’s executors and £4 paid yearly to Catherine for her aid and comfort during his absence. Of Brigandine’s subsequent career nothing has been found.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: M. K. Dale

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from first certain reference. CP, ix. 650-1; PCC 25 Alenger, 7 Morrison.
• 2. LP Hen. VIII, v-viii; PCC 19 Holgrave, 7 Fetiplace; Arch. Cant. xxx. 149, 190; xxxii. 295-6.
• 3. HMC Bath, iv. 69-70; LP Hen. VIII, xxi; SP Hen. VIII, xi. 66, 77, 191-4; CSP For. 1547-53, p. 322 et passim; APC, ii. 414; iii. 201, 370, 473; CSP Span. 1550-2, p. 493; 1558-67, p. 156; CSP Dom. 1547-80, p. 96.
• 4. PCC 7 Morrison.