About - The Broket Archive

Welcome to the Broket Archive

The Broket Archive collects, analyses and shares information about the surname Broket and its variants—like Brocket and Brockett. Spell it how you wish, it’s the same surname. The Archive is independent and entirely not-for-profit. It first went online in 2004 focusing on Britain 1207-1904. If you saw it then, this was its homepage:

The first Broket Archive 2004-16

The first Broket Archive 2004-16

Between Jan 2017 and Dec 2018 the Archive was offline for renovation.1 From 2019 it has had more of a world-wide scope, but its basic mission is the same: to collect, analyse and share information on the surname. So please send news from where you are.

The website is work in progress so doubtless has errors. If you spot one, please take a minute to email the archivist at broket @ one-name . org (spaces inserted to reduce spam). If you come across any duff links it would be kind of you to let us know. Meanwhile, you should be able to find what the link refers to by means of the search box top right (click on the magnifying glass in the white circle).

Navigating the archive: In addition to the search box here are some tips for finding your way around:

1. The menu across the top of every page.
2. The Site Map link at the centre bottom of every page.
3. Clicking the next left tab at the very top of your screen will immediately take you back to the previous page you looked at. Whenever you open a new window its tab appears. Unless you close them tabs will show the pages you have visited that session.
4. Your browser’s back button.

Acknowledgements: Down the years so many people have generously contributed data, photographs, ideas and advice that it’s impossible to acknowledge you all. I try to thank contributors to particular sections in footnotes—where they don’t mind being mentioned—so if anyone feels they haven’t been properly acknowledged, please let me know. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Ric, Alex and Myles at Catalyst IT Solutions for all their great ideas and superb technical assistance.

What’s new?: The Archive is continually changing, click here for major updates.

It started with a lie… I never thought it would come to this…+Read more

Technical comment: This website runs best with current versions of browser software. It has been thoroughly tested for Apple products on Safari, and for desk and laptop PCs on Chrome, Firefox and Microsoft Edge.

The current archivist is Adrian Brockett. He can’t do better than quote what Richard Gough of Myddle (1635-1723) said more than 300 years ago:

“If any man shall blame mee for that I have declared the viciouse lives or actions of their Ancestors, … let him know that I have written nothing out of malice. I doubt not but some persons will thinke that many things that I have written are alltogaether uselesse; but I doe believe that there is nothing herein mentioned which may not by chance att one time or other happen to bee needfull to some person or other.”2

Page Last Updated: November 8, 2023

Footnotes

For full bibliographical details please see the sections Publications or Glossary.

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[1] Its old form has been preserved by the wayback machine, for instance in a 2016 state at goo.gl/on5b9x (accessed 20 Feb 2019).

[2] The History of Myddle (1701), 1981 edition, p 78.