Background
He was a descendant of Sir John Brograve (d 1613), Attorney-General to the Duchy of Lancaster. Juliana Berney was descended from Sir Richard Berney, 1st Baronet of Parkhall.
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Berney Berney Brograve
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Career
In 1733 Thomas Brograve purchased the manors of Waxham and Horsey in Norfolk, and so began the “notorious” Brograve family of Waxham. Initially they lived at Waxham Hall which was built in the 16th Century by the Woodhouse family. Berney and the (which he built to drain the land at Brograve Level), where he is said to have hidden from the devil, and he is also reputed to have had a mowing match for his soul with the devil at Worstead.
In 1761 Brograve married Jane, eldest daughter of Edward Hawker of Great Baddow, Essex.
After his first wife’s death Brograve married secondly, in 1769, Jane Halcott, sole heiress of Matthew Halcott of Litcham. A granddaughter married Sir William Beauchamp-Proctor, 3rd Baronet, in whose family the name of Brograve descended as a given name.
, designed by James Wyatt for Sir Berney Brograve, was eventually demolished in 1937, “a fine red brick mansion, situated within a noble park of 400 acres, which contains a lake covering 8¼ acres”. After building his mansion-house at Worstead he was described as occasionally inhabiting the manor house at Waxham.
An account written in 1854 describes the manner in which Brograve lived at Waxham Hall: “He farmed his own land and had about a hundred workmen lodging in his house.
These all dined in the great hall together, and Sir Berney every now and then ‘knocked down’ a bullock for them to live upon”. Berney was created a baronet in 1791 and died intestate in 1797. According to local legend, like his ancestors, Sir Berney is still around and can be seen on wild and stormy nights galloping between Worstead and Waxham.
