John Bramston (priest)

The Very Reverend John Bramston (12 May 1802 – 13 November 1889)[1] was Dean of Winchester (1872–1883).

He was the younger son of Thomas Gardiner Bramston, who owned Skreens estate in Roxwell, Essex and was a member of Parliament for Essex, and the younger brother of Thomas William Bramston, who inherited Skreens and was an MP for South Essex.[1] He was also a descendant of his namesakes Sir John Bramston, the elder and the latter's son Sir John Bramston, the younger.[2]

He went to Oriel College, Oxford and graduated with a B.A. in 1823. He became vicar of Great Baddow, Essex in 1831 and vicar of Witham in 1840. He became Dean of Winchester in October 1872 and resigned the post in 1883.[3]

He married the diarist Clarissa Sandford Trant (daughter of the soldier Nicholas Trant) in 1832;[4] she died in 1844, leaving three children: Clara Isabella Sandford Bramston (b. 1833), Mary Eliza Bramston (b. 1841), and Rev. John Trant Bramston (b. 1843).[5] In 1846, he married Anna, daughter of Osgood Hanbury, of Holfield Grange, Essex.[1] His daughter by his second marriage, Anna,[1] founded Winchester High School, now known as St Swithun's School.[6] Granddaughter Clara Georgina Luard[1] published a selection from Clarissa Trant's twenty-eight volume journal in 1925.[5][7]

References

1. The Marquis of Ruvigny and Raineval (1911). The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal: The Mortimer-Percy Volume. London. p. 531.
2. The Autobiography of Sir John Bramston, K.B., of Skreens, in the Hundred of Chelmsford; now first printed from the original MS. in the possession of his lineal descendant Thomas William Bramston, Esq. London: The Camden Society. 1845. Preface, pp. vi–viii, xix.
3.  Cooper, Thompson (1884). "Bramston, John" . Men of the Time  (eleventh ed.). London: George Routledge & Sons. p. 162.
4. "The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/53045.
5. Lloyd, E. M. (2004). "Trant, Nicholas (1769–1839), army officer | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/27664.
6. St Swithun's School - History
7. The journal of Clarissa Trant, 1800-1832. 1925.