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Robert Brerewood

English judge and politician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ7342337
Source-derived summary

Sir Robert Brerewood (1588 – 8 September 1654) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1640.

Early life and education

Brerewood was born in 1588, he was the son of Mary (born Parry) and John Brerewood who had been Sheriff of Chester. His sister Jane Ratcliffe was known for her religious life. The Brerewood family over several generations filled many public offices in Chester. In 1605 Brerewood was sent to Brasenose College, Oxford, and was later admitted to Middle Temple.

Career

He was called to the bar on 13 November 1615, and practised for twenty-two years. He was given his uncle's Edward Brerewood library and he published some of the literary works. In 1637 he was appointed a judge of North Wales and was appointed reader at the Middle Temple in Lent term in 1638. He was chosen Recorder of Chester in 1639.

In April 1640, Brerewood was returned as Member of Parliament for Chester for the Short Parliament.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Robert Brerewood” is english judge and politician. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Robert, Brerewood and English, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1588, 1654, 1640, 1605—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1588-01-01. For this dossier, Robert, Brerewood and English is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “english judge and politician” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7342337. VIAF identifies the subject as 30961797. The Library of Congress control number is n85057309. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1588, 1654, 1640 and 1605.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Robert Brerewood”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Robert Brerewood primary sources, Robert Brerewood archive and Robert research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Robert Brerewood”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Robert Brerewood” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.