Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brompton, John

259953Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 06 — Brompton, John1886William Hunt

BROMPTON, JOHN (fl. 1436), supposed chronicler, was elected abbot of Jorvaux in 1436. The authorship of the compilation printed in Twysden's 'Decem Scriptores' (col. 725-1284, Lond. 1652), with the title 'Chroicon Johannis Brompton, Abbatis Jorvalensis, ab anno quo S. Augustinus venit in Angliam usque mortem Regis Ricardi Primi,' is uncertain. It has been ascribed to Brompton on the strength of an inscription at the end of the C. C. C. Cambridge MS., which probably means nothing more than that Brompton had that manuscript transcribed for him. Sir T. D. Hardy has pointed out that the compilation must have been made after the middle of the fourteenth century, as it contains many extracts from Higden, who is referred to, 'and that there is reason to believe that it was based on a previous compilation, made probably by a person connected with the diocese of Norwich.' The work is wholly uncritical, and, having been widely accepted as authoritative by writers of past times, has been the means of importing many fables into our history.

[Hardy's Descriptive Catalogue of Materials relating to the History of Great Britain, ii. 539-541; Dugdale's Monasticon, v. 567.]

W. H.