Braybrooke was a trained lawyer who became the first keeper of the King' signet ring on the accession of the ten-year-old Richard II to the English throne in July 1377.[2] Braybrooke thus became the first King's Secretary using this signet ring.[2] Whereas the Great Seal had been used to endorse the documentation of the Royal pardons Richard II offered the peasant rebels when he met them at Mile End to diffuse the Peasants' Revolt shortly before his coronation.[3] Despite bearing the imprint of the Great Seal, these pardon's were withdrawn. During the few years in which Braybrooke was the King's Secretary, most of the documents endorsed by the King's Signet Ring, most were later further endorsed by the Privy Seal, before being issued with the Great Seal in Chancery.[2]
He was nominated 9 September 1381 and consecrated on 5 January 1382.[4]
Braybrooke was named Lord Chancellor of England on 20 September 1382 and was out of the office by 11 July 1383.[5]
Braybrooke died on 28 August 1404,[4] and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. His tomb was smashed during the Great Fire of London in 1666, and his body was found inside intact and mummified.[6]
Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-56350-X.
