mythical existence to the play, The Rehearsal, by George Villiers, second duke of Buckingham, produced in 1671.
South of Brentford, towards Isleworth, is Sion House, a mansion founded by Lord Protector Somerset in 1547, and rebuilt and enlarged by the 10th earl of Northumberland and Sir Hugh Smithson, afterwards duke of Northumberland, the architects being Inigo Jones and Robert Adam. The gardens are very beautiful. The site of Sion or Syon House was previously occupied by a convent of Bridgetine nuns established at Twickenham by Henry V. in 1415 and removed here in 1431.
BRENTON, SIR JAHLEEL (1770–1844), British admiral, was born in Rhode Island, U.S.A., on the 22nd of August 1770. He was the son of Rear-Admiral Jahleel Brenton (1729–1802), who belonged to a loyalist family which suffered the loss of most of its property in the insurrection of the American colonies. He was a lieutenant in the British navy when the war began, and emigrated with his family to the mother country. Three of the sons entered the navy—Jahleel (the eldest), Captain Edward Pelham Brenton (1774–1839), and James Wallace Brenton, who was killed young in 1799 when attacking a Spanish privateer near Barcelona in the boats of the “Petrel,” of which he was lieutenant. Jahleel went to sea first with his father in 1781, and on the return of peace was sent to the “maritime school” at Chelsea. He served in the peace before the beginning of the war in 1793, and passed his examination as lieutenant, but seeing no chance of employment went with other English naval officers to serve in the Swedish navy against the Russians. In 1790 he received his commission and returned home. Till 1799 he served as lieutenant, or acting commander, mostly under Earl St Vincent, and was present in the battle from which the admiral received his title. As commander of the “Speedy” brig he won much distinction in actions with Spanish gunboats in the Straits of Gibraltar. In 1800 he reached the rank of post-captain, and had the good fortune to serve as flag-captain to Sir James (afterwards Lord) Saumarez in the action at Algeciras, and in the Straits in 1801. During the peace of Amiens he married Miss Stewart, a lady belonging to a loyalist family of Nova Scotia. After the renewal of the war he commanded a succession of frigates. In 1803 he had the misfortune to be wrecked on the coast of France, and remained for a time in prison, where his wife joined him. Having been exchanged he was named to another ship. His most brilliant action was fought with a flotilla of Franco-Neapolitan vessels outside of Naples in May 1801. He was severely wounded, and Murat, then king of Naples, praised him effusively. He was made a baronet in 1812 and K.C.B. in 1815. After his recovery from his wound he was unable to bear sea service, but was made commissioner of the dockyard at Port Mahon, and then at the Cape, and was afterwards lieutenant-governor of Greenwich hospital till 1840. He reached flag rank in 1830. In his later years he took an active part in philanthropic work, in association with his brother, Captain E. P. Brenton, who had seen much service but is best remembered by his writings on naval and military history,—Naval History of Great Britain from the Year 1783 to 1822 (1823), and The Life and Correspondence of John, Earl of St Vincent (1838).
A Memoir of the Life and Services of Vice-Admiral Sir Jahleel Brenton, based on his own papers, was published in 1846 by the Rev. Henry Raikes, and reissued by the admiral’s son, Sir L. C. L. Brenton, in 1855. (D. H.)
BRENTWOOD, a market town in the mid or Chelmsford parliamentary division of Essex, England; 18 m. E.N.E. of London by the Great Eastern railway (Brentwood and Worley station). Pop. of urban district (1901) 4932. The neighbouring country is pleasantly undulating and well wooded. The church of St Thomas the Martyr, with several chapels, is modern. The old assize house, an Elizabethan structure, remains. A free grammar school was founded in 1557. The county asylum is in the vicinity. There are breweries and brick works. To the south lies the fine upland of Worley Common, with large barracks. Adjoining Brentwood to the north-east is Shenfield, with the church of St Mary the Virgin, Early English and later. Brentwood was formerly an important posting station on the main road to the eastern counties, which follows the line of the railway to Colchester. The name (Burntwood) is supposed to record an original settlement made in a clearing of the forest. The district is largely residential.
BRENZ, JOHANN (1499–1570), Lutheran divine, eldest son of Martin Brenz, was born at Weil, Württemberg, on the 24th of June 1499. In 1514 he entered the university of Heidelberg, where Oecolampadius was one of his teachers, and where in 1518 he heard Luther discuss. Ordained priest in 1520, and appointed preacher (1522) at Hall in Swabia, he gave himself to biblical exposition. He ceased to celebrate mass in 1523, and reorganized his church in 1524. Successful in resisting the peasant insurrection (1525), his fortunes were affected by the Schmalkaldic War. From Hall, when taken by the imperial forces, he fled on his birthday in 1548. Protected by Duke Ulrich of Württemberg, he was appointed (January 1553) provost of the collegiate church of Stuttgart. As organizer of the reformation in Württemberg he did much fruitful work. A strong advocate of Lutheran doctrine, and author of the Syngramma Suevicum (October 21, 1525), which set forth Luther’s doctrine of the Eucharist, he was free from the persecuting tendencies of the age. He is praised and quoted (as Joannes Witlingius) for his judgment against applying the death penalty to anabaptists or other heretics in the De Haereticis, an sint persequendi (1554), issued by Sebastian Castellio under the pseudonym of Martinus Bellius. An incomplete edition of his works (largely expository) appeared at Tübingen, 1576–1590. Several of his sermons were reproduced in contemporary English versions. A volume of Anecdota Brentiana was edited by Pressel in 1868. He died on the 11th of September 1570, and was buried in his church at Stuttgart; his grave was subsequently violated. He was twice married, and his eldest son, Johann Brenz, was appointed (1562) professor of theology in Tübingen at the early age of twenty-two.
See Hartmann and Jäger, Johann Brenz (1840–1842); Bossert, in Hauck’s Realencyklop. (1897). (A. Go.*)
BRÉQUIGNY, LOUIS GEORGES OUDARD FEUDRIX DE (1714–1795), French scholar, was born at Gainneville near Havre, on the 22nd of February 1714, and died at Paris on the 3rd of July 1795. His first publications were anonymous: an Histoire des révolutions de Gènes jusqu’à la paix de 1748 (1750), and a series of Vies des orateurs grecs (1752). Elected a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres in 1759, he contributed an Histoire de Posthume empereur des Gaules (vol. xxx., 1760) to the collected works of that illustrious society, and also a Mémoire sur l’établissement de la religion et de l’empire de Mahomet (vol. xxxii., 1761–1763). After the close of the Seven Years’ War he was sent to search in the archives of England for documents bearing upon the history of France, more particularly upon that of the French provinces which once belonged to England. This mission (1764–1766) was very fruitful in results; Bréquigny brought back from it copies of about 7000 documents, which are now in the Bibliothèque Nationale. A useful selection of these documents was published (unfortunately without adequate critical treatment) by Jean Jacques Champollion-Figeac, under the title Lettres de rois, reines et autres personnages des cours de France et d’Angleterre, depuis Louis VII. jusqu’à Henri IV., tirées des archives de Londres par Bréquigny (collection of Documents inédits relatifs a l’histoire de France, 2 vols., 1839, 1847). Bréquigny himself drew the material for many important studies from the rich mine which he had thus exploited. These were included in the collection of the Académie des Inscriptions: Mémoire sur les différends entre la France et l’Angleterre sous le règne de Charles le Bel (vol. xli.); Mémoire sur la vie de Marie, reine de France, sœur de Henri VIII., roi d’Angleterre (vol. xlii.); four Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de Calais (vols. xliii. and l.); and Mémoire sur les négociations touchant les projets de mariage d’Elizabeth, reine d’Angleterre, d’abord avec le duc d’Anjou, ensuite avec le duc d’Alençon, tons deux frères de Charles IX. (vol. l.). This last was read to the Academy on the 22nd of January 1793, the morrow of Louis XVI.’s execution. Meanwhile, Bréquigny had taken part in three great and erudite works. For the Recueil des ordonnances des rois de France he had prepared
