This is the parish where the family became firmly established and remained for around 250 years.
The Mattersey story starts in 1641 with the will of Henry Brownley who was born in Gamston in 1574; he requests his body to be buried in this churchyard. At this time the parish registers are extremely difficult to read because of the style and untidiness of the handwriting. They become much clearer towards 1700 when with the help of a complete series of wills we were able to put together the family tree.
When Mattersey was enclosed in 1770, four Brownlow brothers were shown as farmers with land from five to fifty acres.
William the eldest stayed in Mattersey and his daughter Mary married her cousin Thomas from Marton, Lincolnshire.
Richard moved to nearby Sutton cum Lound, and from him stem the London and Wooton families.
Thomas moved to Willingham in Lincolnshire where his sons John and Thomas started the Haxey, Marton and eventually the Liverpool and the South Lincs families.
George stopped at home and from him emanate the Norfolk and Lincoln branches.
Despite their long period of residence here there is little to be seen. Just before the main church entrance on the right are graves with four generations of Brownlows, starting in 1797 to 1886. Such closeness to the church door denoting their relative high standing in the parish. They moved house around the village from one generation to another. It is known that they ended up at the farmhouse which stands sideways to the street, opposite the Blacksmiths Arms on the High Street.
The Mattersey story comes to a close in 1886 when George Brownlow dies, the 1881 census shows him as farming 437 acres. (although according to a local farmer 400 acres of this would have been under water as the river Idle flooded regularly) His younger son Williamson had already left then farm and although we found his marriage in Bolton in 1897; nothing further is known of him. The greatest mystery is of the elder son Richard shown in the 1881 census as a 29 year old unmarried farmer. Despite being left the farm in the will of his father, it was sold in June 1888 and no trace of him has since been found.
During their stay in the village the family supplied many churchwardens and doubtless played their part in the many activities of the time.
Joyce Brownlow