As with many events that have long since passed it is difficult to find the facts. and then even more difficult to present Them in an unbiased way, but I believe the following does justice to all concerned.
Although the parish records open in 1538 the first family mention is in 1603 with the birth of George Brownley. he was the son at Richard who already had six children these being born in Gamston.
From the Brownlow history point of view the Church holds three things of interest. Just through the main entrance an the right is a wall plaque to Richard Brownlow of Thrumpton who died in 1706. At the top are parts of the Brownlows of Belton coat of arms, the greyhounds are absent but the eight martlets are there. On the floor are the marks where two more plaques have been, these probably related to Richard and his daughter Anne, who is also mentioned an the wall plaque. Why this Richard should have felt entitled to use the coat of arms is a mystery.
The second feature is the large silver flagon which forms part of the Church plate,. dated 1723, it was given to the Church by Anne Turnell in memory of her father Richard Brownlow.
The last item is another wall plaque although much smaller, it is in memory of John Johnson who married Katherine the daughter of William Brownlow of Ossington.
The Brownlows and their relations seem to have been very generous to Ordsall/West Retford. In 1691 Richard gave £500 for the foundation of a school, he also left to the Baptist congregation the meeting house in Retford and endowed it with "one acre of land, two beast gates and five lands ends".
Anne left several sums of money to the parish but according to Whites 1844 directory, some of this was later lost in the bankruptcy of John Stoakes, a large farmer whose creditors received only one and a half pence in the pound.
In 1717 Elizabeth Johnson bequeathed to the parish the "poors close" the rent from which was to be distributed as bread to the poor an Good Friday and St. Thomas’s day. This was left as the gift of her great grandmother Sarah Brownlow.
In 1723 Stephen Johnson (who also had Brownlow blood in him) left Land, property and money for the use of the school and help towards payment of the schoolmaster of Ordsall.,
The Brownlow entries in the registers cease in the early 1700’s; some of the family move to Dunham on Trent and then into North Lincolnshire as farmers but the majority of them we have lost completely.
Joyce Brownlow