General Notes

Name Prefix:<NPFX> Lord
Occupation: Lord Mayor of London
Baptism: 18 AUG 1566 London, England
Event: Aka (Facts Pg) Lionel Braunche
Event: 1 Direct ancestor of wife of Joseph Hiram Tobler

The seventh child and third son of William Branch was Lionel, baptized on August 18, 1566, and the immediate ancestor of Christopher Braunche, founder of the Branches of VA. It is unfortunate that of this member of the family regrettably little is known. That he was something of a black sheep, or more charitably, a prodigal son, is evident from the terms of his father's will, in which he is castigated as "my unthrifty and disobedient sonne," to whom only a black gown and his father's best cloak were left."

Having left Abingdon sometime before 1596, Lionel nonetheless must have prospered, for on July 8, 1596, at St Martin, Ludgate, in the City of London, distinguished by the status of "gentleman," he married Valentia Sparkes, dau. of ________Sparkes, deceased, formerly a draper of the city of London. By her, apparently he only had one son, Christopher, who was provided for in his grandfather's will by a bequest of five marks on his attaining eighteen years of age. Lionel appears never to have returned to his native town.

Neither record of his burial nor of his will has been found. All one can say is that he probably died about 1605 in London, and died intestate.