This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'of Braose' or 'Brause,' the castle of Braose, 'now Brieuse, two leagues from Falaise in Normandy' (Lower). Spelt in every conceivable manner. I only furnish a few instances. Sussex, I believe, was the original home of the family.

William de Brause, Devon, Henry III Edward I: Testa de Nevill, sive Liber Feodorum, temp. Henry III-Edward I.

Bernard de Brus, Huntingdonshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Isabel de Brus, Essex, ibid.

Margery de Bruys, Oxfordshire, ibid.

William de Breuse, Sussex, ibid.

Robert de Brewes, Lincolnshire, ibid.

William de Brewus, Kent, ibid.

This William is spelt in various ways, including most of the above and many others.

This surname, so celebrated in the history of Scotland, is of territorial origin, from the Chateau d'Adam at Brix, between Cherbourg and Valognes, Normandy. The ruins of the extensive fortress built in the eleventh century by Adam de Brus and called after him Chateau d'Adam yet remain. The first Robert de Brus on record in Britain was probably the leader of the Brus contingent in the army of William the Conqueror in 1066. He appears to have died about the year 1094. A son of this Robert de Brus, known as Robert le Meschin or the cadet, was the first of his family connected with Scotland. A companion of David I at the English court, he received from the "Soir Sanct for the Crown" the grant of Annandale, here printed. This fief he seems to have renounced in favor of his second son (also Robert), just before the battle of the Standard (1138), on the failure of his attempted mediation between King David and the English Barons. He died in 1141. Owing to the fact that the Bohuns, earls of Essex, held Bruce's Annandale estates for the best part of a century, many of the early Annandale deeds came to the hands of their successors, the dukes of Lancaster, and are now in the Public Records (Bain, The Edwards in Scotland, A.D. 1296—1377, p. 48) "David by the grace of God King of Scots, to all his barons and men and friends, French and English: greeting. Know that I have given and granted to Robert Brus, Estrahanent and all the land from the march of Dunegal of Stranit even to the march of Randulf Meschin. And I will and grant that he hold and have that land and its cattle, well and honourably, with all its customs; to wit, with whatever customs Randulf Meschin had in Carduill and in his land of Cumberland, on whatever day he had them best and most freely. Witnesses: Eustace son of John, and Hugh of Morville, and Alan of Perci, and William of Sumerville, and Berengar Engain, and Randulf of Sules, and William of Morville, and Herui son of Warin, and Oedmund the Chamberlain. At Scone."

This charter conveying the whole of Annandale fills eleven lines of a strip of parchment measuring by 3 ¾ inches. It was probably granted about the year 1124—1130. A facsimile of it is given in the Facsimiles of the national manuscripts of Scotland, I, no. 19. "The clergy were the only lawyers and the only conveyancers. They wrote concisely, and to the point. Bits of parchment one inch in breadth, and a very few inches in length, were enough to convey great Earldoms and Baronies in the days of David I" (Duke of Arngyll, Scotland as it was and as it is, 2. ed., p. 41). Even smaller by 2 ¼ inches) is the strip of parchment erecting the Valley of Annandale into a free forest marching with Nithsdale on the one hand the Valley of Clyde on the other, and stretching eastward till it met the Royal Forest of Selkirk. As one of the witnesses to this charter is Walter, son of Alan, the first of the Stewards of Scotland, it was probably granted between 1147 and 1153. The grant of Annandale is as follows: "David, King of the Scots, to all good men of his whole land, French and English and Galwegians: greeting. Know that I have given and granted to Robert of Brus, in fee and heritage, to him and his heir, the Valley of Anant, in forest, on both sides of the Water of Anant, as the marches are from the forest of Seleschirche as far as his land extends towards Stradnitt and towards Clud freely and quietly as any other forest of his is best and most freely held. Wherefore I forbid that any one hunt in the aforesaid forest unless by his authority, on pain of forfeiture of ten pounds, or that any one go through the aforesaid forest unless by a straight road marked out. Witnesses: Walter the Chancellor and Hugh of Moreuill and Walter son of Alan and Odendell of Vmfrauill and Walter of Lindesei and Richard of Moreuill. At Stap rtune."Stolen from Fore-bears

The Swedish family of Bruce, ennobled in 1668, were probably descended from Robert Bruce of Lynmylne. The name is still pronounced in common speech with a close approach to its original pronunciation- Bris, i short as in is. Brewc 1591, Brewes 1654, Brewhous 1634, Brewhouse 1530, Briews 1221, Briwes 1239, Broce 1526, Brois 1481, Broise 1456, Broiss 1490, Brose 1504, Brouss 1506, Brouyss 1558, Broyce 1390, Broys 1461, Broyse 1450, Broyss 1506, Brues 1255, Bruice 1673, Bruis 1511, Brus c. 1143, Bruse 1446, Bruss 1488, Bruwes and Bruys 1240, Brwss 1490, Brywes 1254, Bruze 1251; Bruc, Brwce.Stolen from Fore bears

(French-Teut.) belonging to Bruis, Bruys, Brus or Brousse (France) = the Brushwood; THICKET [Old French bruis, brus; Low Latin bruscia, brustia, or brossa, brushwood (whence French brosse, brush, thicket; brouss-ailles, brush­wood); from O.H.Ger. burst, brusta, a bristle] Robertus de Bruis.—Domesday Book (Yorks).

Bernard de Brus .—Hundred Rolls The name Bruys occurs in Leland’s copy of the Roll of Battle Abbey; while in Holinshed’s copy we find the form Brouce.

The Norman house of Bruce formed a part of the Yorkshire baronage, but it had acquired through intermarriages the Earldom of Carrick and the Lordship of Annandale.— Green, Short Hist. English People, p. 404.

Robert de Brus was a wealthy baron in Yorkshire in the reign of William the Conqueror, with whom he had come from Normandy. He had the castle and manor of Skelton in Yorkshire, and Hert and Hertness, in the Bishopric of Durham . . . His son, Robert de Bruce, lord of Skelton, made a figure at the Court of King Henry I., where he became intimate with Prince David of Scotland, that monarch’s brother-in-law. When the prince became king of Scotland, as David I., in 1124, Bruce obtained from him the Lordship of Annandale, and great pos- sessions in the South of Scotland. . . . His second son, Robert de Bruce, became Lord of Annandale, as his father’s gift, and was founder of the great house of Bruce in Scotland. He flourished under David I., Malcolm IV., and William the Lion.—Burke’s Dorm. and Ext. Peerages.

Corruption of Brieux in France.

(Scottish) One who came from Braose (now Brieuse), in Normandy.

I always conjectured that the Bruces of Scotland were of a common stock with the great baronial house of Braose of Bramber, in Sussex, Gower, in Wales, See. A passage in Drummond's British Families seems conclusiveon this point:-— "Nathaniel Johnstone, M.D., wrote a history of the family of Bruce; he affirms the identity of the Bruces and Braoses. The assertion is supported by many probabilities.

Local: from Bruys in Normandy; Robert de Bruys was one of the followers of William the Conqueror, and received from that monarch grants of ninety-four lordships in Yorkshire; his son Robert de Brus obtained from David I the lands of Annandale, and was the ancestor of the Scottish family of Bruce.

(Northen French) Local. De Bruys; from Bruy or Bruys, a place in Normandy where the family originated. De Bruys was one of the followers of William the Conqueror, and fought at the battle of Hastings. From this ancestor, King Robert Bruce was descended.

From the Castle of Brus or Bruis, now Brix, near Cherbourg, where remain the ruins of an extensive fortress built by Adam de Brus in the 11th cent. (De Gerville, Anc. Chateaux). Hence the Kings of Scotland, the Earls of Elgin, Barons Burleigh, Baronets Bruce, &c. The Castle of Brix was part of the ducal demesne 1026, when it formed part of the dowry granted to Judith, consort of Duke Richard III. (Stapleton, Mag. Rog. Scac. Norm.); and therefore the name of Bruce must have arisen later.

From the Old Norse, Brúsi; from the Danish, Bruse, Bruus; from the Swedish, Bruse, Bruze; from the French, Brousse, de Brouas; from the Flemish, Broos, Brouez; from the Dutch, Brus, Brusse; from the German, Brusch, Brysch; personal name in the Domesday Book, Robertus de Bruis, a tenant in chief (Yorkshire). The founder of the family of Brus of Skelton, from whom the Kings of Scotland and the family of Bruce, Earl of Ailesbury, are descended. His seal is engraved in the Registrum Honoris de Richmond. Bruys in Roll of Battell Abbey (from Breux; location name in Normandy (?) ). Giles de Brewse, Bishop of Hereford, 1200. Adam, Peter and William de Brus in Rotuli de Oblatis et Finibus, King John

Bruce: is Norman, from Bruys or Brix. Wace tells how “they of Bruys” accompanied the Conqueror to England.