He died in 1681 aged 69, and did not leave a will. Joan remarried to Thomas Penny shortly after Richards death. Thomas Penny died in 1692, Joan was still living at that date. Mehitable's age was given in court as 16 in 1668, giving her a birth date of about 1652. She was the only child of this family.

Richard seemed to own a good deal of land, owned a farm, rented another and hired people to work on these farms and he bought servants. There was an incident where the fashion police called him to court to explain his wife's silk scarf. You had to have an income of 200 pounds or over to be able to go about in such fancy finery. I have also read that he servEd on a Grand Jury. All of these things together seem to indicate that he was a man of some wealth and had some social standing in the community.

There are a number of instances where Richard, Joan, Mehitable, and John Downing (suppose to be the son of Emanuel Downing in many histories and genealogies), husband of Mehitable, appear in the Essex records.
I have also found some interesting bits of information in some early town histories.

Once such record indicates that Richard's daug. Mehitable was not the daug. of his wife Joan, but was the product of an affair with their severing girl Alice Eliss. The court ruled that he and Joan should raise the child in his house, and provide for Alice until she recovered from the birth of their child. Alice was to be whipped after the birth of the child.

Mehitable appears in the records on a number of occasions and by the age of 16 (1668) seems to have gotten herself into trouble with the authorities and her neighbors. In one court appearance she had been accused of setting her masters house on fire.

Richard gave Mehitable handsome dowry, by giving her a large portion of his property in a bridal contract with John Downing, the rest was to follow upon her parents deaths, with the exception of some land left to Richard's nephew, John Beyer who they also raised. Upon Richard's death, with no will, John Downing was designated the administer of Richards estate based on this marriage contract. There are some indications that Joan didn't think much Mehitable or John Beyer (John Beare) according to what the neighbors said in various court cases in which they are called to testify.

Over the years they had a number of quarrels with their neighbors over a piece of land, which may have lead to other petty quarrels which landed the Brabrooks before the magistrates, as plaintif, defendants and witness. After Richard's death, and Joan's remarriage there was more bickering over this land and in the end it was decided against them.
John and Mehitable appear in the records on a few more occasions as being drunk and disorderly.

At some point in time after the death of Thomas Penny in 1692, according to Carol F. Karlsen, in The Devil in the Shape of a Woman, pages 95-98, Joan and Mehitable then age 40 were in prison and accused of witchcraft. Their names appear among the 10 petitioning for release from the Ipswich jail in the fall of 1692. What their crimes and who their accusers were are not known and the results of the petition is not mentioned in the book. I have not located these records as yet and will continue to look for them and will post as I find them.
In 1699 there is a record which John Downing, Sr. and Mehitable deeded to their son, David Downing, half of the farm formerly known as Richard Braybrook's farm.

So this sheds some light on to what came after 1692, Mehitable must have gotten out of jail. But it also casts some doubt on the probability of this John Downing being the son of Emanual Downing as is stated in family genealogy books, websites, CDs and the LDS site. Emanual's son John is said to have died in 1694. At one point in time I did read that Emanual was completely discouraged by one of his son's behavior and lack of direction in life and he wrote about his frustrations on a number of occasions. But I am sorry to say that I didn't copy this information as at the time I had no idea that there may have been a presumed connection to my family. I will try to locate this book again and see which son it was.

Another where he testifies in court concerning one the servants he purchased.

See direct line to my NY Terrys