Sir Robert Brerewood was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons

House of Commons of England

The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain...

  in 1640.

Brerewood was the son of John Brerewood who had been Sheriff of Chester. The Brerewood family over several generations filled many public offices in Chester

Chester

Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...

. In 1605 Brerewood was sent to Brasenose College, Oxford

Brasenose College, Oxford

Brasenose College, originally Brazen Nose College , is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. As of 2006, it has an estimated financial endowment of £98m...

 and was later admitted to Middle Temple

Middle Temple

The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...

. He was called to the bar on 13 November 1615, and practised for twenty-two years. He also published some of the literary works of his uncle Edward Brerewood

Edward Brerewood

Edward Brerewood was an English scholar and antiquary. He was a mathematician and logician, and wrote an influential book on the origin of languages.-Life:...

. In 1637 he was appointed a judge of North Wales and was appointed reader at the Middle Temple in Lent term in 1638. He was chosen Recorder of Chester in 1639.

In April 1640, Brerewood was returned as Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Chester  for the Short Parliament

Short Parliament

The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640 during the reign of King Charles I of England, so called because it lasted only three weeks....

. Also in 1640 Brerewood became serjeant-at-law and in 1641 he was appointed king's serjeant. He was knighted in 1643, and raised to the bench as one of the Judges of the Common Pleas. He was sworn in at Oxford where King Charles I then was, and continued to sit until the end of the Civil War but never in Westminster Hall. After the execution of Charles I he retired into private life.

Brerewood died at the age of 66 and was buried in St Mary's Church, Chester.

Brerewood married twice, firstly to Anna Mainwaring, daughter of Sir Randall Mainwaring of Over Peover, Cheshire, and secondly to Katherine Lea, daughter of Sir Richard Lea of Lea and Dernhall, Cheshire, and had several children by each of his wives.