My forefathers, their history from records & traditions - Tracey/Tracy ...

BRADHURST, BROADHURST,
DE BRADEHURST
CHAPTER I
THE CHAPEL, THE MANOR, AND THE LAKE
BRADHURST, Broadhurst, de Bradehurst, is a plain English
name, of Anglo-Saxon origin, being synonymous with Broadwood.
Hurst, or " hyrst," signifies a wood, or grove of trees. " Hence
such places as have this word for part of their names, have been
situated near a wood. In Kent, Sussex and Hampshire there are
many such names, because formerly the great wood called Auders-
wald extended itself through these counties.'" In those parts of
England this Saxon word is frequently to be found lingering in the
termination of local names ; and surnames which have it denote,
therefore, a local derivation. "Ashurst, Bradhurst, Buckhurst, Park-
hurst, were," we are told, "Kentish local family names";' but Bradhurst
belongs primarily to the neighbouring County of Sussex, where
its first appearance, in that spelling, dates from 13 13, whilst as
" Broadhurst " it can be traced still further. The woodland meaning
of its ending is borne out by the aspect of the country surrounding
the sites of the Chapel de Bradehurst and of Broadhurst Manor, as
well as by the woods and groves sloping down to the banks of Broad-
hurst Lake. This name indeed appears to have been thus differently
written at various periods :
In the 13th century it was "Broadhurst."
In the year 13 13-14, " Bradhurst"
In 1478, " de Bradehurst."
In the same century, a little later, " Broadhurst."
' Abraham Rees.
2 New England Historical and Genealogical Register.