Source: 'History of the Brodhead Family' by Luke Brodhead

"Daniel Brodhead was the ancestor of those who bear the name in the United States. He was born in Yorkshire, England and member of Governor Markham's Privy Council. The present Secretary of the Navy is a descendant in the seventh generation. The Secretary's father, grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather, great-great-great-grandfather and great-great-great-great grandfather each in his turn have worn the judicial ermine, was a captain of grenadiers, and a royalist in the reighn of King Charles 2nd (Second) by whom he was ordered to join the expedition under Col. Nichols, which captured New Netherlands (New York) from the Dutch 1664.
He settled in Ulster County, New York, was commander-in-chief of the militia forces at Kingstown in 1665 and died in 1670. By his wife Ann TYE, he had three sons, Daniel, Charles and Richard."

Badge of the British Grenadiers

Officers uniform c. 1685

 

Source: 'Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of The Lehigh Valley Pennsylvania' Published by The Lewis Publishing Company; 1905 (pages 229-230)

"Daniel Brodhead, the founder of the family in America, was a captain in the English grenadiers, and came to the new world in the reign of King Charles II with the expedition of Colonel Richard Nicolls, which effected the capture of New York (then called New Amsterdam) from the Dutch, in 1664. The Dutch dependencies on the Hudson river, including Esopus, Schenectady and Fort Orange (now Albany), were also surrendered to the British, and Captain Daniel Brodhead was assigned with his company of grenadiers to maintain peace and order at Esopus, with the title of "Captain-General of the Esopus", as the Dutch inhabitants were then called. He married Ann TYE, but it is not positively known whether she accompanied him on the expedition to America, or whether she subsequently joined him in Esopus. Among their several children were three sons - Daniel, Charles and Richard. The first named, Daniel, named for himself, was born in 1661, and died July 24, 1690. Charles, born in 1663, was probably named in honor of the King of England, while Richard (born in 1666, died in 1758), was named for the commander of the expedition, and these names continue in the family to the present.
Captain Brodhead, it appears, made his headquarters at Marbletown, a village near the Hudson, where he dispensed justice with a fair and imparial hand to his Dutch neighbors as well as his English followers. He died July 14, 1667. His widow, who survived him for many years, built in 1697 a residence for herself and children, and it remained in possession of her descendants until 1890. Owing to the long retention of the property in the family a large number of deeds and papers were treasured there, and were recently secured by Lucas Brodhead, of Spring Station, Kentucky, who has had many of them copied and photographed and thus distributed among the members of the family…"