Brodrick, Sir Alan (Allen) (1623–80), politician, was born 28 July 1623, eldest son of Sir Thomas Brodrick of Wandsworth, Surrey, deputy governor of the Tower of London, and his wife Katharine Nicholas, of Manningford Bruce, Wiltshire. He was the elder brother of Sir St John Brodrick (qv), later of Midleton, Co. Cork. He entered Magdalen Hall, Oxford (1639), and Gray's Inn (1642), being called to the bar in May 1648. He travelled to France and subsequently to Italy c.1650, with his royalist sympathies emerging during the interregnum; in 1656 he was secretary to the Sealed Knot. A client of Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon, Brodrick was rewarded for his loyalty at the restoration. Elected MP for Orford (1660), he was active in the convention parliament. He served as a JP in both Middlesex and Surrey, and on numerous commissions of oyer et terminer.
In July 1660 he petitioned for, and was granted, the office of surveyor general of Ireland, being recommended by James Butler (qv), marquess of Ormond, and replacing Adam Loftus, whose claim on the office was dubious. Rewarded with a knighthood on 1 August 1660, later that month he was confirmed in his office for life. On 9 September 1660 he graduated MA from Oxford. In 1661 Brodrick was reelected to the cavalier parliament for Orford, and to the Irish parliament as MP for Dungarvan, Co. Waterford. In February 1661 he had been granted substantial lands in Dublin and Kilkenny forfeited by the regicide John Hewson and Daniel Axtell (qv), who had also been involved in the execution of Charles I. However, most of these he later surrendered to James (qv), duke of York, who had been granted them by Charles II. Brodrick was compensated accordingly, receiving a total grant of 10,759 acres from miscellaneous lands in January 1663. On 19 March 1661 he was appointed a commissioner for settling Irish affairs. In May 1663 he replaced Sir Henry Coventry as a commissioner of settlement, on Ormond's recommendation and with Clarendon's support. The profitable potential of this appointment, given Brodrick's role as surveyor general, was noted by Col. Richard Talbot (qv), who seemingly prevailed on him to favour certain individuals. In May 1663 Brodrick was noted by his fellow commissioner Sir Winston Churchill (qv) for his ‘courage and integrity’ (CSPI 1662–5), but by September 1663 was perceived as having been the most self-interested of the seven commissioners. In August 1663 he had adjudicated in favour of Randal MacDonnell (qv), marquis of Antrim. In 1664 he was criticised by Arthur Annesley (qv), earl of Anglesey, for misrepresenting the progress of the impending bill of explanation. Formally appointed in July 1666 as a commissioner to execute the act of explanation and the remaining clauses of the act of settlement, Brodrick returned to Westminster in October 1666 to oppose the Irish cattle bill in the commons, having been instructed to do so by the king. He had a reputation for drunkenness and disorderly behaviour in the house. With the adjournment of the second court of claims in May 1667, he returned to England. Clarendon had requested his recall as his own downfall seemed imminent. Brodrick defended his patron against accusations of corruption in the granting of Irish patents, but he himself came under pressure in 1668 as the purchase of Irish estates by the duke of York was investigated. He was also accused of favouring Irish catholics.
By now less active in the cavalier parliament, especially during Danby's ascendancy, Brodrick opposed the court, a stance that was seen as revenge for the fall of his patron, Clarendon. Brodrick had been the farmer of York's Irish estates and profited enormously; this wealth eventually underpinned the powerful Irish interest of the family. He became increasingly religious in the 1670s, and maintained contact with Ormond, warning him in May 1679 of the danger he faced in the impending exclusion crisis. Brodrick, who never married, died 25 November 1680, and was buried in Wandsworth.