Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/432

 BROOKE, ELIZABETH (1601–1683), religious writer, was born at Wigsale, Surrey, in January 1601. Her father was Thomas Colepeper; her mother was a daughter of Sir Stephen Slaney (, Faithful and Diligent Christian, p. 41); her only brother was John, afterwards created Lord Colepeper of Thoresway (ib. 42). Both parents died in Elizabeth's early youth, and she was brought up by Lady Slaney, her maternal grandmother (ib. 43). In 1620 she married Sir Robert Brooke, knight, of the Cobham family, by whom she had seven children, two of whom died in infancy. For two years the young couple resided in London as boarders with Elizabeth's aunt, Lady Weld (ib. 45). In 1622 they moved to Langley, Hertfordshire, where Sir Robert bought a seat; and in 1630, on the Brooke estates falling to him, they went to the family mansion, Cockfield Hall, Yoxford, Suffolk. Lady Brooke was an indefatigable reader of the Scriptures, of 'commentaries,' and of the ancient philosophers (in English translations); she took notes of all sermons she heard; she would question her family and servants about them; she engaged a divine to visit the hall once a fortnight as catechist, by whom she was herself catechised; and in 1631 she began a large volume (ib. 81) of 'Collections, Observations, Experiences, Rules,' together with 'What a Christian must believe and practise.' On 10 July 1646 her husband died (ib. 43), and for two years she absented herself from Cockfield Hall. She afterwards lost two daughters and a son; was harassed by lawsuits (though all these were eventually decided in her favour); and in 1669 her only surviving son, Sir Robert, was drowned in France, leaving her with only one child, Mary, her eldest daughter. She recovered from her griefs sufficiently to resume her charities, but became deaf in 1675, and after a long decay died on 22 July 1683. Nathaniel Parkhurst, her chaplain, and the vicar of the church, preached her 'Funeral Sermon,' and published it (with a portrait) in the following year, together with an account of her life and death. The book was dedicated to Miss Mary Brooke, the sole surviving member of the family. Parkhurst printed with the sermon some of Lady Brooke's 'Observations' and 'Rules for Practice.' A selection from the writings of Lady Brooke was published as late as 1828 in the 'Lady's Monitor,' pp. 61-79.



BROOKE, . FRANCES (1724–1789), authoress, was born in 1724, being one of the children of the Rev. William Moore by his second wife, a Miss Seeker (Gent. Mag. lix. part ii. 823, where Edward Moore, her brother, born 1714, is by error set down to be her father). John Buncombe, in the 'Feminiad' (1754), speaks of Frances Moore as a poetic maid, celebrated in a sonnet by Edwards in his 'Canons of Criticism,' and herself writing odes and beautifying the banks of the Thames by her presence at Sunbury, Chertsey, and thereabouts. In 1755 she appeared as an essayist under the pseudonym of Mary Singleton in a weekly periodical of her own, called 'The Old Maid' (price 2d., of 6 pp. folio). She appealed to correspondents for assistance in conducting her paper (after the 'Spectator' model), and in spite of her being attacked by 'an obscure paper, "The Connoisseur," with extreme brutality' (No. II. p. 10), she managed to maintain her publication for thirty-seven weeks. The whole issue was reprinted in a 12mo volume nine years after in 1764. Her marriage took place about 1756, the year of the publication of 'Virginia,' a tragedy, on the title-page of which the authoress appears as Mrs. Brooke. The volume includes other poems, and' Mrs. Brooke submits a proposal on a fly-leaf for a translation of 'Il Pastor Fido' (which came to nothing); and she recounts (Preface, v viii) how 'Virginia' had been offered by her to Garrick, who declined to look at it till Mr. Crisp's tragedy of the same name had been published, and ultimately rejected it (, Lit. Anecd. ii. 347; Biog. Dram. iii. 383). Her husband was the Rev. John Brooke, D.D., rector of Colney, Norfolk (Biog. Dram. i. 71-2), chaplain to the garrison of Quebec, attached to Norwich Cathedral as daily reader there, and, according to Blomefield (Hist. of Norfolk, vol. iv.), holding much other preferment in the same county. Soon after their marriage Dr. and Mrs. Brooke left England for Quebec on his garrison duties. The 'European Magazine' (xv. 99 et seq.), repeating 'a newspaper anecdote,' relates that, at a farewell party she gave before taking ship for her voyage, Dr. Johnson had her called to him in a separate room that he might kiss her, which he 'did not chuse to do before so much company.'

In 1763 she published a novel anonymously, 'The History of Lady Julia Mandeville,' containing much description of Canadian scenery, which went rapidly through four editions, with a fifth in 1769, a sixth in 1773, and a special Dublin edition in 1775. In 1764 she published a translation of Madame Riccoboni's 'Lady Juliet Catesby,' still anony-