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 328 BROOKS gaged as Washington correspondent of the New York " Daily Advertiser " and of several New England journals, and soon afterward be- came with his brother joint editor and proprie- tor of the New York "Express," which posi- tion he still retains (1873). In 1843 he travel- led extensively in Europe, and in 1853 and 1855 he was elected to the New York state senate. While in the senate he advocated a bill divesting the Roman Catholic bishops of the title to church property in real estate, and became in consequence involved in a contro- versy with Archbishop Hughes, which was pub- lished in a volume ("Controversy on Church Property," New York, 1855). In 1856 he was nominated for governor of New York by the American party, but was not elected. He subsequently joined the democratic party. In 1872 he was appointed member of a commission to revise the state constitution. BROOKS, James Gordon, an American poet, born at Claverack, N. Y., Sept. 3, 1801, died in Albany, Feb. 20, 1841. He graduated at Union college in 1819, studied law, and removed in 1823 to New York, where he became editor of the "Minerva," a literary journal, and afterward of the "Literary Gazette," the " Athenasum," and the "Morning Courier," continuing in all these papers the publication of his verses. In 1828 he married Mary Elizabeth Aikin of Poughkeepsie, and the next year appeared " The Rivals of Este and other Poems, by James G. and Mary E. Brooks." The year after they removed to Winchester, Va., and in 1838 to Rochester, N. Y., and afterward to Albany. Mary E. Brooks, his wife, in addition to her literary abilities, was a skilful designer. The original drawings for the plates in the " Nat- ural History of the State of New York," edited by her brother-in-law Mr. James Hall, were made by her from nature. BROOKS, John, M. D., an American officer, born at Medford, Mass., May 31, 1752, died March 1, 1825. Having settled at Reading as a physician, he undertook the drilling of a company of minute men, with whom, on the news of the expedition to Lexington, he marched in time to see the retreat of the Brit- ish. Promoted soon after to the rank of major in the continental service, he was especially serviceable to the army as a tactician. He was made lieutenant colonel in 1777, and in the battle of Saratoga stormed the intrench- ments of the German troops. He was a faith- ful adherent of Washington during the con- spiracy at Newburgh. After the peace he resumed the practice of the medical profession in Medford, and was for many years major general of the militia of his county. In 1816 he was elected governor of Massachusetts, and was reflected annually till 1823, when he de- clined being again a candidate. BROOKS, Maria, an American poetess, known also by the name of "Maria del Occidente," which she first received from Robert Southey, born at Medford, Mass., about 1795, died at Matanzas, Cuba, Nov. 11, 1845. Her family were Welsh, her maiden name being Gowen. Having lost her father while young, she at- tracted the regard of Mr. Brooks, a Boston merchant, who completed her education at his own expense, and afterward married her. She published nothing till 1820, when "Judith, Esther, and other Poems " appeared. On the death of her husband in 1823 she removed to Cuba, where she came into possession of some property, and where she finished her principal work, "Zophiel, or the Bride of Seven," the first canto of which was published in Boston in 1825. In 1830 she visited Paris and London, still improving her work, which appeared in London in 1833. In 1843 she published " Idomen, or the Vale of Yumuri." Her " Ode to the Departed " was written in 1843. BROOKS, Peter Chardon, an American mer- chant, born at Medford, Mass., Jan. 6, 1767, died in Boston, Jan. 1, 1849. His boyhood was passed upon a farm. He afterward went to Boston, and engaged in the business of ma- rine insurance, acquiring an ample fortune, and was for several years president of the New England insurance company. In 1803 he re- tired from business, and became active in vari- ous benevolent enterprises. He was a mem- ber of the first municipal council of Boston after its incorporation as a city, and at differ- ent times a member of the executive coun- cil and of the senate and house of representa- tives of Massachusetts. In the legislature he took a prominent part in urging the measures for suppressing lotteries. See ." Life of P. C. Brooks," by Edward Everett, in Hunt's " Ame- rican Merchants." BROOKS, Phillips, an American clergyman, born in Boston, Dec. 13, 1835. He graduated at Harvard college in 1855, studied theology at the Protestant Episcopal seminary in Alex- , andria, Va., and from 1859 to 1870 was rector of churches in Philadelphia. In the latter year he became rector of Trinity church, Boston. He is noted as one of the most brilliant pulpit orators of the Episcopal denomination. BROOKS, Preston S., an American politician, born in Edgefield county, S. C., Aug. 4, 1819, died in Washington, Jan. 27, 1857. He gradu- ated at South Carolina college in 1839, was elected to the legislature in 1844, and in 1846 raised a company for the Mexican war and led it as captain in the Palmetto regiment. He was elected to congress in 1853. Mr. Sum- ner of Massachusetts, having in a speech in the United States senate used expressions which were considered by the pro-slavery members of congress highly offensive to the South, and South Carolina in particular, was on May 22, 1856, violently assaulted in the senate chamber by Mr. Brooks, and beaten on the head with a cane. A committee of the house of repre- sentatives reported in favor of the expulsion of Mr. Brooks ; but the report failed to receive the requisite majority of two thirds. He was indicted for assault, pleaded guilty, was sen-