Robert Brooke (MP for Dunwich)

Sir Robert Brooke (c. 1572 – 10 July 1646) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1624 and 1629.[1]

Brooke was probably the son of Robert Brooke, alderman of London. He was admitted at Emmanuel College, Cambridge on 13 March 1588. He was admitted at Gray's Inn on 9 February 1592/93.[2] In 1614 he was Sheriff of Suffolk.[3] He was knighted in 1615 as of Blythburgh, Suffolk. In 1624, he was elected Member of Parliament for Dunwich in the Happy Parliament and was re-elected in 1625 for the Useless Parliament. He was elected MP for Dunwich again in 1628 and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years.[4]

Brooke's first wife was Joan, daughter of Sir Humphrey Weld, Lord Mayor of London 1608-1609: she died in 1618 without issue.[5] He remarried in c 1620 to Elizabeth Brooke, daughter of Thomas Colepeper (died 1613) of Great Wigsell in Salehurst, East Sussex. (She was the granddaughter of Sir Stephen Slaney, and niece of Mary Slaney, Sir Humphrey's widow.) Elizabeth was a devoutly religious person and left writings upon Christian practice which were published after her death. Sir Robert died at the age of 74 and was buried at Yoxford, as from his seat of Cockfield Hall.[3] Elizabeth lived at Cockfield Hall until her death in 1683 and was buried at Yoxford church.[6]

Their son, also Robert Brooke of Cockfield Hall, was MP for Aldeburgh, but died while bathing in the river Rhone in 1669.[7] Their son John Brooke (as recorded in the Blois MSS) married Jane Barnardiston, daughter of Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston (1588-1653) of Kedington, while their daughter Martha married Sir William Blois (the younger), but died in 1657 leaving him with an only son and heir, (Sir) Charles Blois. John Brooke also died, and Jane his widow remarried to Sir William Blois and so became stepmother to the future (1693) heir of Cockfield Hall.[8] Another daughter, Elizabeth, married Thomas Bacon (1620-1697) of Friston, Suffolk, and was the mother of Nathaniel Bacon, the Virginian colonist who led Bacon's Rebellion. There was also a sister Mary Brooke, who was a coheir to Cockfield Hall and lived down to 1693.

References

J.P. Ferris, 'Brooke, Sir Robert (1573-1646), of Cockfield Hall, Yoxford, Suff. and Walbrook, London', in A. Thrush and J.P. Ferris, The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629, (from Cambridge University Press 2010), History of Parliament.
J. Foster (ed.), The Register of Admissions to Gray's Inn, 1521-1889 (Hansard, London 1889), p. 82 (Hathi Trust).
"Brooke, Robert (BRK587R2)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
Browne Willis, Notitia Parliamentaria, or, An history of the counties, cities, and boroughs in England and Wales: ... The whole extracted from mss. and printed evidences (Author, London 1750), pp. 186-239 (Google).
Ferris, 'Brooke, Sir Robert', History of Parliament.
S.A. Mendelson, 'Brooke, Elizabeth, Lady Brooke (1602?–1683)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2008).
M.W. Helms/Paula Watson, 'Brooke, Robert (c.1637-69), of Cockfield Hall, Yoxford, Suff. and Wanstead House, Essex', in B.D. Henning (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690 (from Boydell and Brewer 1983), History of Parliament Online.
E. Farrer, 'The Blois MSS', Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and Natural History XIV Part 2 (1911), pp. 147-226: at p. 150 (Society's pdf).

Parliament of England
Preceded by Clement Coke Thomas Bedingfield	Member of Parliament for Dunwich 1624–1626 With: Sir John Rous	Succeeded by Sir John Rous Thomas Bedingfield
Preceded by Sir John Rous Thomas Bedingfield	Member of Parliament for Dunwich 1628–1629 With: Francis Winterton	Succeeded by Parliament suspended until 1640

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[1] J.P. Ferris, 'Brooke, Sir Robert (1573-1646), of Cockfield Hall, Yoxford, Suff. and Walbrook, London', in A. Thrush and J.P. Ferris, The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629, (from Cambridge University Press 2010), History of Parliament.

[2] J. Foster (ed.), The Register of Admissions to Gray's Inn, 1521-1889 (Hansard, London 1889), p. 82 (Hathi Trust).

[Venn-3] "Brooke, Robert (BRK587R2)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

[Willis-4] Browne Willis, Notitia Parliamentaria, or, An history of the counties, cities, and boroughs in England and Wales: ... The whole extracted from mss. and printed evidences (Author, London 1750), pp. 186-239 (Google).

[5] Ferris, 'Brooke, Sir Robert', History of Parliament.

[6] S.A. Mendelson, 'Brooke, Elizabeth, Lady Brooke (1602?–1683)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2008).

[7] M.W. Helms/Paula Watson, 'Brooke, Robert (c.1637-69), of Cockfield Hall, Yoxford, Suff. and Wanstead House, Essex', in B.D. Henning (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690 (from Boydell and Brewer 1983), History of Parliament Online.

[8] E. Farrer, 'The Blois MSS', Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and Natural History XIV Part 2 (1911), pp. 147-226: at p. 150 (Society's pdf).