Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brooke, Henry James
BROOKE, HENRY JAMES (1771–1857), crystallographer, son of a broadcloth manufacturer, born at Exeter on 25 May 1771, studied for the bar, but went into business in the Spanish wool trade, South American mining companies, and the London Life Assurance Association successively. He devoted his leisure hours to mineralogy, geology, and botany. His large collections of shells and of minerals were presented to the university of Cambridge, while a portion of his valuable collection of engravings was given by him to the British Museum. He was elected F.G.S. in 1815, F.L.S. in 1818, and F.R.S in 1819. He discovered thirteen new mineral species. He died on 26 June 1857. He published a ' Familiar Introduction to Crystallography,' London, 1823; and contributed the important articles on t Crystallography' and 'Mineralogy' in the 'Encyclopaedia Metropolitana,' in which he first introduced six primary crystalline systems.
[Proc. Roy. Soc. ix. 41; Q. Journ. Geol. Soc. 14, xliv.]