Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brooke, Samuel
BROOKE, SAMUEL (d. 1632), master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and archdeacon of Coventry, was the son of Robert Brooke, a rich citizen of York, and was brother of Christopher Brooke, the poet [q. v.] In 1596 he was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge; he proceeded M.A. 1604, B.D. 1607, and D.D. 1615. Shortly afterwards he was sent to prison, by the agency of Sir George More, for secretly celebrating the marriage of Dr. John Donne with More's daughter, but was soon afterwards released. He was promoted to the office of chaplain to Henry, prince of Wales, who recommended him (26 Sept. 1612) for the divinity chair at Gresham College. He was afterwards chaplain to both James I and Charles I. He was elected proctor at Cambridge in 1613, and in 1614 he wrote three Latin plays, which were performed before James I on his visit to the university in that year. The names of the plays appear to have been 'Scyros,' 'Adelphe,' and 'Melanthe,' and the 'Adelphe' was described as so witty 'ut vel ipsi Catoni risum excuteret.' On 13 June 1618 he became rector of St. Margaret's, Lothbury, London, and 10 July 1621 was incorporated D.D. at Oxford. He was elected master of Trinity College, Cambridge, 5 Sept. 1629, and on 17 Nov. resigned his Gresham professorship. Prynne, in his 'Canterburie's Doome' p. 157, abuses Brooke as a disciple of Laud, and states that in 1630 Brooke was engaged in 'An Arminian Treatise of Predestination.' Laud encouraged him to complete this book, but afterwards declined to sanction its publication on account of its excessive violence. On 13 May 1631 Brooke was admitted archdeacon of Coventry, and died 16 Sept. 1632. His will (99 St. John) was made 16 Sept. 1631 and proved 20 Sept. He was buried without monument or epitaph in Trinity College Chapel. None of Brooke's works appear to have been printed. Besides the treatise already mentioned, he wrote a tract on the Thirty-nine Articles, and a discourse, dedicated to the Earl of Pembroke, entitled 'De Auxilio Divinæ Gratiæ Exercitatio theologica, nimirum: An possibile sit duos eandem habere Gratiæ Mensuram, et tamen unus convertatur et credat; alter non: e Johan. xi. 45, 46.' The manuscript of this discourse is in Trinity College Library.
[Ward's Lives of the Professors of Gresham College, p. 53; Wood's Fasti Oxon. (Bliss) i. 401-2; Cooper's Memorials of Cambridge, ii. 284; Welch's Alumni Westmonast. 19-20; Cole's MS. Athenæ Cantab.; Laud's Works, vi. 292.]
