robbers about Rajmahal, in which he distinguished himself by his lenity and humanity no less than by the success of his operations. He also rendered good service against the Mahrattas and in the Rohilla war. His services were acknowledged by the court of directors on 19 April 1771, and again on 30 March 1774, in terms almost unprecedented in the case of an officer of junior rank. He returned home on furlough in 1774, and invested the fortune he had realised by his collectorship at Corah in an attempt to develope the cotton manufacture in Ireland, with which object he erected the industrial village of Prosperous, in the barony of Clane, county Kildare. About the same time he married Mrs. Wynne, née Mapletoft, who bore him several children. The enterprise at Prosperous met with patronage and support in distinguished quarters, and in 1776 Brooke received the thanks of parliament for his patriotic endeavours. The manufacturing processes cotton-printing excepted are stated to have been carried to some perfection, but in a commercial sense the undertaking proved a failure, and after many vicissitudes the works, counting some 1,400 looms, in 1787 had to be given up for the benefit of the creditors. They were eventually burned by the rebels in 1798. His own fortune and that of his wife having thus been sacrificed, and an elder brother, who was partner in the enterprise, and others having become involved in the ruin, Brooke applied to the court of directors to reinstate him in his former rank, for, having overstayed his leave, he had been struck off the rolls from 14 April 1775. The directors declined to accede to the request, but immediately afterwards appointed him to the governorship of the island of St. Helena, in succession to Governor Corneille. There he displayed much energy. He improved the buildings, strengthened the defences, and established a code of signals. The island became a depot for the company's European troops, and during his governorship over 12,000 recruits were drilled in its valleys. His spirited measures for seizing the Cape of Good Hope with a small naval squadron carrying a landing-force of 600 light infantry, blue-jackets, marines, and seamen-volunteers, though anticipated by the expedition from home under General Craig and Admiral Keith, won for him the special thanks of the home government. The court of directors recognised his exertions by the gift of a diamond-hilted sword, presented to him in 1799 at St. Helena, at the head of a garrison parade, Brooke then holding local rank as colonel. A serious illness compelled him to embark for England on 10 March 1801, and he died soon after.
Particulars and certificates of his public services in India and in Ireland will be found in the 'British Museum Collection of Political Tracts,' under the heading: 'Brooke, Robt. A Letter from Mr. Brooke to an Honourable Member of the House of Commons (Dublin, 1787).' A notice of his governorship appears in the 'History of St. Helena,' compiled by Thomas Digby Brooke, who was for many years colonial secretary on the island, and was a nephew of Governor Brooke, being a son of the elder brother who was partner in the concern at Prosperous. A few unpublished letters to Warren Hastings in 1773, and from the Marquis Wellesley, are among ' Add. MSS.,' British Museum.
[Burke's Landed Gentry; Political Tracts, 1787-8; Dodswell and Miles's Lists of Bengal Army; Warburton's Hist, of Dublin, ii. 971; Brooke's Hist, of St. Helena (2nd ed. 1823); Add. MSS. 29133, 13710, and 13787.]
BROOKE, Lord. [See Greville.]
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.'
