Family and Education

b. c.1544, s. and event. h. of George Brooke by Anne, da. of John Carew. educ. St. John’s, Camb. 1558. m. (1) Alice (d.1580), da. of Sir John Tyrrell of Ipswich, 4s. 7da.; (2) Elizabeth, da. of Sir John Withypoll of Ipswich, wid. of Henry Reynolds of Belstead, 3s.

Offices Held

Biography

Brooke’s family had lived at Aspall, some ten miles from Eye, for at least three generations. He was on good terms with the Gawdys, one of whom was his fellow-Member in 1584. In his will, proved 30 Apr. 1601, Brooke left a goshawk to his ‘loving friend’ Henry Gawdy, and made his ‘very loving’ son-in-law Clipsby Gawdy an overseer. His ‘cousin’ John Wentworth was the other overseer and his eldest son George executor. He cut out a spendthrift son, Edward, who had caused him ‘no small grief’. As well as Aspall, Brooke was seised, at the time of his death on 18 Dec. 1600, of the Suffolk manors of Harborough and Debenham and of an estate in Norfolk. He held some leasehold land of Nathaniel Bacon and some of Magdalen College, Oxford.

Wards 7/7/76; Burke, Gentry (1846), i. 146; Vis. Suff. ed. Metcalfe, 118-19; PCC 24 Woodhall; C142/263/15(2).

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: J.H.

Notes