Heralds.
Somerset.

GEORGE III. cent should themselves be so inattentive to their own genealogy. Upon the death of the last nobleman of this line, it was supposed that the title was extinct. George, son of Mr. Hastings, of Folkstone in Kent, protected and educated by Selina, Countess Dowager, mother of the last Lord Hastings, was supposed to be the representative of this great family; but he dying of the small-pox, March 23, 1790, at the age of nineteen, the fact was never decided. Few things would surprise me less than a successful claimant to the title of Huntingdon.

JOHN-CHARLES BROOKE, Esq. F. A. S.

This truly amiable, elegant, and accomplished herald, was a native of Yorkshire. Whatever relates to this family deserves a place here on a double account; his worth, and the acknowledged merit of his relatives. It is highly probable, that the ancestor of this family was Robert Brooke, Esq. mercer, citizen, alderman, and lord mayor of York, in the years 1583 and 1595. He was buried in the church of All Saints' Pavement in that city, where is this inscription:

Heralds.
Somerset.

became summer reader, and was a benefactor to the chapel. Few could GEORGE III.
boast a more learned acquaintance: amongst these were Mr. Selden, Ben.
Johnson, Michael Drayton, George Withers, John Davies of Hereford,
and William Browne, Gent. of the Inner-Temple, to whom he dedicated
his " Eclogues," London, 1614, and gave him verses to prefix before that
gentleman's " Britannia's Pastorals." He also gave Drayton other verses to
grace his " Legend of Great Cromwell," and he much contributed to the
"Odcombian Banquet," printed in 1611. He represented York in the
18th and 21st of James I., and in the two first Parliaments of Charles I.
The learned mathematician, Christopher Brooke, patronized by that great
philosopher Dr. Wilkins, Bishop of Chester, was of this family. These
were collateral relations. One of Somerset's direct ancestors was the Rev.
John Brooke Fellow of University College, Oxford, who became D.D.
July 16, 1612, Rector of Brainston, and about April 1615, Precentor in the
cathedral of York. Dying in that city, March 23, 1616, aged forty-nine,
he was buried in the Cathedral with this inscription:

JOHANNES BROOK, S. T. P. Coll. Univers. Oxon. Socius, ELMLEIENSIS
primum, tunc SILKSTONIE, BRIANSTONICE, Rect.
Eccles. Metropol. Præcentor, et Canonicus Residentiarius.
Vir prudens et providus, in Concionibus frequens, et doctus:
Vixit ad annum Ætatis suæ 49. Obdormivit in Domino.
23 Martii, A. D. 1616, et positus est juxta hoc Monumentum,
Expectans novissimam Sanctorum Resurrectionem.
Pastor eras plebi dilectæ pabula vitæ,
Sæpe tuæ, et doctæ Doctor in urbe dabas,
Officium egregie tu Presentoris obibas
Tempora sed vitæ sunt magis archta tuæ.
Quæ te delixit mærit tua funera conjux,
Accipe Suprema hæc funera justa tuæ..

It appears that this divine left Elmeley to reside at Silkstone, a parish also in the West Riding, and at no great distance from York, which is upon its borders.* At Dodsworth, in Silkstone parish, near Barnesley, his

des

:

Heralds.

Somerset.

GEORGE III. descendants were seated. Of this place was William Brooke, Gent., who married Mary, daughter of William Oates, of Nether-Denby in Yorkshire. Their son was the Rev. Thomas Brooke, M.A., Rector of Richmond. He married Mary, second daughter of Thomas Coomber, D.D., of SidneySussex College, Cambridge, Prebendary and Precentor in York Cathedral, Chaplain in ordinary to their Majesties, William and Mary, and Dean of Durham. They had William Brooke, M.D., of Fieldhead, near Dodsworth, in Yorkshire, which seat and estate he inherited as heir at law to his uncle, the Rev. John Brooke of that place, Rector of High Hoyland in the same county, who, in the seventeenth century, made great collections for the history of this largest county. He married Alice, eldest daughter and one of the coheirs of William Mawhood, of Doncaster. The second son of this alliance was John-Charles Brooke, Esq., Somerset, who therefore was every way a gentleman by descent. Dr. Brooke judging it proper to send him to the metropolis, he was put apprentice to Mr. James Kirkly, a chemist, in Bartlet's Buildings. The family taste for literature ill suited with trade. History, biography, genealogy, and heraldry, were more pleasing than attending the elaboratory. Having drawn a genealogy of the Howard family in a most masterly manner, it deservedly procured him the patronage of the then Duke of Norfolk, who obtained him an entrance into the College of Arms. The present head of that illustrious house continuing his protection, appointed him one of the lieutenants of the militia of the West Riding of his native county. Death, a shocking, premature death, prevented his promotion, it is probable, to the highest office in his profession. Unhappily he fell in the fatal catastrophe of the evening of February 3, 1794, in attempting to get into the pit at the Little Theatre in the Hay-market, with his friend Mr. Pingo, York. The gentlemen sent to own the bodies of these respectable members of the College, said it was the most melancholy and truly shocking office they ever performed: led to the sight of many corpse of both sexes, dressed in cloaths, which bespoke their intention of spending a few hours in public, to enjoy the

in

tioned by Bloome in his "Britannia," was created a Baronet also, June 13, 1676. The arms of these Baronets are totally different from the Herald's. Edward Brooks, as the name is spelt, of Leverlage in Yorkshire, probably Leversedge, fined for his loyalty to Charles I. £46, appears to have been a collateral relation of Somerset.

6

Heralds.

Somerset.

innocent and rational pleasure of seeing a play, when death arrested them. GEORGE II. The managers were highly reprehensible, who, to gain an additional emolument, more than jeoparded the lives of their fellow creatures. It did not appear that Somerset had been thrown down, but was suffocated as he stood, as were many others: his countenance had the appearance of sleep, not death; even the color in his cheeks remained. York, more corpulent, and having been trodden upon, was much disfigured. The respected remains of Somerset were removed to his apartments in the College, and on February 6th, buried in a vault under the Heralds' seat, in the church of St. Bennet, Paul's Wharf, attended, not only by the heralds and his relations, but by his Grace the Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal of England; George Earl of Leicester, President of the Society of Antiquaries; Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. (now K. B.), President of the Royal Society; John Topham, Esq. F. R. and A. S.; Craven Ord, Esq. F. R. and A. S.; Edmond Turner, Esq. F. R. and A. S.; the Rev. John Brand, Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries; John Caley, Esq. F. A. S.; James Moore, Esq., F. A. S.; and John Lambert, Esq. F. A. S. who paid this last tribute of "His extensive knowledge regard to this good and accomplished man. "in heraldry and antiquity, the kind and ready communication of that "knowlege to his friends, and the uniform mildness of his manners, made "his death not only sincerely lamented by his numerous acquaintance, "but an almost irreparable loss to those sciences, to the cultivation of "which his natural genius was peculiarly adapted." I have never known any gentleman so much, and so deservedly beloved, nor any one's death so much deplored. No one could have been more highly esteemed or respected. His elegant and refined manners adorned the drawing rooms of the great; from him they learnt to know, and to appretiate the glory of the actions of their illustrious progenitors. To men of science he was equally dear, gracefully giving and patiently receiving information: to his inferiors ever kind and attentive. The author, favored with his friendship, never thinks of his death but with the most poignant grief. He may with the utmost truth declare, in the language of the late Mr. Pennant," of this "amiable genealogist, I find daily reason to deplore his untimely end." Edmund Lodge, Esq. Lancaster, to honor the memory of him whom living he loved, placed a mural monument, by Ashton, over his remains. The arms at the top are Ermine, on a Bend, Sable, a Hawke's Lure, Or;

the

Heralds.
Somerset.

GEORGE III, the Line and Ring, Argent: a Crescent in chief for the difference of a second son. Crest: a Goat's Head erased, Sable, horned and bearded, Or. The Shield inclosed in a Collar of SS, Argent. * The inscription, elegantly expressive of the deceased's merit is,

Sacred to the memory of
JOHN-CHARLES BROOKE, Esq..

Somerset Herald,

Secretary to the Earl Marshal of England,
and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries;
Descended from the respectable family of
Brooke, of Dodsworth in the county of York,
and a person of unrivalled eminence
in his ancient and useful profession.
When we were told that this valuable man,
to a moral and pious disposition,
united a most cheerful and lively humor:
that with a mind to comprehend, a judgment to select,
and a memory to retain

every sort of useful and agreeable information,
he was blessed with a temper,
calm, unassuming, and inoffensive:
that he lived in a strict intimacy
with persons of the highest rank,
and of the first litetrary character,
without the smallest tincture of vanity :
above all, that he enjoyed,
with a happy constitution of body,
an uncommon prosperity in worldly affairs;
let us, instead of envying the possession,
reflect on the awful uncertainty
of these sublunary blessings.

For Alas!

He was in a moment bereaved of them,
in the dreadful calamity

which happened at the Theatre in the
Haymarket,

on the third of February, 1794,
in the forty-sixth year of his age.

Somerset bore the above arms in his seal, but quartered his mother's with them.

Mr.