Heralds. 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 III. 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 regard to this good and accomplished man. "His extensive knowledge "in heraldry and antiquity, the kind and ready communication of that r 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 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 Heralds. expressive of the deceased's merit is, Sacred to the memory of JOHN-CHARLES BROOKE, Esq., Secretary to the Earl Marshal of England, in his ancient and useful profession. united a most cheerful and lively humor: every sort of useful and agreeable information, He was in a moment bereaved of them, which happened at the Theatre in the 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. < Heralds. Somerset. Mr. Brooke, a well-regulated œconomist, had acquired about £14,000. GEORGE III. By his will he appointed his two sisters executrixes, and residuary legatees, though his elder brother, Mr. Brooke, an attorney, survived him. He bequeathed his MSS. to the College of Arms. That which related to the lives of the heralds he had promised me the inspection of, and this his friends in the College most obligingly fulfilled since his death. Somerset's merit will always be acknowledged. He made many collections, chiefly relative to the county of York. His father inheriting the MS. of his great uncle, the Rev. John Brooke, which he had made as a foundation for the topography of that great division of the kingdom, they came into his hands, which he greatly enlarged by his own industry, and by copying the manuscripts of Jennings and Tellyson, which treated upon the same subject. His collections were not confined to Britain; but he added much to his literary labors whilst on a tour to the Continent. The whole shew his judgment as well as application. Becoming, April 6, 1775, a member of the Society of Antiquaries, he enriched their volumes with some curious papers relative to the ancient seal of Robert, Baron Fitzwalter, and those of Queens Catharine Parr and Mary d'Este: illustrations of a Saxon inscription in Kirkdale church, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, and another in Aldborough church, in Holderness; and of a deed belonging to the manor of Nether-Sillington, in Yorkshire. Some items of his, signed J.B., appear in the Gentleman's Magazine, and the first writers of the age in history, biography, and topography, are indebted to him. The obliging manner of his sending information augmented the value: his greatest pleasure was making others happy. It was hoped he would have given us the great seals of our Sovereigns, their consorts, and those of the royal family, the nobility, prelates, religious houses, and other public bodies. None could so well have done what is much wanted. The late Sir George Warren, K.B., supposing he had a claim to the barony of Warren, vested in the ancient Earls of Warren in Normandy, created by William the Conqueror Earls of Surrey, whose arms he bore, with the addition of a canton, employed the Rev. Mr. Watson, to whom he gave the rectory of Stockport, in Cheshire, and Somerset, to compile a regular history of those earls, and to unite his descent to them, in the manner such works were accustomed to be performed by the nobility in France. The work made two large quarto volumes. The sheets were dispersed to the intelligent to augment or correct. The matter however was discontinued. This was caused by the Kk k Heralds. Somerset. GEORGE III. the deaths of the compilers, and Sir George's ill health. Mr. Basire's burine was employed in ornamenting and elucidating the subject with appropriate plates. The expense, considerable as it was, could not have been felt by the employer. It would have been an acceptable present to the Public. It is extraordinary that such works are not often written under the patronage, and for the honor of illustrious families in Britain. How much larger sums are often spent in a less praise-worthy manner. Richmond. March 1, 1794.-JOHN ATKINSON; Esq. The present Somerset herald. RICHMOND. Geo. II.-FRANCIS GROSE, Esq. F.A.S. He was son of Francis Grose, Esq. a native of Switzerland, who settling in England, became so eminent a jeweller, that he was employed in fitting up the crown for the coronation of George II. Retiring from business, he resided at Richmond, and became a justice of peace for the county of Surrey. Dying in December, 1769, his prints and shells were disposed of in the following year. By Ann, daughter of Thomas Bennett of Kingston, in Oxfordshire, he had the herald and several other sons; they were, Mr. John Grose, F.A.S. author of "Ethics." John-Henry Grose, Esq. who wrote the Voyage to the East-Indies, printed in 1772, in two volumes, father of Daniel Grose Esq. F.A.S. captain of the royal regiment of artillery. Edward Grose Esq. a merchant in Threadneedle Street; and Sir Nash Grose, justice of the King's Bench. Francis Grose, Esq. Richmond, the eldest son, born at Greenford, in Middlesex, having a taste for heraldry and antiAt his quities, his father procured him a place in the College of Arms. death he left him a fortune, which, with economy, was sufficient to have supplied all reasonable demands; but eccentric, easy, a lover and promoter of pleasantry, he never reflected about contingencies. Resigning his tabard in 1763, he became adjutant and paymaster of the Hampshire militia; here he found others equally disposed to frolic and mirth; his moments passed pleasantly: the only books of account he kept, as he used to own, were his right and left hand pockets; into the one he put what he received; from the other he paid: the designing, and the careless, regarded him as their dupe, and he soon felt the effects of his easy credulity. He found resources in his |