Richard Brooke or Broke (died 1569) was an English landowner and navy officer. AnthonyRoll-30 Galley Subtle

Early life

Richard Brooke was the younger son of Thomas Brooke of Leighton in

Nantwich Nantwich ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It has among the highest concentrations of listed buildings in England, with notably good examples of Tudor and Georgian architecture ...

Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

and Elizabeth, a daughter of Hugh Starkey of Oulton. Starkey was a

Gentleman Usher Gentleman Usher and Lady Usher are titles for some officers of the Royal Household of the United Kingdom. For a list of office-holders from the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 up to the present day see List of Lady and Gentleman Ushers. Gen ...

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

Knights of Malta

Brooke became a soldier and was admitted as a

Knight of Malta The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, and commonly known as the Order of Malta or the Knights of Malta, is a Catholic lay religious ...

in 1531. Hugh Starkey's son

Oliver Starkey Sir Oliver Starkey (c.1523-1583/1586), was an English knight who lived in the 16th century. He was the only English knight present at the siege of Malta. It was wrongly assumed that he was buried in the crypt of St. John's Co-Cathedral i ...

was also a Knight of Malta. Brooke became Commander of the Mount St. John Preceptory in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

. After the suppression of the Order in England by

circa 1542, Brooke was relieved of his religious vows and held the office of Vice-Admiral of England, a jurisdiction on the Cheshire coast.

Scotland and the ''Galley Subtle''

In May 1544, during the war now known as the

Rough Wooing The Rough Wooing (; December 1543 – March 1551), also known as the Eight Years' War, was part of the Anglo-Scottish Wars of the 16th century. Following the English Reformation, the break with the Catholic Church, England attacked Scotland ...

, Brooke served in Lord Hertford's army in Scotland which sacked and burnt Edinburgh. Brooke captured and destroyed the fortress on the island of

Inchgarvie Inchgarvie or Inch Garvie is a small, uninhabited island in the Firth of Forth. On the rocks around the island sit four caissons that make up the foundations of the Forth Bridge. Inchgarvie's fortifications pre-date the modern period. In th ...

in the '' Galley Subtle'' on 6 May 1544. In September 1547 an English navy commanded by Lord Clinton comprising 34 warships with 26 support vessels sailed to Scotland. The ''Galley Subtle'', captained by Richard Brooke, bombarded the Scottish army at the

battle of Pinkie The Battle of Pinkie, also known as the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh (), took place on 10 September 1547 on the banks of the River Esk near Musselburgh, Scotland. The last pitched battle between Scotland and England before the Union of the Crowns, ...

. William Patten included the ship in one of his plans of the battlefield, depicted in the woodcut with its oars visible, close to

Musselburgh Musselburgh (; ; ) is the largest settlement in East Lothian, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth, east of Edinburgh city centre. It had a population of as of . History The name Musselburgh is Old English language, Old English in ...

The galley was used because it could be rowed near the shore to fire its ordnance. The galley crew included condemned prisoners from London jails whose sentences were commuted to sea service. The guns of the ships in English fleet were recorded in an inventory. The ''Galley Subtle'' carried two brass demi-cannons, two brass Flanders demi-culverins, breech-loading iron double basses and single basses. The ship was also called the ''Rose'' or ''Red Galley''. After Pinkie, on 15 September Broke and the ''Galley Subtle'' rowed up the

River Forth The River Forth is a major river in central Scotland, long, which drains into the North Sea on the east coast of the country. Its drainage basin covers much of Stirlingshire in Scotland's Central Belt. The Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic name for the ...

Blackness Castle Blackness Castle is a 15th-century fortress, near the village of Blackness, Falkirk, Blackness, Scotland, on the south shore of the Firth of Forth. It was built, probably on the site of an earlier fort, by George Crichton, 1st Earl of Caithness ...

. After an exchange of fire he captured the '' Mary Willoughby'', the ''Anthony of Newcastle'' and the ''Bosse'', and burnt other ships. Next, an " assured Scot"

Michael Durham Michael Durham was a Scottish courtier and physician to James V of Scotland. His family was from Grange at Monifieth near Dundee. Death of a king Durham took his first degree at the University of St Andrews. He attended James V at Falkland Palace ...

and the English commander

Andrew Dudley Sir Andrew Dudley, KG (c. 1507 – 1559) was an English soldier, courtier, and diplomat. A younger brother of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, he served in Henry VIII's navy and obtained court offices under Edward VI. In 1547&n ...

sailed in the galley from Leith to

Broughty Castle Broughty Castle is a historic castle on the banks of the River Tay in Broughty Ferry, Dundee, Scotland. It was completed around 1495, although the site was earlier fortified in 1454, when George Douglas, 4th Earl of Angus, received permission ...

and fired three shots at the castle. The castle surrendered to Dudley as pre-arranged.

Manor of Norton

Richard Brooke bought the manor of Norton, near

Runcorn Runcorn is an industrial town and Runcorn Docks, cargo port in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England. Runcorn is on the south bank of the River Mersey, where the estuary narrows to form the Runcorn Gap. It is upstream from the port of Live ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

from

in 1545 following the dissolution of the monasteries. The manor included the former monastery of

Norton Priory Norton Priory is a historic site in Norton, Runcorn, Cheshire, England, comprising the remains of an abbey complex dating from the 12th to 16th centuries, and an 18th-century country house; it is now a museum. The remains are a scheduled ...

and the settlements of Norton, Stockham, Acton Grange and Aston Grange in

, and

Cuerdley Cuerdley is a civil parish in the Borough of Warrington, Cheshire, England. It has a population of 107 (2001 census) and much of its area is farmland. A large part of Cuerdley is occupied by the Fiddlers Ferry Power Station, which was decommissi ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

Later life

Following the dissolution of the monasteries, the abbey of Norton Priory was made inhospitable. Having bought the property, it seems that Brooke did not have the resources necessary to build an expensive house and therefore he modified the west range of the abbey as his residence, while the

cloister A cloister (from Latin , "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open Arcade (architecture), arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle (architecture), quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cat ...

became a rubbish dump. The remaining buildings and the church were demolished and sold for building stone. Following the accession of Queen Mary to the throne in 1553, Brooke assisted

Reginald Pole Reginald Pole (12 March 1500 – 17 November 1558) was an English cardinal and the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury, holding the office from 1556 to 1558 during the Marian Restoration of Catholicism. Early life Pole was born at Stourt ...

in the re-establishment of the

Order of St John The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there u ...

in England. Brooke was

Sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...

of Cheshire in 1563. He was succeeded at Norton Priory by his eldest son, Thomas.

Family

He married Christian, daughter of John Carew of

Haccombe Haccombe is a village and former civil parish and historic manor, now in the parish of Haccombe with Combe, in the Teignbridge district, in the county of Devon, England. It is situated 2 1/2 miles east of Newton Abbot, in the south of the coun ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

. The genealogy of the family is variously reported. Their children or grandchildren included. *Thomas Brooke of Norton (died 1622), who married (1) Anne, daughter of

Henry Tuchet, 10th Baron Audley Henry Tuchet, 10th Baron Audley, 7th Baron Tuchet (died 30 December 1563) was an English peer. Henry Tuchet was the son of George Tuchet, 9th Baron Audley (died 1560). He married Elizabeth Sneyd, daughter of Sir William Sneyd ( or Suede ). He i ...

, (2) Elizabeth (died 1604), daughter of William Marbury, (3) Eleanor Gerrard *Mary Brooke, who married Richard Brereton *Elizabeth Brooke, who married (1) Lancelot Bartlett, (2) Cynwrig Eyton of Eyton, Denbigshire *Christian Brooke, who married Richard Grosvenor of Eaton and was the mother of

Sir Richard Grosvenor, 1st Baronet Sir Richard Grosvenor, 1st Baronet (9 January 1585 – 14 September 1645) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1621 and 1629. He is an ancestor of the modern day Dukes of Westminster. Grosven ...

, the ancestor of the

Dukes of Westminster Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ...

. *Martha Brooke, who married Hugh Starkey of More After the death of Richard Brooke in 1569, his widow married Ralph Done of Flaxyards.Daniel King, ''History of Cheshire'', 2, p. 739.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brooke, Richard 1569 deaths People from Runcorn Knights of Malta English admirals 16th-century Royal Navy personnel Year of birth unknown English people of the Rough Wooing