Colonel Thomas Brooke Jr. of Brookefield (1660 – 1731) was President of the Council in Maryland and acting 13th

Proprietary Governor Proprietary colonies were a type of colony in English America which existed during the early modern period. In English overseas possessions established from the 17th century onwards, all land in the colonies belonged to the Crown, which held ul ...

of the

Province of Maryland The Province of Maryland was an Kingdom of England, English and later British colonization of the Americas, British colony in North America from 1634 until 1776, when the province was one of the Thirteen Colonies that joined in supporting the A ...

. He was the son of

Major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

Thomas Brooke Sr. and Esquire and his second wife Eleanor Hatton who later remarried Col.

Henry Darnall Colonel Henry Darnall (1645 – 17 June 1711) was an Irish-born planter, militia officer and politician who served as the chancellor of Maryland from 1683 to 1689. He was also appointed as the proprietary agent for Charles Calvert, 3rd Bar ...

. He was grandson of the Reverend Robert Brooke Sr., who had similarly held the office briefly during the Cromwellian period in 1652. In 1720, he was elected President of the Governor's Council, (upper house of the colonial

Maryland General Assembly The Maryland General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland that convenes within the State House in Annapolis. It is a bicameral body: the upper chamber, the Maryland Senate, has 47 representatives, and the lower ...

)Warfield, J. D., p48 ''The Founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties Maryland''
Retrieved August 2, 2010 and acting (12th),

Governor of Maryland The governor of the State of Maryland is the head of government of Maryland, and is the commander-in-chief of the state's National Guard units. The governor is the highest-ranking official in the state and has a broad range of appointive powers ...

from the departure of 11th Gov. John Hart until the arrival of Charles Calvert, fifth Lord Baltimore. Brooke Jr. was replaced as the 14th governor by Captain Charles Calvert, cousin of the Lord Baltimore, and a Calvert family loyalist.Yentsch, Anne E, p.56, ''A Chesapeake Family and their Slaves: a Study in Historical Archaeology'', Cambridge University Press (1994)
Retrieved Jan 2010

Biography

Thomas was born in 1660 near

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

in Calvert County (after 1696 Prince George's County), Maryland to Major Thomas Brooke and Eleanor Hutton. He was commissioned Major of the Militia and promoted to Colonel. Thomas was one of the justices for Calvert County. Thomas was a justice of the peace for Calvert County from 1679 to 1681 and 1685 to 1689. Thomas was a vestryman of St. Paul's Parish, Calvert County. He was removed from his justiceship probably due to his opposition to the revolution Protestant Associators in 1689. He was nominated by Charles Calvert, 3rd Lord Baltimore to become a member of the first royal Council, commonly known as the Upper House, on August 26, 1691. He was probably appointed in an effort to mollify the proprietor after his loss of the colony. Thomas served as a member of the Council of Maryland from 1692 to 1707. He took the oath of office as a justice of the Provincial Court on May 1, 1694. He was appointed Deputy Secretary of Maryland the following year, and in 1699 was Commissary General of the Province. Thomas was dismissed from all offices by the

, John Seymour, in 1708 as a result of close Roman Catholic ties—his brothers were

Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

and Col.

was his stepfather—and for poor Council attendance, although his attendance had been very regular prior to Seymour's governorship. Brooke was reappointed to the same position after the colony reverted to proprietary control, and served from 1715 to 1722.

Governor of Maryland

In 1720 he was elected President of the Council, and acting

from the departure of Gov. John Hart until the arrival of

Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, (29 September 1699 – 24 April 1751) was a British politician and colonial administrator who served as the proprietary governor of the Province of Maryland. He inherited the title to Maryland aged just f ...

. He was replaced as governor by Captain Charles Calvert, cousin of Lord Baltimore, and a Calvert family loyalist. The reason for his second dismissal from the Council in 1722, is unclear. Unlike his parents and brothers, he was a member of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

and reared his family in that faith. He was one of the first vestryman of St. Paul's Parish. Thomas resided at "Brookefield", his estate on Mattaponi Creek near the

Patuxent River The Patuxent River is a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay in the state of Maryland. There are three main river drainages for central Maryland: the Potomac River to the west passing through Washington, D.C., the Patapsco River to the northeas ...

, which he inherited from his father. The land was formerly in

Calvert County Calvert County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 92,783. Its county seat is Prince Frederick. The county's name is derived from the family name of the Barons of Baltimo ...

, but in 1696 became

Prince George's County Prince George's County (often shortened to PG County or PG) is located in the U.S. state of Maryland bordering the eastern portion of Washington, D.C. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 967,201, making it the second-most populous ...

when it was formed. In addition to "Brookefield", Col. Brooke also laid out several other tracts of land in Calvert County including: "The Gore", laid out on June 10, 1680; "Brookes Chance", on July 13, 1680; "Addition to Brooke Chance", on June 10, 1685; "Hogg Pen", on June 12, 1685; "Addition to Brookefield", on March 29, 1688; "The Grove Landing", on July 10, 1688; "The Forrest", on Sep. 5, 1694; "Dan" on September 6, 1694; "Brookes Discovery", on Dec. 10, 1695; and "The Prospect", on Dec. 11, 1695. At the time of his death on January 7, 1731, at "Brookefield", Thomas had amassed over 7,000 acres (28 km²) of land, in which a majority was heavily mortgaged. His estate value was listed at 1,374 pounds, including proceeds of the sale of land, and 36 slaves.

Personal life

In 1679, Brooke married Anne Addison, with whom he would have four children. Following his first wife's death in 1692, Brooke married Barbara Dent—the daughter of Col. Thomas Dent Sr. and Rebecca Wilkinson—by 1699. Brooke had an additional ten children with her between 1699 and 1717 prior to his death in 1731. He was survived by three of the four children from his first marriage, seven of the ten children from his second, and his second wife, who later died in Calvert County on April 18, 1754.

Notes

References

Brook Family Genealogy
*Maryland State Archives: St. Mary's City Men's Career Files MSA SC 509

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brooke, Thomas Jr. Maryland lawyers Colonial governors of Maryland 17th-century American lawyers 1660 births 1730s deaths

Biography

Governor of Maryland

Personal life

See also

Notes

References