case contemplated by Dodwell became a fact when the death of Bishop Lloyd on 1 Jan. 1710 was followed by the resignation of Bishop Ken, and accordingly Brokesby, Dodwell and Nelson returned to the communion of the established church, and attended service at Shottesbrooke Church on 28 Feb. (Marshall, Defence of our Constitution, app. iv. and vi.) A letter from S. Parker of Oxford, dated 12 Nov. (Gent. Mag. 1799, vol. lxix. pt. i.), appears to have called forth a reply dated 18 Nov., in which Brokesby shows that 'the new bishops' were merely suffragans, that no synodical denunciation had invested them with independent authority after the deaths of the deprived diocesans, that the 'deprived fathers' had no power to invest them with such authority, and that therefore they were not diocesan bishops (Marshall, app. xi.) Brokesby, then, had no part in what may be described as the schism of the nonjurors. He lost his friend Dodwell in 1711, and the next year he describes himself in his will, dated 15 Sept. 1712, as sojourning at Hinckley. He was then in good health. The death of Francis Cherry in 1713 caused him deep grief. He died at Hinckley, and was buried at Stoke on 24 Oct. 1714. Of his six children his elder son Francis died in early life, and his younger son, who became a merchant, also died before him. His four daughters survived him; the second, Dorothy, married Samuel Parr, vicar of Hinckley, and was thus the grandmother of Dr. Samuel Parr, the famous Greek scholar. Brokesby was the author of:
- 'Some Proposals towards promoting the Propagation of the Gospel in our American Plantations,' 1708, 8vo.
- A tract entitled 'Of Education with respect to Grammar Schools and the Universities, to which is annexed a Letter of Advice to a Young Gentleman. By F. B., B.D.,' 1701, 12mo.
- 'A Letter containing an Account of some Observations relating to the Antiquities and Natural History of England,' 16 May 1711, in Hearne's 'Leland's Itinerary,' vi. preface, and 89-107, ed. 1744.
- 'An History of the Government of the Primitive Church for the first three centuries and the beginning of the fourth … wherein also the Suggestions of David Blondel … are considered,' 1712, 8vo.
- 'The Divine Right of Church Government by Bishops asserted,' 1714, 8vo.
- 'The Life of Mr. Henry Dodwell, with an Account of his Work … ,' 2 vols. 1715, 8vo. In this work, which was published after the author's death, he speaks (p. 311) of the help Dodwell had given him in preparing his book on church government.
- Various Letters.
[J. Nichols's History and Antiquities of Hinckley, being part of the History of Leicestershire, iv. 715-19, 725, 737-42, also less fully in Bibl. Top. Brit. vii. 173; Brokesby's History of the Government of the Church, and Life of Dodwell, see preface; Marshall's Defence of our Constitution in Church and State … with an Appendix … containing … Divers Letters of … the Rev. Mr. Brookesby, 1717; Calamy's Nonconformists' Memorial (Palmer), ii. 202 ; Hearne's Collections, i. 211, and an abstract of a letter of F. B. on the Paderborn or Venice edition of the first part of 33rd book of Livy, Oxford Hist. Soc.; J. G. Nichols's Literary Illustrations, iv. 117; Gent. Mag. lxix. pt. i. 458; Lathbury's History of the Nonjurors, 199-217.]
BROME, ADAM de (d. 1332), founder of Oriel College, Oxford, of whose early life nothing is known, was rector of Hanworth in Middlesex in 1315, chancellor of Durham in 1316, archdeacon of Stow in 1319, and in the same year was made vicar of St. Mary in Oxford. He was also a clerk in chancery and almoner of Edward II. In 1324 he received the royal license to purchase a messuage and found a college in Oxford to the honour of the Virgin Mary. He obtained several benefactions from Edward II for his new foundation, which was to consist of a provost and ten fellows or scholars, who were to devote themselves to the study of divinity, logic, or law. He was appointed the first provost by the king in 1325, and drafted his statutes in the following year. The statutes bear a close resemblance to those which Walter de Merton had framed for Merton College. Brome died in June 1332, and was buried in St. Mary's Church, Oxford.
[Wood's Colleges and Halls (Gutch), 122, &c.; Statutes of Oriel College, in Statutes of Colleges of Oxford (1853), vol. i.]
BROME, ALEXANDER (1620–1666), poet, born in 1620, was an attorney in the lord mayor's court, according to Langbaine, and in the court of king's bench, according to Richard Smith's ' Obituary,' published by the Camden Society. During the civil wars he distinguished himself by his attachment to the royalist cause, and was the author of many songs and epigrams in ridicule of the Rump. In 1653 he edited, in an 8vo volume, 'Five New Playes' by Richard Brome [q. v.] (to whom he was not related), and in 1659 five more 'New Playes,' 1 vol. 8vo. He published, in 1654, a comedy of his own, entitled 'The Cunning Lovers.' His 'Songs and Poems' were collected in 1661, 8vo, with commendatory verses by Izaak Walton and others, and a dedication to Sir J. Robinson, lieutenant of the Tower. The second edition, 'corrected and enlarged,' appeared in 1664.
