his best known series of articles was 'The Essence of Parliament,' a style of writing for which he was peculiarly fitted by his previous training in connection with the 'Morning Chronicle.'
On 14 March 1872 Brooks was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. He was always a hard and industrious worker, and the four years during which he acted as editor of 'Punch' formed no exception to the rule. Death found him in the midst of his books and papers working cheerfully amongst his family. Two articles, 'Election Epigrams' and 'The Situation,' were written on his death-bed, and before they were published he was dead.
He died at 6 Kent Terrace, Regent's Park, London, on 23 Feb. 1874, and was buried in Norwood Green cemetery on 28 Feb.
He married Emily Margaret, daughter of Dr. William Walkinshaw of Naparima, Trinidad. She was granted a civil list pension of 100l. on 19 June 1876, and died on 14 May 1880.
The works by Brooks not already mentioned are:
- 'Amusing Poetry,' 1857.
- 'The Silver Cord, a Story,' 1861, 3 vols.
- 'Follies of the Year,' by J. Leech, with notes by S. Brooks, 1866.
- 'Sooner or Later,' with llustrations by G. Du Maurier, 1866-68, 3 vols.
- 'The Naggletons and Miss Violet, and her Offer,' 1875.
- 'Wit and Humour, Poems from "Punch,"' edited by his son, Reginald Shirley Brooks, 1875.
[Illustrated Review (1872), iii. 545-50, with portrait; Cartoon Portraits of Men of the Day, 1873, pp. 128-33, with portrait; Gent. Mag. (1874), xii. 561-9, by Blanchard Jerrold; Illustrated London News (1874), lxiv. 223, 225, with portrait; Graphic (1874), ix. 218, 229, with portrait; Yates's Recollections (1884), i. 158, ii. 143-9.]
BROOKS, FERDINAND. [See Green, Hugh.]
BROOKS, GABRIEL (1704–1741), calligrapher, born in 1704, was apprenticed to Dennis Smith, a writing-master 'in Castle Street in the Park, Southwark,' and kept a day school in Burr Street, Wapping, until his death in 1741. Dennis Smith's widow married a supposed relation of his, William Brooks, who in 1717, when only twenty-one years old, published a work entitled 'A Delightful Recreation.' Very little remains of Brooks's skill in penmanship—only a few plates scattered through that rare folio work on calligraphy entitled 'The Universal Penman, or the Art of Writing made useful written with the assistance of several of the most eminent Masters, and Engraved by George Bickham,' London, 1741. These elegantly executed plates (nine in all) consist of No. 29, 'Idleness;' 33, 'Discretion;' 38, 'Modesty:' 66, 'Musick;' No. 2 after 66, 'To the Author of the Tragedy of Cato;' 68, 'Painting;' No. 1 after 68, 'On Sculpture ' (signed A.D. 1737); one unnumbered, ' Liberty; ' and one on 'Credit' in the second part of the work relating to merchandise and trade.
[Massey's Origin of Letters; Moore's Invention of Writing; Bickham's Universal Penman.]
BROOKS, JAMES (1512–1560), bishop of Gloucester, born in Hampshire in May 1512, was admitted a scholar of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in 1528, and a fellow in January 1531-2, being then B.A. After graduating M.A. he studied divinity and was created D.D. in 1546. In the following year he became master of Balliol College. He was chaplain and almoner to Bishop Gardiner (Strype, Cranmer, 310, 374, fol.), and after Queen Mary's accession he was elected bishop of Gloucester, in succession to John Hooper, at whose trial he assisted (Strype, Eccl Memorials, iii. 180, fol.) He was consecrated in St. Saviour's Church, Southwark, on 1 April, and received restitution of the temporalities on 8 May 1554 (LeNeve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, i. 437). In 1555 he was delegated by the pope to examine and try Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer; and in 1557-8 Cardinal Pole appointed him his commissioner to visit the university of Oxford (Strype, Eccl. Memorials, iii. 391, fol.) On Queen Elizabeth's accession he was deprived of his see for refusing to take the oath of supremacy, and was committed to prison, where he died in the beginning of February 1559-60 (Dodd, Church Hist. i. 499). He was buried in Gloucester Cathedral, but no monument was erected to his memory. Wood describes him as 'a person very learned in the time he lived, an eloquent preacher, and a zealous maintainer of the Roman catholic religion' (Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 315), but Bishop Jewel says he was 'a beast of most impure life, and yet more impure conscience' (Letter to Peter Martyr, 20 March 1559-60).
His works are:
- 'A Sermon, very notable, fruictefull, and godlie, made at Paules Crosse, the xii. daie of Nouembre in the first yere of Quene Marie,' Lond. 1553, 8vo, 'newly imprinted and somewhat augmented,' 1554. His text was Matt. ix. 18, 'Lord, my daughter is even now deceased,' These words he applied to the kingdom and church of England, upon their late defection from the pope, but the protestants censured
