1710 he was called to the upper house as chief justice of the queen's bench, but his attachment to the principles of the revolution caused his dismissal in 1711. In 1713 he re-entered the Irish parliament as member for the city of Cork, and notwithstanding the opposition of the government he was chosen speaker by a majority of four votes. Having been the principal adviser in the measures taken by the Irish House of Commons to secure the protestant succession, he was appointed by George I, 1 Oct. 1714, lord chancellor of Ireland, and on 13 April 1715 was raised to the peerage as Baron Brodrick of Midleton. On 5 Aug. 1717 he was advanced to the dignity of Viscount Midleton. In the same year that he was made lord chancellor he entered the British parliament as member for Midhurst, Sussex, which he continued to represent till his death. Although he attached himself to the party of Sunderland, he strenuously opposed the Peerage Bill, resisting with equal firmness the solicitations and menaces of Sunderland, and turning a deaf ear even to the urgent requests of the sovereign. Although possibly chargeable with opiniativeness, his sterling honesty, bold independence, and sincere patriotism, entitle him to the highest praise. On the death of Sunderland he attached himself to Carteret in opposition to Townshend and Walpole, against the latter of whom he ultimately cherished a violent antipathy. By his conduct in the famous case, Sherlock v. Annesley, Midleton incurred the serious displeasure of the Irish lords, and as by his opposition to Wood's coinage patent he had rendered himself specially obnoxious to the Duke of Grafton, the lord-lieutenant, Grafton connived at a resolution of the lords 'that through the absence of the lord high chancellor there has been a failure of justice in this kingdom by the great delay in the high court of chancery and in the exchequer chamber.' The resolution was, however, robbed of its sting by a counter resolution in the House of Commons, and Walpole, to win if possible the all-essential support of Midleton for the patent, appointed Carteret lord-lieutenant. Carteret, dreading dismissal from office, exerted all his personal influence on Midleton, but in vain. The result was a personal breach between them, and Midleton, disgusted with his cold reception at the castle, resigned office 25 May 1725. Notwithstanding his strenuous opposition to the patent, Midleton not only refused to accept the dedication to him of Swift's 'Drapier's Letters,' but supported the prosecution of their author, on the ground that they tended to 'create jealousies between the king and the people of Ireland.' He died at his country seat, Ballyanan, Cork, in 1728. He was thrice married: first to Catherine, second daughter of Redmond Barry of Rathcormack, by whom he had one son and one daughter; secondly, to Alice, daughter of Sir Peter Courthorpe of the Little Island, Cork, by whom he had two sons and a daughter; and thirdly, to Anne, daughter of Sir John Trevor, master of the rolls, by whom he had no issue.
[Pedigree in Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, ii. 359-60; Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, v. 164-70; Le Neve's Knights, 102; Coxe's Life of Sir Robert Walpole, i. 215-30, and ii. 170-219, containing letters, correspondence, and papers on the Peerage Bill and on Wood's Coinage Patent; Manning and Bray's History of Surrey, ii. 33-4; O'Flanagan's Lives of the Lord Chancellors of Ireland, ii. 1-38.]
BRODRICK, THOMAS (d. 1769), vice-admiral, entered the navy about 1723. In 1739 he was a lieutenant of the Burford, Vernon's flagship at Porto Bello, and commanded the landing party which stormed the Castillo de Fierro. In recompense for his brilliant conduct Vernon promoted him to the command of the Cumberland fireship, in which he in 1741 took part in the expedition to Cartagena. On 25 March he was posted into the Shoreham frigate, and continued actively employed during the rest of that campaign, and afterwards in the expedition to Cuba [see Vernon, Edward]. After other service he returned to England in 1743, and early in the following year was appointed to the Exeter of 60 guns. In March of the following year he was appointed to the Dreadnought, which was sent out to the Leeward Islands, and continued there till after the peace in 1748. In May 1756 Brodrick was sent out to the Mediterranean in command of reinforcements for Admiral Byng, whom he joined at Gibraltar just before the admiral was ordered home under arrest. He had meantime been advanced to be rear-admiral, in which rank he served under Sir Edward Hawke till towards the close of the year, when the fleet returned home. In January 1757 he was a member of the courtmartial on Admiral Byng [see Byng, Hon. John]; and was afterwards, with his flag in the Namur, third in command in the expedition against Rochfort [see Hawke, Lord Edward]. Early in 1758 Brodrick was appointed as second in command in the Mediterranean, with his flag on board the Prince George of 90 guns. On 13 April, being then off Ushant, the Prince George caught fire, and out of a complement of nearly 800, some 250 only were saved; the admiral himself was picked up, stark naked, by a merchant-ship's boat, after he had been swimming for about an hour.
