Hall,' by Acton Bell, 1848. 5. 'Shirley,' 1849. 6. A new edition of 'Wuthering Heights' and 'Agnes Grey,' with 'Selections from the literary remains of Ellis and Acton Bell,' a biographical notice of Ellis and Acton Bell by Currer Bell, and prefaces to 'Wuthering Heights' and the 'Selections' of poetry). 7. 'Villette,' 1853. 8. 'Emma' (a fragment) in the 'Cornhill Magazine' for April 1860. All these are comprised, together with Mrs. Gaskell's 'Life,' in the collective edition in 7 vols. published in 1872 ; as is also Patrick Brontë's 'Cottage Poems.' Illustrations of the places described are also given.
[Mrs. Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë, 1857 (suppressions and additions in later editions) ; Charlotte Brontë, a monograph, by T. Wemyss Reid, 1877, containing letters to Miss Nussey, some of which had appeared in 'Hours at Home' (New York) for June 1870 ; Emily Brontë, by A. Mary F. Robinson ('Eminent Women' ser.), with information from Miss Nussey and others ; Grundy's Pictures of the Past, pp. 73-93, 1879 ; Mirror, 28 Dec. 1872 (article by 'January Searle,' G. F. Phillips), a few notices of Branwell Brontë ; biographical notices by Charlotte Brontë, as above ; Miss Martineau's Biographical Sketches (from the Daily News); The Brontë Family, with special reference to Patrick Branwell Brontë, by Francis A. Leyland, 1886.]
BROOK. [See also Broke and Brooke.]
BROOK, ABRAHAM (fl. 1789), physicist, was a bookseller of Norwich. He published at Norwich in 1789 a quarto volume of 'Miscellaneous Experiments and Remarks on Electricity, the Air Pump, and the Barometer, with a description of an Electrometer of a new construction.' The work was translated into German and published at Leipzig in 1790. A paper by him, 'Of a new Electrometer,' appeared in the 'Philosophical Transactions' (abridg. xv. 308), 1782. Testimony to Brook's scientific ability will be found in the same volume (p. 702) in an article by Wm. Morgan on electrical experiments : 'I cannot conclude this paper,' he says, 'without acknowledging my obligations 'to the ingenious Mr. Brook of Norwich, who, by communicating to me his method of boiling mercury, has been the chief cause of my success in these experiments.'
[Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. v. 355; Watt's Bibl. Brit. i. 154; Phil. Trans, abr. xv. 308, 702.]
BROOK, Sir BASIL (1576–1646?), royalist, eldest son of John Brook of Madeley, Shropshire, and Anne, eldest daughter of Francis Shirley of Staunton Harold, was born in 1576, and was knighted at Highgate on 1 May 1604. In 1615 he was one of the farmers of the ironworks in Forest of Dean, and shortly afterwards mention occurs of his manufacturing steel under a patent to Elliot and Meysey. This steel, it appears, was worthless; and on 2 July 1619 an order was made directing proceedings to be taken for revoking the patent. In 1624 Dr. William Bishop, bishop of Chalcedon died in Sir Basil Brook's house at Bishop's Court, near London. Anthony à Wood says: 'Where that place is, except in the parish of St. Sepulchre, I am yet to seek,' is described as 'a person of great account among the English catholics in the reigns of King James I and King Charles I, and of some interest with those princes.' In 1635 he was very active in supporting the cause of the regular clergy against episcopal government in England. He was treasurer of the contributions made by the English catholics towards defraying the king's charges of the war against Scotland. On 27 Jan. 1640-1 the House of Commons made an order requiring Brook and other royalists forthwith to attend the house. He, however, prudently withdrew from London, but he was apprehended at York a year later (January 1641-2). An order was made by the house in August 1642 for removing him from the custody of the serjeant to the king's bench.
Being subsequently implicated in an alleged plot to make divisions between the parliament and the city, and to prevent the advance of the Scots army into England, he was committed close prisoner to the Tower by the House of Commons on 6 Jan. 1643-4. On 6 May 1645 an order was made by the house that Brook should be removed to the king's bench, there to remain a prisoner to the parliament until the first debts by action charged upon him should be satisfied. He was apparently living in July 1646, for in certain articles of peace then framed he is named as one of the papists who, having been in arms against the parliament, were to be proceeded with and their estates disposed of as both houses should determine, and were to be incapable of the royal pardon without the consent of both houses.
Brook married Etheldreda, daughter of Sir Edmund Brudenell, knight. Sir Roger Twysden mentions him as 'a very good, trewe, and worthy person' (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. iv. 103), and Dodd says he was 'handsome and comely.'
He published, with a dedication to Queen Henrietta Maria, 'Entertainments for Lent, written in French by the Rev. F. N. Causin, S.J., and translated into English by Sir B. B.' Lond. 1672, 12mo; Liverpool, 1755, 8vo.
