BROOKS. 547 BROOKS. 1S75 Wit and Humour, Poems fi-om Punch, ap- peared. BROOKS, Elbridge Gerry (1816-78). An AuKi'itaii (.lergyman, born at Dover, N. H. He studied law, but in 1837 became pastor of the Vniversalist Church of West Amesbury, ilass. Subsequently, he held pastorates at East Cam- bridge, Mass. (1838); Lowell, Mass. (1845); Lvmi. Mass. (1850); New York City (1859); and Philadelphia, Pa. (1868). In 1867-68 he was general secretary of the convention of the Univcrsalist Church. BROOKS, James (1810-73). An Amerie.m jouniali-it and politician, born in Portland, Me. He graduated at Waterville College in 1831, and was principal of a Latin school in Portland. He then became the Washington correspondent of the Portland Advertiser, and originated the idea of regular correspondence from the capital. He was a member of the Maine Legislature in 1835, and proposed a survey for a railroad from Port- land to Quebec and Montreal. In 1830 he estab- lislied the Xeic York Express, published morning as well as evening. He was a member of the New York State Legislature in 1847, and in 1848 was elected to Congress. He favored the compromise measures of Henry Clay, and during the 'Xative- American' excitement of 1851-54 was a leader of the Know-Xothing Party. After the outbreak of the Civil War he left the Whigs and was elected to Congress in 1865 by the Democrats. In 1872 lie was censured by Congress — as he thought, un- deservedly — for his connection with the Credit Jlobilier scandal. (See Credit Mobilier. ) He published, in separate form, A Seven- Months' Run Up and Down and Around the World ( 1872) — a series of letters which originally appeared in the Express. BROOKS, John (1752-1825). An American patriot. He was born in Medford. Mass.; studied medicine, as an apprentice, under Dr. Simon Tufts: settled in Reading, Mass., to practice his profession; and there was chosen to command a company of minute-men, which, on April 19, 1775, helped to harass the British on their re- treat from Concord to Boston. He was chosen major of a Massachusetts regiment in May, and served thereafter until the close of the war, par- ticipating in the siege of Boston, in the battles of Saratoga, and in the battle of Monmouth, at- taining the rank of lieutenant-colonel in Xovem- ber, 1770, and strongly supporting Washington in the so-called Xewburgh conspiracy- of 1783. After the war he was frequently elected to the General Court, was a member of the convention which, in 1788, ratified for Massachusetts the Federal Constitution; was appointed district marshal and inspector of the revenue by Wash- ington in 1795; served as adjutant-general of the State from 1812 to 1815; and from 1816 to 1823, when he refused to stand for reelection, was Gov- ernor of Massachusetts, In 1792 he was appoint- ed brigadier-general in the L'nited States Army, but was honorably discharged four years later. He was for some time president of the ^lassa- chusetts Medical Society, and in 1810 received the degrees of M.D. and LL.D. from Harvard. BROOKS, Maria Convex (c.1795-1845). An American romantic poet, bom in Medford, Mass., chiefl}- remembered as the author of Zophiel, or the liride of Seven (1833). This was written in Cuba, her home after marriage. The first canto was published in Boston in 1825, and the complete poem in London in 1833, under the su- pervision of Southey, whom she had met on a visit to France and England in 1830-31. In The Doctor, Southey calls her 'the most impassioned and imaginative of all poetesses,' and else- where 'Maria of the West ' (Maria del Oeeiden- te). In America the work found less favor. It- was reedited in 1879 with somewhat greater suc- cess. The poem is based on an incident in the Apocryphal book of Tobit, telling of the love of a fallen angel for the Hebrew maiden Sara. It contains good passages, but is uneven. On returning to America, Mrs. Brooks lived for a time at West Point, and afterwards on Govern- or's Island. In 1843 she published the .somewhat autobiographical Idornen, or the Tale of Yu- niuri. and wrote an Ode to the Departed. She planned also an epic, Beatrix, tlie Beloved of Co- lumbus. In December, 1843, she returned to Cuba and remained there until her death. She wa& undoubtedly a woman of much but unchastened poetic power. BROOKS, XoAit (1830-1903). An American journalist and author. He was born in Castine, Me., and was educated as an artist. In 1854 he went West, and settled in California as a news- paper man. From 1871 to 1875 he was a mem- ber of the staff of the New York Tribune. He became an editor of the IS'ew York Times in 1876, and in 1884 editor of the X'ewark (X. .J.) Daily Advertiser. He retired from journalism in 1892. His many publications include : The Boy Emi- grants (1870); The Fairport yine (1880); American Statesmen (1893); Short Studies in American Party Polities (1896) ; and The Story of Marco Polo (1890). BROOKS, Phillips (1835-93). A bishop- of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He was born in Boston, ilass., December 13, 1835; graduated at Harvard in 1855, and at the P. E. Theological Seminary, Alexandria, Va., in 1859. lie became rector of the Church of the Ad- vent, Philadelphia, in 1859; of Holy Trin- ity there in 1802; removed to Boston as- rector of Trinity in 1809: and was elected Bishop of ^Massachusetts in 1891. He died in Boston. January .23, 1893. He published Lec- tures on Preaching (Y'ale lectures on the Ly- man Beeeher foundation, 1877) ; The Influence of Jesus (Bohlen lectures, Philadelphia Divinity School, 1879) ; and several volumes of sermons. He also wrote the favorite Christmas hymn, 0, Little Town of Bethlehem. Consult his biogra- phy by A. V. G. Allen (Xew York, 1901). He was celebrated as a pulpit orator, and as a vigor- ous and independent thinker. His freedom from the ordinary sectarian trammels, his liberal views of doctrine, with his profound convictions as to vital Christian truths, and his deeply spir- itual yet intensely practical preaching, gave him groat ])opular power. BROOKS, Preston Smith (1819-57). An American politician, notorious for his assault on Charles Sumner, in the United States Senate Chamber, in 1856. He was born in Edgefield District, S. C. ; graduated at South Carolina Col- lege in 1839; was admitted to the bar in 1843; was elected to the State Legislature in 1844; and in 1846-47 served as a captain of volunteers in the war with Mexico. In 1852 he w-as elected to the House of Kepresentativci-. and was reelected
