On 19 May 1636 he was served as heir of his father by a dispensation of the lords of council, and on 28 Oct. of the same year he married the widow of John Urquhart of Craigston, by whom he had a son and daughter.
Brodie was a strong Presbyterian, and, in December 1640, headed a party which demolished two oil paintings of the Crucifixion of Jesus and the Day of Judgment in the cathedral of Elgin.
This extreme puritanical zeal exposed him to the revenge of Montrose, who, in February 1645, burned and devastated his property, and carried off the family papers of the house of Brodie.
In February 1650 he was sent as commissioner of the general assembly to Breda, to induce the king to sign the national covenant.
The complete Diary, from 1650 to 17 April 1680, with a continuation by his son, James Brodie (1637-1708), to February 1685, was published by the Spalding Club in 1863, with an introduction by David Laing.
The part published in 1740 is chiefly concerned with his religious experiences, and is not an adequate sample of the Diary as a whole, which conveys much important information regarding political events, and a specially interesting account of his visit to London, and of the persons with whom he there came into contact.