Elizabeth Brooke (writer)

[8] Elizabeth's upbringing was entrusted to her maternal grandmother Dame Margaret Slaney, and Thomas Colepeper died in 1613 leaving provision for a dowry of £700 for her.

Sir Robert, meanwhile, bought a residence at Abbots Langley in Hertfordshire, so that Dame Elizabeth could live within reach of her friends in London, before moving more permanently to Yoxford in Suffolk.

Among the manuscripts of her writings left at her death was included a quarto volume called a Body of Divinity, concerned with Christian Belief and Practice, dated A.D.

[24] By the time the house at Abbots Langley was sold in July 1637,[25] the seven children of Sir Robert and Dame Elizabeth had been born, and the eldest, Mary, was 16 years old.

Through the 1620s Sir Robert had represented Dunwich in parliament three times,[26] and his controversies with the townsfolk of Walberswick (which lay within his manor of Westwood at Blythburgh[27]) had developed to a sustained level.

[28] The years leading up to and through the English Civil War were those in which Dame Elizabeth's brother John Colepeper emerged as a prominent figure in the Royalist party.

He worked for the impeachment of Sir Robert Berkeley and voted for the attainder of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, and had a place on the committee of defence in 1641.

However, John found himself in opposition to the proposed ecclesiastical reforms, more on account of their revolutionary than their religious tendency, and joined the Royalist party in January 1642.

[31] Sir Robert Brooke had suffered a temporary setback in his quarrel with the commoners of Walberswick in 1642, who had brought a lawsuit against him, but had begun the work of reinforcing his own interests against them.

[2] It was at about the time of the King's execution that she returned to Cockfield Hall and commenced her long last residence there, some 35 years in which as dowager she watched over her own family's misfortunes.

When she learned that God had permitted his death, as a judgement upon the Nation, she felt it with a mother's passions, saying that even the loss of one of her dearest children had not affected her so deeply.

I am now taught the great Danger of Evil Principles, strong Engagements, Spriritual Pride, &c."[35]Her eulogist continues: "In reference to His present Majesty, her Loyalty proceeded by these steps: She was a true Mourner under his Sufferings, Exclusion, Exile, and the Disappointment of several Efforts that were made for his Restitution.

And for their further Benefit, she many Years together procured a Grave Divine to perform the Office of a Catechist in her House, who came constantly every Fortnight, and expounded methodically the Principles of Religion, and examined the Servants, which was formerly done by her Chaplains, till the Service of God in her Family, and the Care of the Parish were committed to the same Person.

"[38] The elder son John Brooke, who carried on his father's fight with the people of Walberswick and brought the matter to a height of trouble, died suddenly aged 25 in 1652 leaving a widow Jane (Barnardiston).

Young (Sir) Robert Brooke began a very promising parliamentary career, inherited his father's estates and established himself as landowner, magistrate, and militia officer and commissioner, but died unexpectedly in a bathing incident near Avignon in 1669.

For Dame Elizabeth, "the sharpest of all her Trials was the untimely Death of her last Son, [which] invaded her like an Inundation of Waters, threatening all the Banks both of Reason and Grace: Her Friends feared she would not long survive it.

She became deaf in 1675, and after long illness died at Cockfield Hall on 22 July 1683, making provision for Mary to have lifetime custody of her estates and for their eventual descent to Elizabeth's grandson Charles Blois.

Mary arranged for the marble wall monument to be set up in the Cockfield Chapel at Yoxford church, which records the death of both her parents, but devotes most of its inscription to her mother's character and virtues.

These evidently represent a transcript of one of Dame Elizabeth's manuscripts, "found written with her Ladiship's own Hand", which he says provides a most lively image of her mind, and hopes will be profitable for her readers.