Richard Brooke
(1736-1788)
MSA SC 3520-157
Biography
Born: 1736
in Prince George's County; third son.
Native:
fifth generation.
Resided: "Fair
Hill," Frederick County (later became part of Montgomery County).
Family
Background
Father:
James Brooke (1705-1784).
Mother: Deborah,
eldest daughter of Richard Snowden and wife Eliza Coale (1692-ca. 1713).
Half Aunts:
Margaret Snowden (1726-1793), who married John Contee
(1722-ca.
1796); Anne Snowden, who married Henry Wright Crabb
(1722/23-1764).
Brothers: James
(1730/31-1767), who married Hannah Janney; Roger (1734-1790), who
married Mary Matthews; Basil (1738-1794), who married Elizabeth
Hopkins; and Thomas (1744/45-1789).
Sister:
Elizabeth (1740/41-?), who married Thomas Pleasants.
First Cousins:
Richard Bennett Carmichael (1753-1824); Richard
Thomas
(ca. 1728-1806); Evan Thomas (1738/39-1826); Elizabeth Brooke
Carmichael, who married John Lambert Wilmer (1747-1799); and Elizabeth
Beall, who married John Bracco (?-1794).
Married: in
1758 Jane Lynn (?-1774).
Children
Son: Roger
(?-by 1791).
Daughter:
Ann (1773-1802), who married in 1789 William
Hammond Dorsey (1764-1819).
Private
Career
Education:
literate.
Religious Affiliation:
Quaker; the Brooke family had been Catholic, but Richard's father
became a Protestant.
Occupational Profile:
probably a planter.
Public
Career
Legislative Service:
Conventions, Frederick County, 1st, 1774, 2nd-3rd, 1774, 4th, 1775,
5th, 1775.
Local Offices:
Committee of Observation, Frederick County, elected 1775; commissioner
of tax, Montgomery County, 1777-at least 1779, 1782-at least 1785;
purchasing agent, Montgomery County, commissioned 1779.
Military Service:
colonel, Revolutionary War.
Wealth
During Lifetime
Personal
Property: assessed value £628.16.6, including 13
slaves and 32 oz. plate, 1783.
Land at First Election:
4,999 acres in Frederick and Montgomery counties (2,495 acres were a
gift from his father).
Significant Changes in
Land Between First Election and Death: received one-sixth
of his father's real estate by bequest, 1784.
Wealth
at Death
Died: will
probated on June 11, 1788, in Montgomery County; buried at "Fair Hill,"
Frederick County.
Personal Property:
total estate value, £2,607.4.2 current money (including 21
slaves); final balance, £1,789.7.4.
Land: 4,579
acres in Frederick and Montgomery counties.
Source: Edward C. Papenfuse, et al., eds. A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, 1635-1789. Vol I. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979, p. 170.
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