Robert Brooke

Sir Robert Brooke (1637 – 5 June 1669) was an English landowner, magistrate, commissioner, military officer, knight and MP who sat in the House of Commons from 1660 to 1669. Dying at the age of 32, his promise was cut short, and the core of his estates in East Suffolk passed by marriage into the Blois family. Life Brooke was the second surviving son of Sir Robert Brooke of Cockfield Hall, Yoxford and his wife Dame Elizabeth Brooke, daughter of Thomas Colepeper of Great Wigsell, East Sussex. His mother was the only full sister of John Colepeper, 1st Baron Colepeper of Thoresway (1600-1660), a prominent royalist politician and adviser to Charles I and to Charles II during his exile. Robert was educated privately under Daniel Milles. Following the death of his father in 1646, the Yoxford estate remained under the oversight of his mother Dame Elizabeth; his elder brother, John Brooke Esq (born c. 1626), married Jane Barnardiston, upon whom the Blythburgh estate was settled as a jointure, and was seated at Westwood Lodge, the house associated with the principal manor of Blythburgh. John, who continued his father's unpopular policies towards the townsfolk of Walberswick, died suddenly and unexpectedly in October 1652 without a male heir, making his widow Joan his sole legatee and administratrix. Martha Brooke (a sister of John and Robert), married (Sir) William Blois, the younger (died 1676), and had four sons and three daughters by him, but she died in 1657 aged about 29. William Blois then in 1659 remarried to Jane Brooke, widow of John Brooke. Robert the second son, born c. 1637, was only 15 at the death of his brother. On 26 April 1659 he married Anne Margarett Mildmay, daughter of Sir Henry Mildmay of Wanstead, Essex, who was Master of the Jewel Office from 1620 to 1649. In that year Robert became JP for Suffolk and a commissioner for the militia. In April 1660, he was elected Member of Parliament for Aldeburgh in the Convention Parliament. He also became lieutenant colonel of the Suffolk Militia in April 1660. He was knighted on 9 June 1660 for his services to the Restoration of the Monarchy. In July 1660 he received a commission of oyer and terminer for Middlesex, and in August 1660 had a commission for assessment in Suffolk. Brooke was re-elected MP for Aldeburgh in 1661 for the Cavalier Parliament where he was very active.