Francis Brokesby

Francis Brokesby or Brookesbuy (29 September, 1637 – buried 24 October, 1714), was a nonjuror.

Brokesby was born on 29 September 1637, the son of Obadiah Brokesby, a gentleman of independent fortune, of Stoke Golding, Leicestershire, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of James Pratt, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. His uncle Nathaniel was a schoolmaster. As all the nine children of his grandfather Francis received scriptural names, it is likely that he came of Puritan stock.

He became a member and afterwards a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, taking the degree of B.D. in 1666. A religious poem of some beauty composed by him on the occasion of his taking his degree illustrates the fervent piety of his character. He probably took orders early, for on the presentation of his college he succeeded John Warren, the ejected vicar of Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex. He lived on friendly terms with his predecessor, who used to come and hear him preach.

In 1670 he left Broad Oak, and became rector of Rowley, East Riding of Yorkshire. Soon after he entered on this new cure he married Isabella, daughter of a Mr Wood of Kingston upon Hull. From about this time onwards he used to write in his pocket-books short Latin memoranda on the incidents of his daily life. Several specimens of these memoranda have been preserved. Though they give some idea of his peculiar piety, they are mostly concerned with domestic matters.

During his incumbency at Rowley he appears to have been involved in several disputes and lawsuits about tithes. He refers to these disputes in his memoranda of 1678 and 1680; on 31 July 1683 he enters a thanksgiving for the successful issue of a suit, and in the same year registers a vow that if he gains a cause then pending he will devote half the tithe so recovered to the relief of the poor.

When the revolution of 1688 set William and Mary on the throne, Brokesby refused to take the oath to the new sovereigns. He was accordingly deprived of his living in 1690. He went up to London in July, and appears to have been received by Lady Fairborn at her house in Pall Mall 'over against the Pastures.' Meanwhile, his wife, by that time the mother of six children, did what she could to wind up affairs. Writing to her sister on 8 Aug, she says, 'We are now cutting down our corn, for we cannot sell it.' After his deprivation Brokesby lived for some years in his native village, and there his wife died and was buried on 26 February 1699.

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