Early life and career

Brokesby was born on 29 September 1637, the son of Obadiah Brokesby, a gentleman of independent fortune, of Stoke Golding

Stoke Golding

Stoke Golding is a village and civil parish in the Hinckley and Bosworth district of Leicestershire, England, which lies in the heart of England, in South West Leicestershire, close to the Warwickshire county border. According to the 2001 census the total population was 1,721, living in just over...

, 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

Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

, 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 rector of Broad-oak, Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

. 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

Rowley, East Riding of Yorkshire

Rowley is a small village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated south of Little Weighton and approximately south-west of Beverley town centre....

. 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.

Life as a nonjuror

When the revolution of 1688

Glorious Revolution

The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, is the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau...

 set William and Mary

William and Mary

The phrase William and Mary usually refers to the coregency over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, of King William III & II and Queen Mary II...

 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 Feb. 1699.

Brokesby's private property seems to have been small. His high character and his reputation as a scholar gained him many friends among the men of his own party. Chief among these was Francis Cherry

Francis Cherry

Francis Adams Cherry was the 35th Governor of Arkansas, elected as a Democrat for a single two-year term from 1953 to 1955. He was only the second governor in Arkansas history to have been denied a second term—the first was Tom Jefferson Terral, who was defeated in 1926. After the...

 of Shottesbrooke

Shottesbrooke

Shottesbrooke is a hamlet and civil parish administered by the unitary authority of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the English county of Berkshire. The parish has an area of and had a population of 154 at the 2001 census.-Geography:...

, Berkshire, to whose liberal kindness Thomas Hearne

Thomas Hearne

Thomas Hearne or Hearn , English antiquary, was born at Littlefield Green in the parish of White Waltham, Berkshire.-Life:...

 and many other nonjurors were indebted. After his wife's death Brokesby appears to have resided constantly at Shottesbrooke, and early in 1706 succeeded Mr. Gilbert of St. John's College, Oxford, as chaplain to the little society of nonjurors established there. He travelled about a good deal, and generally paid a yearly round of visits in the north of England, probably to the men of his own party, occasionally also going up to Oxford and London. At Shottesbrooke he enjoyed the society of Robert Nelson

Robert Nelson (nonjuror)

Robert Nelson was an English lay religious writer and nonjuror.-Life:He was born in London on 22 June 1656, the only surviving son of John Nelson, a merchant in the Turkey trade, by Delicia, daughter of Lewis and sister of Sir Gabriel Roberts, who, like John Nelson, was a member of the Levant...

, to whom he rendered valuable assistance in the compilation of his book on the Festivals and Fasts of the Church. There, too, he formed a strong friendship with Henry Dodwell

Henry Dodwell

Henry Dodwell was an Anglo-Irish scholar, theologian and controversial writer.-Life:He was born in Dublin, Ireland. His father, William Dodwell, lost his property in Connacht during the Irish rebellion and settled at York in 1648...

, sometime Camden Professor of History at Oxford.

In common with some other moderate nonjurors, Brokesby refused to take the oath simply because his conscience forbade him to do so, and not as a matter of politics. He declared that if James were dead, he would have no objection to swearing allegiance to William and Mary, because they would be in possession, while the claim of the Prince of Wales would be 'dubious'. The death of James, however, was followed by the oath of abjuration, and neither Brokesby nor his friends were prepared to declare that the kingship of William of Orange was founded on right.

At the same time, while he warmly upheld the cause of the deprived bishops, ecclesiastical division was grievous to him, and he fully shared in the opinion expressed in Henry Dodwell

Henry Dodwell

Henry Dodwell was an Anglo-Irish scholar, theologian and controversial writer.-Life:He was born in Dublin, Ireland. His father, William Dodwell, lost his property in Connacht during the Irish rebellion and settled at York in 1648...

's work, 'The Case in View,' that on the death or resignation of these bishops their party might return to the national communion. The case contemplated by Dodwell became a fact when the death of Bishop Lloyd on 1 Jan. 1710 was followed by the resignation of Bishop Ken, and accordingly Brokesby, Dodwell and Nelson returned to the communion of the established church, and attended service at Shottesbrooke Church on 28 February. A letter from S. Parker of Oxford, dated 12 November, appears to have called forth a reply dated 18 November, in which Brokesby shows that 'the new bishops' were merely suffragans, that no synodical denunciation had invested them with independent authority after the deaths of the deprived diocesans, that the 'deprived fathers' had no power to invest them with such authority, and that therefore they were not diocesan bishops. Brokesby, then, had no part in what may be described as the schism of the nonjurors.

He lost his friend Dodwell in 1711, and the next year he describes himself in his will, dated 15 Sept. 1712, as sojourning at Hinckley

Hinckley

Hinckley is a town in southwest Leicestershire, England. It has a population of 43,246 . It is administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council...

. He was then in good health. The death of Francis Cherry in 1713 caused him deep grief.

He died at Hinckley, and was buried at Stoke

Stoke-on-Trent

Stoke-on-Trent , also called The Potteries is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke forms The Potteries Urban Area...

 on 24 Oct. 1714. Of his six children, his elder son Francis died in early life, and his younger son, who became a merchant, also died before him. His four daughters survived him; the second, Dorothy, married Samuel Parr, vicar of Hinckley, and was thus the grandmother of Dr. Samuel Parr, the famous Greek scholar.

Works

Brokesby was the author of:

• Some Proposals towards promoting the Propagation of the Gospel in our American Plantations, 1708, 8vo.
• A tract entitled Of Education with respect to Grammar Schools and the Universities, to which is annexed a Letter of Advice to a Young Gentleman. By F. B., B.D., 1701, 12mo.
• 'A Letter containing an Account of some Observations relating to the Antiquities and Natural History of England', 16 May 1711, in Hearne's Leland's Itinerary, vi. preface, and 89-107, ed. 1744.
• An History of the Government of the Primitive Church for the first three centuries and the beginning of the fourth … wherein also the Suggestions of David Blondel
  David Blondel
  David Blondel was a French Protestant clergyman, historian and classical scholar.-Life:He was born at Châlons-en-Champagne. Ordained in 1614, he had positions as parish priest at Houdan and Roucy. After 1644, he was relieved of duties, and supported free to study full time.In 1650 he succeeded GJ...
  
  … are considered, 1712, 8vo.
• The Divine Right of Church Government by Bishops asserted, 1714, 8vo.
• The Life of Mr. Henry Dodwell, with an Account of his Work …, 2 vols. 1715, 8vo. In this work, which was published after the author's death, he speaks (p. 311) of the help Dodwell had given him in preparing his book on church government.

Various Letters.