Middlemore Family Genealogy

Brooke.-The family of Brooke is traced back for nine generations prior to Priscilla Brooke, who married Robert Middlemore. The first named ancestor is Richard Brooke of Claverley, a Shropshire village about seven miles from Bridgnorth on the Staffordshire side of the county, and they appear to have continued in that distrift for several generations. Thomas Brooke married Margaret, daughter of Humphrey Grosvenor, o Farmcot, co. Salop, and was father of the distinguished Sir Robert Brooke, who wrote the "Abridgment of Laws." He was M.P. for London, Speaker of the House of Commons in 1552, and became Chief justice o the Common Pleas 8 Oftober, 1552; he was knighted 27 January, 1555, and died 6 September, 1558, and was buried in the Gatacre aisle a Claverley, where a handsome tomb with effigies of himself and his two wives still exists. He purchased Madeley, which became the seat of his family, for £946 3s. 8d. in 1544. He was twice married, viz., to (1) Dorothy Gatacre, whose family was settled, as it still is, at Gatacre in Claverley parish ; and (2) to Anne Waring, an heiress of that family, and a great granddaughter of the famous Welshman, David Gam. His son, John Brooke, died aged sixty in 1598, and was buried at Madeley. His grandson, Sir Basil Brooke, the brother of Priscilla Middlemore, married (1) Etheldreda, daughter and sole heir of Sir Edmund Brudenell, knight, of Dene, in Northamptonshire, and (2) Frances, sister of John, Earl of Peterborough, and widow of Sir Thomas Neville. The arms of Brooke are, Checky argent and sable and their crest, a brock proper on amount vert.