Monumental Inscriptions
Madeley Church, 1815.
(British Museum) 21, 181.
Hic jacet Johannes Brooke, Arm: filius Roberti Brooke: equitis aurati Justiciarii, capitalis de communi Banco (qui eqregiam reginam Mariam in obtinendo avito regno contra improborum machinationes navavit operam, et jus Anglicanum pluribus editis voluminibus mirifice illustravit) et Elizabethæ filiæ et hæredis Francisci Waring armig: qui postquam vixerat jurisprudentiæ doctrinæque ceteræ fama insignis, pluribus beneficus omnibus charus diem sunm sancti pie-que obiit Anno Dom: 1598, Oct. 20, ætat sua 60.
Hic jacet Anna uxor Johann: Brooke armig: et familia Shirleyonis celeberrima et antiquissima oriunda viro suo filios duos Basilium et Franciscum filias item tres Dorotheam Priscillam et Milburgam peperit, priscæ disciplinæ matrona, avitæ fideitenacissima, omnis officii quæ uxor, qua mater singulare exemplum obiit, Anno Dom: 1608, September 29. Ætat sua 70, viduitatis 10.
Basilii Brooke equitis aurati fil: Johan: Brooke armig: et Ann uxoris filiæ Francisci Shirley armigeri de Staunton Harold com. Leicest: et nepotis Roberti Brooke equitis aurati Justiciarii Capitalis de Communi Banco, duxit duas uxores (viz) Etheldredam filiam et hæredem unicam Edmundi Brudenell equitis aurati de Dene com Northam: et Frances filiam Henrici Baronis Mordaunt et sororem Joannis Comitis de Peterborough. Obiit Decem. 31. Anno 1646.
Hic jacet Etheldreda uxor Basilii Brooke equitis aurati, filia et hæres unica Edmundi Brudenell eq: aurati, fæmina pariten Latina, Gallica, Hispanica et musica perita, pietate fide et prudentia maquanimite pudicitiata et mansuetudine instructissima. Reliquit viro suo inaritissimo filium unicum Thomam, filias quinque—Annam Wilhelmo Fitzherbert armig: Autonii Fitzherbert eq: aurati Justiciarii Capitilis de Cummuni Banco legum nostratium interpretis clarissimi pronepoti. Mariam Tho: Moro armig: illustrissimi et sancti illius Thomæ Mari summi olim Angliæ Cancellarii (cujus vita et mors inomnium est ore) abnepoti et hæredi nuptam—Dorotheam Agatham et Catharinam, singularis materæ indolis (id est) optimam obiit anno Domini.
The following is the English translation:—
Here lieth interred John Brooke, Esquire, the son of Robert Brooke, Knight Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas (which said Robert assisted the illustrious Queen Mary in obtaining her rights to the crown in opposition to the violent factions of that time, and published an excellent Commentary on the English Law in several volumes), and of Elizabeth the daughter and heir of Francis Waring, Esquire. After he had lived, distinguished for his knowledge in the Science of Law and other learning, being of an extensively liberal mind, and universally beloved, he made a pious and Christianlike end, Oct. 20th, in the year of our Lord, 1598, in the 60th year of his age.
Here lieth Arm, the wife of John Brooke, Esquire, descended from the very ancient and renowned family of the Shirleys. She had by her husband two sons, Basil and Francis, and also three daughters, Dorothy, Priscilla and Milburga. She was a lady of strict discipline, a rigid adherent to her ancestral faith, and as a wife and mother most exemplary in the discharge of every duty. She died September 19th, in the year of our Lord 1608, in the 70th year of her age, and in the 10th year of her widowhood.
Sacred to the memory of Basil Brooke Knight, the son of John Brooke, Esquire, and Ann, his wife, who was the daughter of Francis Shirley, of Staunton Harold, in the County of Leicester, Esquire, and the grandson of Robert Brooke Knight, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. He had two wives, Etheldreda the daughter and sole heiress of Edmund Brudenell, of Dean, in the County of Northampton, Knight, and Francis, the daughter of Henry, Baron Mordaunt, and the sister of John, Earl of Peterborough. He departed this life the 31st of December, in the year 1646.
Here lieth Etheldreda, the wife of Basil Brooke Knight. She was the daughter and sole heiress of Edmund Brudenell Knight—a woman not only well-skilled in the knowledge of the Latin, Italian, French, and Spanish languages, and in the science of music, but also exemplary for piety, faith, prudence, courage, chastity, and gentle manners. She left to lament her loss an husband with an only son, named Thomas, and five daughters—namely Ann, the wife of William Fitzwilliam, Esquire, the grandson of Anthony Fitzherbert Knight, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, eminent for his Commentary on the Laws. Mary, the wife of Thomas More, Esquire, a descendant of that renowned and upright character, Thomas More, formerly Lord High Chancellor of England, a man in his life and death universally esteemed. Also Dorothy, Agatha, and Catharine, of dispositions the most motherly, the best of all. She died in the year of our Lord.. (the date is defaced).