Rajah Brooke: The Englishman as Ruler of an Eastern State
9781465682536
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
James Brooke was the second son of Mr Thomas Brooke of the Honourable East India Company’s Bengal Civil Service, and of Anna Maria Stuart, his wife. Their family consisted of two sons and four daughters. One of the latter, Emma, married the Rev. F. C. Johnson, Vicar of White Lackington; another, Margaret, married the Rev. Anthony Savage; the eldest son, Henry, died unmarried after a short career in the Indian army. Mr Thomas Brooke was the seventh in descent from Sir Thomas Vyner, who, as Lord Mayor of London, entertained Oliver Cromwell in the Guildhall in 1654; whilst his only son, Sir Robert Vyner, who had taken the opposite side in those civil contests, received Charles II. in the city six years later. On the death of Sir Robert’s only son George the baronetcy became extinct, and the family estate of Eastbury, in Essex, reverted to the two daughters of Sir Thomas Vyner, from one of whom, Edith, the Brooke family is derived, as one of her descendants married a Captain Brooke, who was Rajah Brooke’s great-grandfather. Mr Thomas Brooke, though not distinguished by remarkable talent, was a straightforward, honest civilian, and his wife was a most lovable woman, who gained the affections of all those with whom she was brought into contact. She always enjoyed the most perfect confidence of her distinguished son. To her are addressed some of his finest letters, in which he pours forth his generous ideas for the promotion of the welfare of the people whom he had been called upon to govern. James Brooke was born on the 29th of April 1803 at Secrore, the European suburb of Benares, and he remained in India until he was twelve years old, when he was sent to England to the care of Mrs Brooke, his paternal grandmother, who had established herself in Reigate. He shortly afterwards went to Norwich Grammar School, at that time under Dr Valpy, but he remained there only a couple of years, as, after the freedom of his life in India, discipline was irksome to him, and he ran away home to his grandmother. I never heard him say much about the master, but he loved and was beloved by many of his schoolfellows, and showed even then, by his influence over the boys, that he was a born leader of men. About this time his parents returned from India and settled at Combe Grove, near Bath, where they collected their children around them. A private tutor was engaged to educate young Brooke, but it could have been only for a comparatively short time, as in 1819 he received his ensign’s commission in the 6th Madras Native Infantry, and soon started for India. He was promoted to his lieutenancy in 1821, and in the following year was made a Sub-Assistant Commissary-General, a post for which, as he used to say, he was eminently unfitted.
