Brooke, John

Brooke, John a missionary of the Church of England, came to America in 1705 in the employ of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and was appointed to Elizabethtown, N.J., by lord Cornbury, governor of the province. Shortly after his arrival three churches were begun under his direction, St. John's, at Elizabethtown, St. Peter's, at Perth Amboy, and another at Freehold. At Piscataway his congregation had repaired a meeting-house, and were using it temporarily. At seven different stations, one of them fifty miles from his residence, he officiated as regularly as possible, and contributed to the feeble churches liberally from his own salary. He died suddenly in 1707 at Elizabethtown. He was an earnest, zealous, and self-sacrificing preacher, and the stability of several of these churches was largely owing to his effort. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 5:138.