41 



Obituary Notices of deceased Fellows. 



HENRY JAMES BROOKE was born at Exeter on the 25th of 

 1771. His relations were engaged in the manufacture of broad-cloth. 

 After having received an ordinary scholastic education, he studied for 

 the bar, and had very nearly completed the usual period, when the 

 prospect of advantageous connexions with the manufacturing firms in 

 the west of England induced him to engage in the Spanish wool trade 

 in London, for which object he spent nearly two years in Spain. 



The precise habit of thought and expression which the active study 

 of the law must necessarily induce, was perhaps mainly instrumental 

 in imparting the tone of extreme precision by which all his subsequent 

 acts and observations were characterized. 



Soon after he took up his residence in London, in the year 1802, 

 his attention was turned to the subjects of Mineralogy, Geology, and 

 Botany ; and to the two former of these sciences, then in their in- 

 fancy, the greater portion of his leisure hours was devoted. He was 

 elected a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1815, of the Linnean 

 in 1818, and of the Royal Society in 1819. He served on the 

 Council of the Royal Society in 1842-44. 



Mr. Brooke was associated with the late Mr. Henry Hase, cashier 

 of the Bank of England, and others in the establishment of the 

 London Life Assurance Association, the commercial success of which 

 bears ample testimony to the soundness of the principles on which 

 it was established. 



On the decline of the Spanish wool trade, which was superseded in 

 a great measure by that with Germany, Mr. Brooke sought a com- 

 mercial pursuit more congenial to his tastes, and devoted his energies 

 to the establishment of companies to work the mines of South Ame- 

 rica ; but in these undertakings the fairest prospects were blighted 

 by an entire absence of good faith abroad, and failure was the inevit- 

 able result. After this period he accepted the office of secretary to 

 the London Life Association, the duties of which he discharged for 

 many years ; and on his retirement, the appreciation of his services 

 by the Society was evinced by the grant of a liberal annuity. 



During a period of several years, his devotion to his favourite 

 pursuits was much interfered with by the result of an accident : he 



