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George BROOKE (1824–1880)
Mrs Hannah BROOKE, née Hutton (1823/4–1903)
Their daughter Miss Caroline BROOKE (1853–1929)
St Paul’s section: Row 6, Grave A12 [St Paul ref. K3]

George Brooke was born in Mirfield, West Yorkshire. on 20 April 1824 according to his gravestone. He was the eldest son of Joseph Brooke, a mason, and his wife Mary (born in Crompton, Lancashire in 1804/5).

His family appear to have been living at Kirkheaton in about 1833. His father died when he was a child, probably in the mid-1830s, and by time of the 1841 census his widowed mother Mary (36) was back at Mirfield and living at West Mills with her children George (16), Mary (c.14), Thomas (11), Edwin (7), and Alfred (6), plus Hannah Brooke (about 50), who may have been her sister-in-law.

In 1851 George (26) was still living at West Mills with his mother: he and his brother Tom were now law clerks, while his other brother Edwin was a cabinet maker.

Hannah Hutton was born at Shipley, Yorkshire in 1823/4, the daughter of the clothier or stuff weaver John Hutton. She had at least three siblings: Mary (born 1819), Margaret (born 1823), and James (born 1826/7).

By the time of the 1841 census, when Hannah was aged 17, her mother was dead, and although her father John was still alive she and her brother James (14) were living at the home of their unmarried uncle Thomas Hutton at Chapel Lane, Shipley; her widower uncle James Hutton was also living with them, and all four were described as stuff weavers. They were still there in 1851, and only their occupations had changed: Hannah (27) was now a straw bonnet maker; her brother James was a master painter; her uncle Thomas worked worsted on a hand loom; and her uncle James was now described as a late weaver.

George Brooke of Little Moor married Hannah Hutton of New Gate at Christ The King Church in Battyeford, Mirfield on 30 January 1853, and they had the following children:

• Caroline Brooke (born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire on 15 January 1853 and baptised at All Saints Church there on 22 February)
• John Clapham Brooke (born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire on 18 July 1855 and baptised at All Saints Church there on 17 October)
• Alfred Brooke (born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire on 3 February 1857 and baptised at All Saints Church there on 2 November)
• Mary Brooke (born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire on 22 July 1859 and baptised at All Saints Church there on 11 September)
• George Thomas Brooke (born in Oxford on 28 December 1862 and baptised at St Paul’s Church on 1 March 1863)

George & Hannah Brooke evidently began their married life at Dewsbury in Yorkshire, but in about 1860 they had moved to Oxford. At the time of the 1861 census George (36), a solicitor’s managing clerk, was living at 8 & 9 Broad Street with Hannah (37) and their first four children Caroline (7), John (5), Alfred (3), and Mary (1).

By 1 March 1863, when their youngest child George was baptised at St Paul’s Church, the family had moved to Walton Street.

The 1871 census gives their address as 43 Walton Street: their eldest son John (15) was then a teacher, while Alfred (13) and George Thomas (8) were at school. They had two lodgers: William Bottomley Duggan, the Curate of St Paul’s Church (who was to remain with Mrs Brooke for the rest of her life), and an undergraduate. The two missing daughters were living alone in part of St Paul’s School in Walton Street: Caroline (17) was a teacher and head of the household, and Mary (11) was still at school.

George Brooke died in 1880:

† George Brooke died at Great Clarendon Street at the age of 55 on 6 March 1880 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 13 March (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).

The 1881 census shows Mrs Hannah Brooke (59), now a widow, living at Great Clarendon Street with her son Alfred (23), who was a clerk to the Gas Company, and her lodger the Revd Duggan (36), who was now the Vicar of St Paul’s. Her sister Margaret had now also come down to Oxford and was running a lodging house at 4 Walton Street, and Hannah’s son George Thomas Brooke (18), described as a scholar, was staying with her. In 1881 her two unmarried daughters Caroline (27) and Mary (21) were both certificated school teachers and were living in High Street, Dorchester-on-Thames with their cousin Martha Pullan (10).

John Clapham Brooke, the eldest son of George and Hannah Brooke, was not with his mother at the time of the 1881 census: he appears to have moved to Hook in Hampshire where he worked as a bank clerk. In August 1880 there was a bankruptcy petition filed against him by James Moody, an upholsterer of Basingstoke. The case was closed in February 1882, when all the property of John Clapham Brooke had been realized for the benefit of his creditors.

On 14 April 1884 Hannah’s son Alfred Thomas Brooke (26) married Agnes Castle (23) of 3 Bevington Road at St Paul’s Church.

In 1891 Hannah (70) was described as a lodging house keeper, but she and her schoolmistress daughter Caroline (37) had no one lodging with them at 98 Great Clarendon Street. Charles Henry Hutton Pullan (16), a relation, was staying with them, and they had one servant.

Hannah’s youngest son George Brooke died in Nazirabad, India on 6 October 1894 at the age of 32, and is mentioned on the family gravestone, but is not buried in the cemetery.

Hannah’s sister Margaret died in 1897, and Mary in 1900.

At the time of the 1901 census Hannah (79) and Caroline (47), now a head schoolmistress, were living by themselves at the Old School House, 98 Great Clarendon Street: their lodger the Revd Duggan was probably abroad at the time, as he does not appear in the census.

Hannah Brooke died in 1903:

† Mrs Hannah BROOKE, née Hutton died at 98 Great Clarendon Street at the age of 82 in November 1903 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 12 November (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).

Her loyal lodger, the Revd William Bottomley Duggan, officiated at her funeral. He must have remained at 98 Great Clarendon Street with her daughter, as he died at that address just two months after his landlady. He is buried in the adjoining grave (which can be seen on the right of the above photograph).

At the time of the 1911 census Hannah’s daughter Caroline (57), described as a late schoolmistress, was living alone at 2 Southmoor Road. She died there in 1920:

†Miss Caroline BROOKE died at 2 Southmoor Road at the age of 66 on 10 January 1929 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 13 January (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).

Other children of George & Hannah Brooke

• John Clapham Brooke (born 1855) vanishes without trace after 1884.
• Alfred Brooke (born 1858): see separate grave
• Mary Brooke (born 1859) is hard to find after the 1881 census. It is likely that she got married.