Brooke Boothby

Sir Brooke Boothby, 6th baronet (3 June 1744 - 23 January 1824) was an English poet, linguist, translator, and landowner.

Brooke Boothby (1744-1824). Portrait by Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1797), 1781. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Sir Brooke Boothby
Born	3 June 1744 baptized Ashbourne, Derbyshire
Died	23 January 1824 Boulogne, Paris, France
Resting place	St. Oswald's, Ashbourne, Derbyshire, England
Residence	Ashbourne Hall
Education	St John's College, Cambridge
Occupation	Translator, poet, landowner
Title	6th Baronet Boothby, of Broadlow Ash
Spouse	Susanna Bristoe
Children	Penelope
Parents	Sir Brooke Boothby, 5th Bt. Phoebe Hollins

Life

Boothby, eldest son of Sir Brooke Boothby, of Ashbourne Hall, Derbyshire, was born in 1743.

When a young man he moved in London society, and he is mentioned by a correspondent of Mrs. Delany as "one of those who think themselves pretty gentlemen du premier ordre."

He joined the literary circle at Lichfield to which Anna Seward, Erasmus Darwin, Thomas Day, and the Edgeworths belonged, and was a member of a botanical society which Dr. Darwin started there. One of Miss Seward's odes and several of her printed letters are addressed to him.

He resided some time in France, and became a friend of Rousseau. In his Observations on the Appeal from the Old Whigs, &c., he enters into an earnest defence of Rousseau's character and works from the "wanton butcherly attack" made by Burke.

He succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father in 1789.

He married Susannah, daughter and heiress of Mr. Robert Bristoe. The only child of this marriage died in 1791 at the early age of 6 years, and was interred in Ashhourne Church, where a monument by Thomas Banks, R.A., was erected to her memory.

Brooke Boothby died at Boulogne 23 June 1824, aged 80, and was interred in the family cemetery at Ashbourne Church.

Writing

Boothby published the following:

1. ‘A Letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke,' 1791 (8vo, pp. 120); a remonstrance with that statesman on the doctrines contained in his ‘Reflections on the French Revolution.’
2. ‘Observations on the Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs, and on Mr. Paine’s Rights of Man,’ in 2 parts, 1792 (8vo, pp. 5283); the 1st part is a further defence of the principles of the French revolution, and the 2nd is directed against Paine's arguments for equality.
3. ‘Sorrows Sacred to the Memory of Penelope,’ 1796 (fol. pp. 87), a volume of verse illustrated.
4. ‘Britannicus, a Tragedy, from the French of Racine,’ 1803, 8vo.
5. ‘Fables and Satires, with a preface on the Esopean Fable,’ Edinburgh, 1809, 2 volumes, 12mo.

Sonnet XII

File:Boothby-monument.jpg

The Boothby Monument, described as being so lifelike that the child could be sleeping, is inscribed with an epitaph to Penelope's honour: "She was in form and intellect most exquisite. The unfortunate Parents ventured their all on this frail Bark. And the wreck was total"

Well has thy classick chisel, Banks, express'd
The graceful lineaments of that fine form,
Which late with conscious, living beauty warm,
Now here beneath does in dread silence rest.
And, oh, while life shall agitate my breast,
Recorded there exists her every charm,
In vivid colours, safe from change or harm,
Till my last sigh unalter'd love attest.
That form, as fair as ever fancy drew,
The marble cold, inanimate, retains;
But of the radiant smile that round her threw
Joys, that beguiled my soul of mortal pains,
And each divine expression's varying hue,
A little senseless dust alone remains

Publications

Poetry

• Sorrows: Sacred to the memory of Penelope. London: W. Bulmer, for Cadell & Davies / Edwards / Johnson, 1796.

Non-fiction

• Letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke. London: J. Stockdale, 1790; London: J. Debrett, 1791.
• A Vindication of the Revolution Society, against the Calumnies of Mr. Burke. London: J. Ridgway, 1792.
• Observations on the Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs, and on Mr. Paine's 'Rights of Man', in two parts. London: J. Stockdale, 1792; Dublin: H. Fitzpatrick, for W. Jones, 1792.

Translated

• Fables and Satires. Edinburgh: George Ramsay, for Constable, Edinburgh / Constable, Hunter, Park, and Hunter, London, 1809. Volume I, Volume II
• Jean Racine, Britannicus: A tragedy, in five acts. London: J. Stockdale, 1803.
• Molière’s The Misanthrope: Translated in verse (anonymous). Boulogne : Leroy-Berger, 1819.

Edited

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Rousseau, Juge de Jean Jacques: Dialogues; d'après le manuscrit de M. Rousseau. Lichfield, UK: privately published, printed by J. Jackson, 1780.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of British poets

References

• A. Graciano, '"The Book of Nature is Open to All Men": Geology, Mining and History in Joseph Wright’s Derbyshire Landscapes', in The Huntington Library Quarterly; 68:4 (2005), 583–600.
• A. Graciano, Joseph Wright, Esq.: Painter and Gentleman (2012; Cambridge Scholars Publishing)
•  Sutton, Charles William (1886) "Boothby, Brooke" in Stephen, Leslie Dictionary of National Biography 5 London: Smith, Elder, p. 391  . Wikisource, Web, Feb. 28, 2020.
• Seward, Anna (1804). Memoirs of the Life of Dr. Darwin: Chiefly During His Residence in Lichfield: With Anecdotes of His Friends, and Criticisms on His Writing. Philadelphia: W.M. Poyntell. http://books.google.com/books?id=2fQ0AAAAMAAJ. Retrieved 24 February 2015. 
• J. Zonneveld, Sir Brooke Boothby: Rousseau's roving baronet friend (2003)

External links

Poems

• Brooke Boothby at Sonnet Central (8 sonnets)

Books

• Brooke Boothby at Amazon.com

About

• Sir Brooke Boothby at The Peerage
• "Sir Brooke Boothby: Rousseau's roving baronet friend" at Eighteenth-Century Book Reviews Online

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Boothby, Sir Brooke