Shep's Place Family Tree

"From 1820 onwards John Brooks was intensely involved in politics
being intensely interested in the agitation that culminated in the first Reform Bill, and subsequently quite in the inner circle of those who carried on the Chartist Movement. So much was this the case that in 1827 he printed and posted what was held to be a seditious bill, of which I am able to supply a reproduction.

TO STOP THE
DUKE
GO FOR
GOLD

The idea was to cause a run on the bank of England and thus stay the political efforts of the Duke of Wellington. The story of this bill and its posting was recently recorded over again in the Columns of the Newcastle Chronicle as under.

Perhaps the most important political work that he did was in regard to the removal of the Paper Duties, or the "Taxes on Learning" as they were called, in this he was associated with William Watson, and he bore a very large share of the expenses of the prolonged agitation. By this means he dispersed a very considerable proportion of the money that he had made, so that when he retired to Jersey shortly afterwards he was by no means the wealthy man that he might have been thought judging from his apparently prosperous career."

My grandfather's Western experiences could not have been entirely devoid of result, for about 1813 he set up in business at what was then 421 Oxford Street, just opposite to the Western end of where Frascati's now stands and brought as his wife a young lady of great beauty and considerable attainments.

Her maiden name was Elizabeth Steggall and her attractions are vouched for by an interesting miniature by Charles Hayter that still exists. She was an amateur actress of distinction, her performance of Mrs Malaprop and Mrs Candour in Sheridan's two great Comedies being much admired."

from My Life's Melody, an Autobiography by F. Vincent Brooks. See website: ­http­://­www­.­vincentbrooks­.­blogspot­.­com­

By the 1851 English census the Brooks family had moved to St Helier on the island of Jersey, where their address was 8 King's Cliff. John Brooks was a stationer, aged 68; Elizabeth was 61 years old. Both were born in England, as was their daughter Harriet, 19 years and unmarried. Their English servant was Elizabeth Tucker, 22 years old.