Joseph Brookbank, Brooksbank, or Brookesbank (born 1612) was an English cleric and

schoolmaster The word schoolmaster, or simply master, refers to a male school teacher. This usage survives in British independent schools, both secondary and preparatory, and a few Indian boarding schools (such as The Doon School) that were modelled after B ...

Life

Brookbank was the son of George Brookbank of Halifax; at Michaelmas term 1632, when he entered

Brasenose College, Oxford Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the mi ...

as a batler (poor scholar), he was aged twenty. He graduated B.A. and took orders. In the

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is the printed

petition A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication. In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to some offici ...

to the king, in September 1647, from John Brookbank and thirty-three other ministers, expelled from

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by the rebels. This John is probably identical with the subject of this article, who is called John on the title-pages of his ''Vitis Salutaris'' (1650) and ''Compleat School-Master'' (1660). In 1650 Brookbank described himself as "at present preacher of the word" at

West Wycombe West Wycombe is a small village famed for its manor houses and its hills. It is three miles west of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. The historic village is largely a National Trust property and receives a large annual influx of touri ...

(he spells it Wickham).

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

. It is probable that he was settled at Wycombe at the date (1648) of his sermon on the ''Saints' Imperfection'', and possible that he replaced Peel there, silenced either at

High High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift ...

or West Wycombe on 16 January 1640. Brookbank in 1651 was "presbyter and schoolmaster in Vine Court, in

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" where his books were to be bought. At this date he speaks of Sir Edward Richards, knt., and his wife as patrons. In 1654 he was "minister and schoolmaster in Jerusalem Court, in

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was na ...

". By 1657 he had lost both employments, and on 4 July 1660 (while living in George Alley, Shoe Lane) he expressed his gratitude to Sir Jeremiah Whitchcot. It is possible that he was the I. B. who, early in 1665, published ''A Tast of Catechetical-Preaching-Exercise for the instruction of families''. The writer speaks of himself as aged, and proposes a plan of religious services for the young. His name appears as Brookbank in his earliest publication; afterwards as Brooksbank, Brooksbanke, Brookesbanke, and on one of his title-pages as Broksbank. He Latinises it into ''Riparius''. His

Christian name A Christian name, sometimes referred to as a baptismal name, is a religious personal name given on the occasion of a Christian baptism, though now most often assigned by parents at birth. In English-speaking cultures, a person's Christian name ...

is sometimes printed Jo., and this is expanded into John by mistake. The explanation which he gives of his distance from the press may account for some of the variations in his title-pages. His

catechism A catechism (; from grc, κατηχέω, "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult c ...

gives the impression that he was an evangelical churchman: his educational works are careful.

Works

Brookbank published: *''Joh. Amos Comenii Vestibulum Novissimum Linguæ Latinæ, &c. Joh. Amos Comenius His Last Porch of the Latin Tongue, &c.'', 1647. The Latin of Comenius is given on alternate pages with an English version from the Dutch of Henry Schoof compared with the original. *''The Saints' Imperfection. &c.'', 1646 (but corrected by Thompson to 19 December 1648). A sermon on Heb. v. 12; the title-page is otherwise faulty; it was reissued with new title-page in 1656. *''Vitis Salutaris: Or, the Vine of Catechetical Divinitie, and Saying Truth'', 1650. A catechism dedicated to parishioners of West Wycombe; a reissue in 1658 had a new title-page, and omitted the dedication. *''An English Monosyllabary'', 1651. Dedicated to Susan, wife of Edward Trussell, and her sister Philadelphia, daughters of Sir Edward Richards; containing in rhythmical form "all the words of one syllabl, in our English tongue drawne out into a legibl sens"; at the end are a few prayers in

monosyllable In linguistics, a monosyllable is a word or utterance of only one syllable. It is most commonly studied in the fields of phonology and morphology and it has no semantic content. The word has originated from the Greek language. "Yes", "no", "jump", ...

s. *''Plain. Brief, and Pertinent Rules for the Judicious and Artificial Syllabification of all English Words'', 1654. With an account of the author's plan for the management of a school.

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Brookbank, Joseph 1612 births Year of death unknown People from Elland Schoolteachers from London English sermon writers English male non-fiction writers