Life

He was born at Nether Thong, near Huddersfield

Huddersfield

Huddersfield is a large market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England, situated halfway between Leeds and Manchester. It lies north of London, and south of Bradford, the nearest city....

. When young he was admitted to membership in the independent church at Holmfield, under the Rev. Robert Gallond. In 1797 he entered Rotherham College as a student for the ministry. In 1801 he became the first pastor of the congregational church at Tutbury

Tutbury

Tutbury is a large village and civil parish of about 3,000 residents in the English county of Staffordshire.It is surrounded by the agricultural countryside of both Staffordshire and Derbyshire. The site has been inhabited for over 3000 years, with Iron Age defensive ditches encircling the main...

, Staffordshire

Staffordshire

Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

.

He pursued studies into puritan

Puritan

The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...

 and nonconformist history and biography. Resigning his ministerial duties in 1830, from failing health, he lived at Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

, still continuing his studies, and publishing. Alexander Gordon

Alexander Gordon (Unitarian)

Alexander Gordon was an English Unitarian minister and religious historian. A prolific contributor to the Dictionary of National Biography, he wrote for it well over seven hundred articles dealing mainly with nonconformists....

 in the Dictionary of National Biography

Dictionary of National Biography

The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...

comments that Brook was a better biographer than historian. He was a member of the educational board of Springhill College, opened August 1838. At the time of his death he was collecting materials for a history of puritans who emigrated to New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

. He died at the Lozells

Lozells

Lozells is a loosely-defined inner-city area in the West of Birmingham, England. It is centred on Lozells Road, and is known for its multi-racial population. It is part of the ward of Lozells and East Handsworth and lies between the districts of Handsworth and Aston.Lozells has a high population...

, then outside Birmingham, on 5 January 1848, at the age of 73. He is said to have been one of the last who retained among the congregationalists the old ministerial costume of shorts and black silk stockings.

Works

He published:

• Appeal to Facts to justify Dissenters in their Separation from the Established Church, 2nd ed. 1806, (3rd ed. 1815, with title Dissent from the Church of England justified by an Appeal to Facts).
• The Lives of the Puritans . . . from the Reformation under Q. Elizabeth to the Act of Uniformity, in 1662, 1813, 3 vols.
• The Reviewer reviewed, 1815, in answer to an article in the Christian Observer on the Lives).
• The History of Religious Liberty from the first Propagation of Christianity in Britain to the death of George III, 1820, 2 vols.
• Memoir of the Life and Writings of Thomas Cartwright, B.D. . . . including the principal ecclesiastical movements in the reign of Q. Elizabeth, 1845.