Zachary Brooke was an English clergyman and academic, Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity

Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity

The Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity is the oldest professorship at the University of Cambridge. It was founded initially as a readership by Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, in 1502....

 at the University of Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

.

Life

The son of Zachary Brooke, a graduate of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge

Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge

Sidney Sussex College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England.The college was founded in 1596 and named after its foundress, Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex. It was from its inception an avowedly Puritan foundation: some good and godlie moniment for the mainteynance...

 (B.A. 1693-4, and M. A. 1697), and at one time vicar of Hawkston-cum-Newton, near Cambridge, was born in 1716 at Hamerton

Hamerton

Hamerton – in Huntingdonshire , England – is a village near Winwick west of Huntingdon.Hamerton Zoo is on the north side of the village....

, Huntingdonshire

Huntingdonshire

Huntingdonshire is a local government district of Cambridgeshire, covering the area around Huntingdon. Traditionally it is a county in its own right...

. He was educated at Stamford school

Stamford School

Stamford School is an English independent school situated in the market town of Stamford, Lincolnshire, England. It has been a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference since 1920.-History:...

, and was admitted a sizar

Sizar

At Trinity College, Dublin and the University of Cambridge, a sizar is a student who receives some form of assistance such as meals, lower fees or lodging during his or her period of study, in some cases in return for doing a defined job....

 of St. John's College, Cambridge, 28 June 1734. He was subsequently elected a fellow there, proceeded B.A. in 1737, M.A. in 1741, B.D. in 1748, and D.D. in 1753.

He was elected to the Margaret professorship of divinity at Cambridge in 1765, and was at the same time a candidate for the mastership of St. John's College. He was chaplain to the king from 1758, and was vicar of Ickleton

Ickleton

Ickleton is a village on the Cambridgeshire–Essex border in England. It grew at the point where the ancient Icknield Way crossed the River Cam, so it is likely that some form of habitation has existed on the site since prehistoric times...

, Cambridgeshire, and rector of Forncett

Forncett

Forncett is a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk.It covers an area of and had a population of 1,000 in 381 households as of the 2001 census.For the purposes of local government, it falls within the district of South Norfolk....

 St. Mary and St. Peter, Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

. He died at Forncett on 7 Aug 1788. He married the daughter of W. Hanchet.

Works

He attacked the Free Inquiry of Conyers Middleton

Conyers Middleton

Conyers Middleton was an English clergyman.Middleton was born at Richmond in Yorkshire, and was educated at school in York and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He graduated from the University of Cambridge, took holy orders, and in 1706 obtained a fellowship, which he resigned upon entering into an...

in his Defensio miraculorum quæ in ecclesia christiana facta esse perhibentur post tempora Apostolorum, Cambridge, 1748, which appeared in English in 1750. This work called forth several 'Letters' in reply. Brooke was also the author of a collection of sermons, issued in 1763.