Francis Taliaferro Brooke was born on August 27, 1763 and was a son of Richard and Elizabeth (Taliaferro) Brooke, was a native of Smithfield, near Fredericksburg, Va. His grandfather accompanied Gov. Spotswood in the famous pioneer journey to the Blue Ridge. His father had other sons more or less prominent, one of them, Robert, a governor of Virginia.
Like his brothers, Brooke received a private education from tutors and in private grammar schools in Fredericksburg. Later he studied law with his brother Robert, and became a district attorney.
At the unusually early age of sixteen Francis Brooke enlisted in the Revolutionary army. As a lieutenant he served under Lafayette and more directly under Harrison, and in his Narrative he describes conditions in his state at the time of Cornwallis's campaign in 1781 and Tarleton's raid into the interior. He was sent with his company under the general command of Colonel Febiger to the south, and he passed the last months of the war with General Greene, and at Savannah.
He became a district attorney and also entered political life, and was in the House of Delegates 1794-95, and later in the state Senate. While serving as speaker of the Senate in 1804 he was elected judge of the general court, and henceforth his career was on the bench.
In 1811 he was elected judge of the supreme court of appeals, and served with that body for the rest of his life, during six years (1824 - 30) being its president (Virginia Reports 2, Randolph's Reports to 2 Leigh's Reports).
Near the close of his life Brooke wrote for members of his family his Narrative. It is a full and rather naive account, especially detailed for the earlier years. Besides domestic and personal matters, the memoir has some historical value.
Francis Brooke participated in the state senate starting in 1800, and was a Judge of the General Court of Virginia in 1804. In military affairs he was a vice-president of the Cincinnati, and in the state militia he was appointed major in 1796, lieutenant-colonel in 1800, and brigadier-general in 1802.
In his political affiliation he was a Democratic-Whig.
Francis Taliaferro Brooke was married twice: first, in October 1791 to Mary Randolph Spotswood (a niece of George Washington) who died in 1803; second, in 1804 to Mary Champe Carter, who died in 1846. It was after that that he moved to the Fredericksburg area where he came by a 220 acre plantation known as St. Julien, where he built a home.
1775–1803
1803–1875
1821–1899
1788–1846
1800–1851
1813–1874
1795–1849
Francis and his older twin John were appointed First Lieutenants in General Harrison's First Continental Regiment of Artillery at the age of 16.
He was a friend of Henry Clay who visited him on occasion at St. Julian. He also had a regular communication with Thomas Jefferson.
