Henry James Brooke

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Henry James Brooke (1771–1857) was an English expert in crystallography. He was born in Exeter on May 25, 1771, the son of a broadcloth manufacturer. Although he studied for the bar, he went into business in the Spanish wool trade, in South American mining, and with the London Life Assurance Company. His hobbies were minerals, geology, and botany. He built large collections of shells and minerals, which were given to the University of Cambridge, and some of his engravings were donated to the British Museum. He was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1815, the Linnean Society in 1818, the Royal Society in 1819, and a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1825. He discovered thirteen new mineral species. Brooke died at Clapham Rise on June 26, 1857, and was buried at West Norwood Cemetery. His son, the surgeon Charles Brooke, survived him. Brooke published A Familiar Introduction to Crystallography (London, 1823) and contributed the articles on "Crystallography" and "Mineralogy" to the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, where he first introduced the six primary crystalline systems.