Eleanor Brooksby
Eleanor Brooksby was an English noblewoman who, along with her sister Anne Vaux, supported Catholics in England during the 16th century by providing safe houses including Baddesley Clinton in Warwickshire and White Webbs in Enfield Chase near London for Jesuit missionaries such as Henry Garnett.
Eleanor Brooksby | |
|---|---|
| Noble family | Vaux (by birth) |
| Spouse(s) | Edward Brooksby |
| Father | William Vaux, 3rd Baron Vaux of Harrowden |
| Mother | Elizabeth Beaumont |
Life
Brooksby was the eldest daughter and second child of William Vaux, 3rd Baron Vaux of Harrowden, and his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of John Beaumont of Grace Dieu, Leicester.[1] She married Edward Brokesby, Esq., of Sholdby, Leicester.
In 1605 she and Vaux attended an illegal pilgrimage of Catholic recusants to Holywell. She and her sister completed the journey without shoes.[1]
The pilgrimage was later suspected by authorities of having been used as cover for planning the Gunpowder Plot.
Brooksby's granddaughter Mary Thimelby would become a prioress.[2]
References
- "Brooksby [née Vaux], Eleanor (c. 1560–1625), recusant and priest harbourer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/69032. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
- "Thimelby, Mary [name in religion Winefrid] (1618/19–1690), prioress of St Monica's, Louvain, and author". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/105825. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
Further reading
- Hartley, Cathy and Susan Leckey. A Historical Dictionary of British Women. London: Routledge, 2003. ISBN 1-85743-228-2
- Lee, Sidney, ed. (1899). . Dictionary of National Biography. 58. London: Smith, Elder & Co.