They settled in Massachusetts early—Gilbert Brooks of Scituate came in The Blessing from London, 17 June 1635, aged 14, with William Vassall, a wealthy merchant of Stepney, Middlesex, accompanied by his brother William, aged 20—and stayed there. Nothing is known for a certainty of their family or where they lived in England, though some indicators point to Essex as their point of origin. And the name being so very ordinary, the uncertainty is likely to remain.
[Ref. Savage: A Geneaological Dictionary of The First Settlers of New England Before 1692, Pope's Pioneers of Mass., Deane's History of Scituate, Shurtleff's Records of Plymouth Colony, Greenlaw's The Genealogical Advertiser, The Stevens Miller Ancestry, Brooks family records.]
William Brooks, born 1615, emigrated from England 1635, a householder in Scituate in 1644, married twice, but the name of the mother of his children, named by Deane in the 19th century as the widow Susannah Dunham, has been discredited and is thus unknown (god bless the yankees for their honesty). His second wife was Susannah Hanford, widow of John Whiston.
[Sources: Anderson et al., The Great Migration, 1634–1635, 1:407–11, Gilbert Brooks; 1:412-15, William Brooks; John Savage. A Genealogical Dictionary of The First Settlers of New England, Before 1692, 1:263]
Nathaniel Brooks I, born March 29, 1646 and married December 24, 1678 to Elizabeth Curtis, daughter of Richard Curtis.
[Sources: Anderson et al. The Great Migration, 1634–1635; Torrey, Clarence Almon. New England Marriages Prior to 1700; Vital Records of Scituate Massachusetts To the Year 1850; John Savage. A Genealogical Dictionary of The First Settlers of New England, Before 1692, 1:263]
Nathaniel Brooks II married November 27, 1717 to Mary Taylor, died January 14, 1794.
[Sources: Anderson et al, The Great Migration, 1634–1635; Torrey, Clarence Almon. New England Marriages Prior to 1700; Vital Records of Scituate Massachusetts To the Year 1850; John Savage. A Genealogical Dictionary of The First Settlers of New England, Before 1692, 1:263]
Taylor Brooks, born August 28, 1718, married in May 8, 1740 to Merriam Curtis
[Sources: Anderson et al., The Great Migration, 1634–1635; Torrey, Clarence Almon. New England Marriages Prior to 1700; Vital Records of Scituate Massachusetts To the Year 1850; Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register, 4 vols.]
Noah Brooks I, born 1744, christened November 4, 1744, married Hannah Stetson, died at sea August 28, 1789. Occupation: master mariner.
[Sources: Brooks family records]
Noah Brooks II, born in Scituate Massachusetts on July 7, 1782. Married by Wm Thomas on February 16, 1812 to Esther Stetson. Occupation: shipwright. Died after a sleigh accident in Dorchester on January 28, 1852.
[Sources: Brooks family records]
Williams Barker Brooks, born in Camden Maine on November 9, 1813. Married by Samuel E. Barrett on December 22, 1836 to Alvira Woods Rice in Boston Massachusetts. Occupation: bank manager. Died of old age on July 16, 1904.
[Sources: Brooks family records]
Laura Alice Brooks, born May 2, 1859, married October 21, 1879 to Samuel Wesley Martine of New York City and East Orange, New Jersey, died February 28, 1940.
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