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
A fresco of Eleanor Brooksby which resides at the St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Baddlesey Clinton, Warwickshire.
Noble familyVaux (by birth)
Spouse(s)Edward Brooksby
FatherWilliam Vaux, 3rd Baron Vaux of Harrowden
MotherElizabeth 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
  1. "Brooksby [née Vaux], Eleanor (c. 1560–1625), recusant and priest harbourer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/69032. Retrieved 30 January 2021. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. "Thimelby, Mary [name in religion Winefrid] (1618/19–1690), prioress of St Monica's, Louvain, and author". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/105825. ISBN 9780198614111. Retrieved 30 January 2021. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

Further reading
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