Author: Broome, Ralph
Biography:
BROOME, Ralph (1744-1805: ancestry.co.uk)
He was the son of Ralph and Mary (Pinnegar) Broome and was baptised at Clyffe Pypard, Wiltshire, on 28 Feb. 1743 (that is, 1744 n.s.). Nothing is known about his early life, but he became an officer in the Bengal army and served as interpreter to Colonel Granger Muir. While in India, he had a relationship that resulted in the birth of a daughter, Miriam Mary Broome, in 1781. He later took Miriam to England and she was baptised in Wiltshire in 1785. (Confusingly, she married Broome's nephew, also called Ralph Broome, in Wiltshire in 1804.) Ralph Broome married Lucy Jeffreys at St. George the Martyr, Queen Square, Camden, London on 24 Feb. 1790; they had a son, Ralph Jeffreys, who was born in Feb. 1791 and died in 1792. Lucy died in Nov. 1796 and on 1 Mar. 1798 at St. Mary, Marylebone, Broome married Charlotte Ann Francis, the widowed sister of Fanny Burney; her family objected to the match. They had one son, also named Ralph (1801-17). (Charlotte's will mentions a daughter, Charlotte, who married Henry Barrett, but she is not named in Ralph Broome's will and no birth record has yet been located.) Another daughter, Margaret Amelia Weaver, was born in 1802 as a result of his relationship with a married woman. In later life he was said to suffer from periods of insanity. He died at Bath and was buried at St. Swithin’s, Walcot, on 4 Mar. 1805. His will, signed in Jan. 1805, left the bulk of his estate to Charlotte and his son Ralph but he had provided for Miriam on her marriage and he left an annuity for Margaret. Most of his writings, including his satiric verse, concern the trial of Warren Hastings; among his other publications are An Elucidation of the Articles of Impeachment (1790) and Comparative View of the Administration of Mr. Hastings and Mr. Dundas (1791). (ancestry.co.uk 12 Jan. 2021; WorldCat; PBI) SR