Ralph Broome (pamphleteer)

Ralph Broome (1742–1835) was an English stockjobber, pamphleteer and satirical poet.

Life and career

The third son of Ralph Broome (1714–1768) of the manor of Bushton, Wiltshire,[1] Broome was sent as a cadet to India, where he acquired Oriental languages, including Persian, and became a judge advocate with the rank of captain in the Bengal Army. While there he fathered a daughter Miriam (c. 1781–1840) by an unknown Indian lady. The girl accompanied him back to England in about 1785 and married in 1803 Broome's lawyer nephew, also Ralph Broome (1781–1838).

In 1790, Broome himself married Lucy Jeffreys, a daughter of Richard Jeffreys of Penkelly, Brecknockshire, Wales, but she died at Bristol Hot Wells in 1796. He then married the widowed Charlotte Ann Francis, née Burney (1761–1838), on 28 February 1798. Their only child was a son, Ralph (1801–1817). The marriage caused consternation in Charlotte's father Charles Burney, her sister Frances Burney and other members of the family, mainly because of doubts about Broome's finances, although they became reconciled to it later.[2]

Works

Broome was a prolific pamphleteer and versifier. Although he had not known Warren Hastings personally in India, he attended the impeachment proceedings and argued in Hastings' defence in several works. Broome's published works include:

References

  1. ^ British History online: Retrieved 1 August 2011.
  2. ^ Joyce Hemlow, ed.: The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney... (London: OUP, 1972 ff.). IV, 33n; I, lxxii–lxxiii; IV, references in several letters pp. 31 ff., notably No. 273, pp. 118–25.
  3. ^ Joyce Hemlow, ed.: The Journals..., p. 30n; British Library Integrated Catalogue.