Charlotte Brooke, Author of Reliques of Ancient Irish Poetry, Dies

  • March 29, 1793

Charlotte Brooke (c. 1740 – 1793), born in Rantavan, beside Mullagh in County Cavan, Ireland, was the author of Reliques of Irish Poetry, a pioneering volume of poems collected by her in the Irish language, with facing translations. She was one of twenty-two children fathered by the writer Henry Brooke, author of Gustavus Vasa; only she (and perhaps one other sibling) survived childhood.

In 1792, Brooke had taken up a life with friends in Longford, sharing a cottage due to her lack of income. On 29 March 1793, Charlotte Brooke passed of a malignant fever.