Born in Rantavan, Co. Cavan, Charlotte was the youngest of more than twenty children fathered by the playwright, novelist, and controversialist Henry Brooke (c.1703-1783). She never married, and when her mother died in 1773, she stayed at home to look after her father until his death ten years later.
Brought up surrounded by books, and having spent a great deal of her time helping her literary father, it is understandable that Charlotte should herself turn to writing after his death. Her literary career began with the anonymous publication of her English translations of Gaelic verse by Carolan (1670-1738) and the poem “Tiaghara Mhaighe-eo”, in Joseph Cooper Walker’s Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards (1786). It was unusual for members of the protestant Anglo-Irish community, let
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Citation: Buchanan, Averill. "Charlotte Brooke". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 March 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=11781, accessed 22 November 2024.]
