BROOKS.
James Brooks was a lawyer of the early Albemarle bar.
He married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Woods, and lived
on a parcel of land on Mechum's River below the Miller
School, given him by his father-in-law. He died in 1815,
comparatively young. His children were Robert, Elizabeth,
James and Richard. He, and after him his son Robert, had
charge of the estate of Thomas West.
In 1808 Robert married Elizabeth, daughter of James Hays,
the founder of New York, and at first resided in Nelson
County. In 1812 he became a resident of New York, purchasing
Lot Thirty-One, on which stood at the time a one-story
framed house. In 1817 he made from David Hays the
first purchase of what was subsequently the Brooksville plantation
in the same vicinity. The next year his brothers and sisters
appointed him their attorney to sell nine thousand acres
of land in Harrison County, Kentucky. For a long period
he kept a tavern at Brooksville, held in high esteem among
travellers for its capital good cheer. He was a magistrate of
the county, and a ruling elder in the Mountain Plains
Church. He and John Pilson were the only justices who
appeared to enforce the law against profane swearing, both
paying over to the Poor Fund fines which they had imposed
for that offence. His children were Elizabeth, Mary Frances,
William, Robert, Ira, Henry and Maria Antoinette. But
though possessing a fine farm, and conducting a popular
hostelry, his affairs became greatly embarrassed. In 1836
he was compelled by his debts to sell his place to James P.
Tyler, and removed to Kentucky.
