George Broke-Middleton

Admiral Sir George Nathaniel Broke-Middleton, 3rd Baronet CB (26 April 1812 – 14 January 1887) was a British Royal Navy officer.

Admiral Sir George Broke-Middleton, Bt CB
Photograph of Sir George Broke-Middleton, Bt, 1865
High Sheriff of Suffolk
In office 1864–1864
Preceded by	John Brooke
Succeeded by	John Reade
Personal details
Born	George Nathaniel Broke (1812-04-26)26 April 1812 Stoke Damerel, Plymouth, Devon
Died	14 January 1887(1887-01-14) (aged 74) Shrubland Park, Coddenham, Suffolk
Spouse	Albinia Maria Evans Rushbrooke ​ ​ (after 1853)​
Parent(s)	Sir Philip Broke, 1st Baronet Louisa Middleton

Early life

Broke-Middleton was the second son of eleven children born to Sarah Louisa Middleton and Sir Philip Broke, 1st Baronet, a Royal Navy officer who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812.^[1]

His paternal grandparents were Elizabeth Beaumont and Philip Bowes Broke of Broke Hall, Nacton, near Ipswich (a grandson of Philip Broke and descendant of Sir Richard Broke, who served as Chief Baron of the Exchequer). His maternal grandparents were Sir William Fowle Middleton, 1st Baronet and Harriot Acton (the daughter and eventual heiress of Nathaniel Acton of Bramford Hall, Suffolk).^[2]

Career

He entered the Royal Navy as a midshipman on 16 August 1825. By 4 November 1840, he had gained the rank of Commander while serving on HMS Thunderbolt. On 18 December 1845, he was promoted to the rank of captain, and in 1855 took command of HMS Gladiator, seeing active service in the Crimean War. In 1858, Broke took command of HMS Centurion, and in March 1859 became captain of HMS Hero. The following month he was invalided out of regular naval service.^[3] He was promoted to the rank of retired Rear Admiral on 3 December 1863,^[4] Vice Admiral on 1 April 1870^[5] and Admiral on 22 January 1877.^[6]

On 4 February 1855, he succeeded to his unmarried older brother's baronetcy.^[7] He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in July 1855.^[8] In 1860, Broke assumed the additional surname of Middleton after inheriting the estate of his cousin, Sir William Fowle Fowle Middleton, 2nd Baronet.^[9] In 1864, he served as High Sheriff of Suffolk.

Personal life

On 27 August 1853 at Ghent, Belgium, Broke married Albinia Maria (née Evans) Rushbrooke (1821–1905), daughter of Thomas Evans,^[10] after she had been divorced by her husband, Maj. Robert Frederick Brownlow Rushbrooke, on the grounds of her adultery with Broke.^[11][2]

Broke-Middleton died at Shrubland Park on 14 January 1887, and the baronetcy became extinct. His Suffolk estates were inherited by a niece, Lady de Saumarez, formerly Jane Anne Broke, the daughter of his brother Capt. Charles Acton Broke (who had married Anna Maria Hamilton, daughter of John Hamilton of Sundrum). In 1882, she had married James Saumarez, 4th Baron de Saumarez, and the estates, including Shrubland Park at Coddenham, Suffolk, Broke Hall at Ipswich,^[12] and Livermore Park at Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk,^[13] thus passed into the Saumarez family.^[13] The inheritance made Lady de Saumarez the largest owner of London real estate in the aristocracy outside of the Duke of Westminster, which she held until the Middleton Estate, as it was known, was sold in 1921.^[14]

References

1. John Burke, A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire, Volume 1 (H. Colburn and R. Bentley, 1832), p.151
2. Lodge, Edmund (1877). The Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire as at Present Existing. Hurst and Blackett, Publishers. p. 697. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
3. Naval service record of George Nathaniel Broke-Middleton RN http://www.pdavis.nl/ShowBiog.php?id=1591 (Accessed 1 June 2015)
4. "No. 22797". The London Gazette. 15 December 1863. p. 6541.
5. "No. 23603". The London Gazette. 1 April 1870. p. 2007.
6. "No. 24411". The London Gazette. 30 January 1877. p. 437.
7. "Biography of George Nathaniel Broke Middleton (George Nathaniel Broke) R.N." www.pdavis.nl. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
8. "No. 21743". The London Gazette. 10 July 1855. p. 2654.
9. "No. 22404". The London Gazette. 17 July 1860. p. 2655.
10. Burke, John; Burke, Bernard (1845). A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland. Henry Colburn. p. 1160. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
11. Lords, Great Britain Parliament House of (1853). Evidence Before Lords Committees for Privileges and Before the House &c. p. 3. Retrieved 12 February 2025.
12. Dod's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland, Including All the Titled Classes. 1904. p. 313. Retrieved 10 February 2025.
13. Walford Dakin Selby, ed., The Genealogist, vol. 23 (1907), p. 143: "He on his uncle's decease in 1860, assumed the additional name of Middleton, and dying s.p. on 19th January 1887, the property devolved upon his niece, Jane Anne Broke, the daughter of his deceased brother, Captain Charles Acton Broke, 11. E. (ob. 1855). She, on 10th October 1882, became the wife of Sir James St Vincent, fourth Baron de Saumarez."
14. TIMES, Wireless to THE NEW YORK (26 April 1937). "BARON SAUMAREZ, BRITISH DIPLOMAT; Ex-Member of Paris Embassy Staff Who Saw Commune Dies in Guernsey at 93". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 February 2025.

Political offices
Preceded by John Brooke	High Sheriff of Suffolk 1864	Succeeded by John Reade
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Philip Broke	Baronet (of Broke Hall) 1855–1887	Extinct