Bond’s Watertown629 provides a comprehensive account of Capt. Thomas Brooks and his descendants. With respect to Thomas himself, Bond relates the following:630 “Neither the date of his arrival, nor the place of his embarkation has been ascertained; but there is reason to suppose that he came from London. He first settled in Watertown, and was one of the ‘townsmen then inhabiting,’ to whom the Beaver Brook plowlands were granted in 1636. He was adm. freeman, Dec. 7, 1636, while he resided in Watertown. It is evident that he could not be the Thomas Brooke who embarked in May, 1635, then aged twenty, in company with Rev. Peter Bulkley [[sic]]. The second son, perhaps the third child, of Capt. Thomas Brooks, of Concord, was born in 1632, when the other Thomas was only 17 years old. He moved very soon from Watertown to Concord, of which he was captain, and he received various other appointments of honour and trust. The General Court appointed him constable of Concord, Dec. 8, 1638, and he was representative in 1642, ’43, ’44, and four years after 1650. In 1640, he was apprizer of horses, cattle, &c., for the purpose of taxation, and appointed to prevent drunkenness among the Indians. In 1657, he purchased of the commissioners of the General Court, for £5, the right of carrying on the fur trade in Concord. In 1660, he and his son-in-law, Timothy Wheeler, jointly purchased of Edward Collins, 400 acres in Medford for £404, two-thirds for himself, and one-third for Wheeler. His wife GRACE d. May 12, 1664, and the next Oct. 22, he sold his house-lot in Concord; but he remained in Concord, and died there May 21, 1667, intestate. His inventory, by Dea. Merriam, Dea. Potter, and George Wheeler, amounted to £448 3s., and his debts to £26 5s. 2d. His three sons and son-in-law presented the Inventory for probate, June 16, 1667, and the next day signed the following agreement.

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“‘Whereas Thomas Brooks, of Concord, has left an estate, and the sons of the said Thomas, not willing to trouble the Court, have jointly agreed as followeth: 1st. That the Inventory taken by Dea. Merriam, Dea. Potter, and George Wheeler shall be accounted the full estate of Thomas Brooks. 2d. We do agree that Joshua Brooks shall have a full double portion out of the lands at Medford, and that the three other sons, Capt. Timothy Wheeler, Caleb Brooks, and Gershom Brooks, to have equal portions, only Caleb and Gershom to have the remainder of the said lands, after Joshua is first accomodated, as a part of their portion, and Timothy Wheeler out of the movable estate, and all to be distributed by [to] them by those three parties [[p. 720]] that took the Inventory; unto whose final determination we do severally bind ourselves in a bond of £100 apiece, to stand unto us. We do impress by our hands to this present writing the 17th June, 1667.’” The signatures of Timothy Wheeler, Joshua Brooks, Caleb Brooks, and Gershom Brooks follow, along with those of witnesses Hugh Mason and Joseph Easterbrook.

Website http://table.jps.net/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/lythgoe/igmget.cgi/n=andrea?I3870 give a completely different parentage for Thomas Brooks which is a royal line from Edward I, and identifies Thomas as being from Barrow-Gurney, Somersetshire. Perhaps this is the parentage of the younger Thomas Brooke mentioned by Bond?