Editing James Brooke (section)

==Personal life==
[[File:James Brooke photo.jpg|thumb|left|James Brooke]]
James Brooke was 'a great admirer' of the novels of [[Jane Austen]], and would 'read them and re-read them', including aloud to his companions in Sarawak.<ref>Spenser St John, ''The Life of Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak''{{page?|date=September 2024}}{{ISBN?}}</ref>

Brooke was influenced by the success of previous British adventurers and the exploits of the [[East India Company]]. His actions in Sarawak were directed at growing and securing his own personal wealth, expanding the British Empire and fighting [[piracy]] and [[slavery]]. His own abilities, and those of his successors, provided Sarawak with modern infrastructure and resulted in both fame and notoriety in some circles. His appointment as rajah by the Sultan, and his subsequent knighthood, are evidence both of his shrewd negotiation and political skills and his willingness to use violent force to supress his opponents and achieve his goals.{{Citation needed|date=December 2010}}

Among his alleged relationships was one with Badruddin, a Sarawak prince, of whom he wrote, "my love for him was deeper than anyone I knew." This phrase led to some considering him to be either homosexual or bisexual. Later, in 1848, Brooke is alleged to have formed a relationship with 16‑year‑old Charles T.C. Grant, grandson of the seventh [[Earl of Elgin]], who supposedly 'reciprocated'.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hyam |first=Ronald |title=Empire and Sexuality: The British Experience |publisher=[[Manchester University Press]] |year=1991 |isbn=9780719025051 |location=Manchester |pages=44–45}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Walker, J.H.|title=This peculiar acuteness of feeling: James Brooke and the enactment of desire|journal=Borneo Research Bulletin|volume=29|year=1998|pages=148–189}}</ref> Whether this relationship was purely a friendship or otherwise is not known. [[Nigel Barley (anthropologist)|Nigel Barley]], one of Brooke's recent biographers, wrote that during Brooke's final years in [[Burrator]] in Devon "there is little doubt ... he was carnally involved with the [[Trade (gay slang)#Rough trade|rough trade]] of [[Totnes]]."<ref>Barley, p. 208.</ref> However, Barley does not note from where he garnered this opinion. Others have suggested Brooke was instead "homo-social" and simply preferred the social company of other men, disagreeing with assertions he was a homosexual.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=CqNuAAAAMAAJ ''The White Rajahs of Sarawak: A Borneo Dynasty''] by Bob Reece (Archipelago Press, 2004)</ref>

Although Brooke died unmarried, he did acknowledge a son to his family in 1858. Neither the identity of the son's mother nor his birth date is clear. This son was brought up as Reuben George Walker in the Brighton household of Frances Walker (1841 and 1851 census, apparently born {{Circa|1836}}). By 1858 he was aware of his connection to Brooke and by 1871 he is on the census at the parish of [[Plumtree, Nottinghamshire]] as "George Brooke", age "40", birthplace "Sarawak, Borneo". He married Martha Elizabeth Mowbray on 10 July 1862, and had seven children, three of whom survived infancy; the oldest was named James.{{Citation needed|date=June 2020}} George died travelling to Australia, in the wrecking of the SS ''British Admiral''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kingisland.net.au/~maritime/britishadmiral.htm |title=British Admiral wreck |publisher=Kingisland.net.au |access-date=6 February 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/vicpamphlets/0/0/1/pdf/vp0010.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=18 January 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080228143205/http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/vicpamphlets/0/0/1/pdf/vp0010.pdf |archive-date=28 February 2008 }}</ref> on 23 May 1874. A memorial to this effect – giving a birthdate of 1834 – is in the churchyard at Plumtree.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.keyworth-history.org.uk/about/reports/0509.htm|title=September 2005 Meeting Report|publisher=Keyworth Local History Society|access-date=6 February 2013|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303185717/http://www.keyworth-history.org.uk/about/reports/0509.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Francis William Douglas (1874–1953), the Acting Resident for Brunei and Labuan from November 1913 to January 1915 in a letter to the Foreign Office on 19 July 1915 stated that he heard from Pengiran Anak Hashima that Brooke had been married to her aunt Pengiran Fatima, the daughter of Pengiran Anak Abdul Kadir and also the granddaughter of Muhammad Kanzul Alam, the 21st Sultan of Brunei. Douglas goes on to say that he had met Dr Ogilvie who told him that he had met a daughter of Rajah Brooke's in 1866: she was married but "evidently had foreign blood in her."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Brown|first=D.E.|date=1972|title=Another affair of James Brooke?|url=|journal=Bruneian Museum Journal|language=en|volume=2|issue=4|page=206|doi=|s2cid=|issn=}}</ref>

[[File:Rajah James Brooke.jpg|thumb|Rajah James Brooke]]