Son of John and Sarah Her­ford, Brooke re­ceived his ear­ly ed­u­ca­tion in Man­ches­ter, at the school of John Rel­ly Beard. At age 14, he left school and went into his fa­ther’s count­ing­ house for four years. As he be­came en­gaged with the local Sun­day School, and at the Mos­ley Street Mis­sion School, he event­u­al­ly de­cid­ed up­on the min­is­try as a ca­reer. At age 18, he en­rolled at Man­che­ster New Col­lege (now at Ox­ford, but then at Man­ches­ter). At age 21, he b­egan preach­ing at Tod­mor­den, York­shire and, as his col­lege would not sup­port him, he with­drew from school to be a full time min­is­ter. After five years at Tod­mor­den, his moved to the Up­per Cha­pel, Shef­field, and nine years lat­er, to Strange­ways Free Church in Man­ches­ter. He spent 11 years there, al­so tu­tor­ing at the Home Mis­sion­a­ry Col­lege.

He then moved to Amer­i­ca to be­come pas­tor of the First Un­i­tar­i­an So­ci­e­ty in Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois (1874-91). He al­so served as Cor­res­pond­ing Sec­re­ta­ry (1878-9) and pre­si­dent (1880-1) of the Chi­ca­go Lit­er­a­ry Club; pas­tor of the Ar­ling­ton Street Church, Bos­ton, Mass­a­chu­setts (1882-92); and on the fa­cul­ty of Har­vard Un­i­ver­si­ty, be­fore re­turn­ing to Eng­land in 1893.

Herford’s works in­clude:

• A Pro­test­ant Poor Fri­ar: The Life-Sto­ry of Tra­vers Madge
• The Sto­ry of Re­li­gion in Eng­land
• Sermons of Cour­age and Cheer
• The Small End of Great Prob­lems
• Anchors of the Soul

• Julian, p. 1718

1. Lead Us, Hea­ven­ly Fa­ther