George Brooke Lindsay

History Spotlight Written by Doug Humes

Photos courtesy of the Marple Historical Society

My daily commute takes me to the traffic light at Sproul and Marple Roads, where I have time to ponder the residents of the Presbyterian Church Cemetery. A very prominent gravestone, one of the largest in the cemetery, always caught my attention: George Brooke Lindsay. I would wonder “Who was this man?” So one day I went off to find out.

Gravestone for George Brooke Lindsay

George Brooke Lindsay was born in 1852 at the Lindsay family home in Haverford, and then the family moved to a farm in Nether Providence. He went to public school and then studied law in the office of Ward and Broomall in Chester. The partners there were John M. Broomall (for whom the town is named) and William Ward, who were both elected to Congress.

George went on to have a successful career as a Delaware County lawyer. He was politically active, serving as solicitor for the borough of North and South Chester, and President of the ChesterVeteran Republican Club. He also was a director of the Chester National Bank, the Chester Union Railway Company and the Chester and Media Electric Railway Company, Secretary of the Chester Free Library, and Treasurer of the Law Library Association of the Delaware County Bar.

Description from 1888 passport application

His interest in libraries continued after his death in 1918. He left an estate of about $200,000 that he asked to be used to build a law library to be called the Lindsay Law Library. That library was built in Chester, and for years was affiliated with what is now Widener University. The Lindsay Law Library survived until 2009, when the Widener Wolfgram Library was converted to a more contemporary electronic delivery model.

Historic market at Marple Presbyterian Cemetery

Why is George buried in Marple? His ancestors, the Brookes and Lindsays, were locals, and are well represented in the cemetery. George was the great-grandson of a Revolutionary War ancestor, William Brooke, who lived in a home still standing to this day on Darby Road along the the Ithan Creek.

During the Revolution, the Hessians raided that home and “Saw a splendid mahogany chest of drawers, known as a high boy,” and one of them forced open the top drawer with a bayonet, in the belief that the chest contained treasure. This damaged chest of drawers remained in Captain Brooke’s possession until his death in 1829, when it passed into the possession of his son Thomas Brooke. It then was passed down to his son, George Brooke, Esq. Where is that chest today?

For more on the history of Marple, visit the Marple Historical Society website and Facebook page, and join the Society to keep up to date on coming events: www.MarpleHistoricalSociety. org. No events or activities due to COVID. We hope to have an announcement soon about resuming open houses at the Massey House. For more details, check our Facebook page or our website.