Education

Frances Moore spent her childhood and adolescence in various presbyteries. Indeed, on the death of her father in 1727, she moved with her mother and her sister to the rectory of her maternal grandparents in Peterborough, and, after the death of her mother, she lived together with her sister with an aunt and uncle in Lincolnshire. Very little is known about her education.

Career

By 1748 Frances Moore had left for London, and during the 1750s she wrote poetry and plays. She first attracted attention, in the literary field, by the direction which she assumed, under the pseudonym of "Mary Singleton, Spinster", of a weekly, The old maid, which appeared from November 15, 1755 to 24 July 1756. Like Addison and Steele's Spectator, the newspaper published, among other things, essays and letters, written in a lively style, on matters relating to the theater, politics, society and religion. 

In 1760 Brooke published, The letters of the Lady Juliet Catesby, to her friend Lady Henrietta Campley, a translation of the epistolary novel by Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni. At least six editions of this popular work appeared during Frances Brooke's lifetime. Her first novel, The History of Lady Julia Mandeville, also an epistolary novel, appeared in 1763 and went through several reprints during its author's lifetime.

During her stay in Canada, Frances Brooke wrote The History of Emily Montague, published in England in 1769. This novel, which also adopts the epistolary form of Julia Mandeville, gives an account of the experience lived by the author in Quebec and her observations on society, politics, religion and the surrounding environment.

During the 20 years following her return to England , Frances Brooke published translations, wrote a tragedy and the librettos for two comic operas. She published at least two other novels, The excursion (1777) and The history of Charles Mandeville, published in 1790, after her death, and which is a sequel to Julia Mandeville.

Financial Situation

In 1756 she married John Brooke, rector of Colney, Norfolk, and several other parishes in Norwich; Brooke left for North America in 1757, as a military chaplain. In July 1763, she set sail for Quebec, to join her husband. Although she made at least one trip to England in 1764, returning to Quebec at the end of 1765, it is believed that she lived in Quebec until her husband left for England three years later.