R. B. Westbrook
R. B. Westbrook was a judge who was present at the October 30, 1875, meeting of the newly formed Theosophical Society at Mott Memorial Hall in New York City. He was elected as a Councillor. Historian Josephine Ransom wrote of him:
JUDGE R. B. WESTBROOK was for a time a Professor of Philology in a British University. He was made a Vice-President of the Society in 1877, and was much appreciated by H.P.B.; but nothing more was said of him.[1]
Personal life and career
Richard Broadhead Westbrook was born on February 8, 1820 to John and Sarah Broadhead Westbrook in Dingman's Ferry, Pennsylvania, and baptized in Sussex, New Jersey.[2]
His career seems to have begun with teaching school, progressing into the Christian ministry.[3] In 1860, he was working in Philadelphia as a Presbyterian clergyman.[4] He entered the University of the City of New York to study law. He was admitted to the bar in 1863, and began paying "licensee fees" for work as a lawyer in New York, By 1870 he had established his legal career and was quite prosperous, living in Andover, Sussex County, New Jersey in a large household with his wife Sarah, six children aged 1 to 28, and a servant.[5][6] "Later he became interested in Pennsylvania coal lands and retired in 1882."[7] His wife died around that time.
On August 19, 1899, he died in Pascoag, Rhode Island. An obituary states, "He was also an author of repute. In 1870 he published a work on marriage and divorce; in 1882 a work entitled the Bible, and in 1884 one entitled Man, Whence and Whither, besides others of later date."[8]
Connections with Theosophists
His wife was also acquainted with Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, according to one of her letters.[9]
In September 1889 he published an article entitled "Reminiscences of Original American Theosophists" in ..The Religio-Philosophical Journal. It describes in incident when he introduced a "distinguished Unitarian preacher, Rev. W. R. Alger, of Boston" to Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott. Westcott had great respect for the Colonel, but came to believe Madame Blavatsky to be a fraud.
Notes
- ↑ Josephine Ransom, A Short History of The Theosophical Society (Adyar, Madras, India: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1938), 114.
- ↑ 1820 U.S., Dutch Reformed Church Records.
- ↑ "R. B. Westbrook Dead" (obituary) in August 25, 1899 issue of a Pascoag, Rhode Island newspaper.
- ↑ 1860 U.S. Census
- ↑ U.S., IRS Tax Assessment, 1862.
- ↑ 1870 U.S. Census
- ↑ "R. B. Westbrook Dead" (obituary) in August 25, 1899 issue of a Pascoag, Rhode Island newspaper.
- ↑ "R. B. Westbrook Dead" (obituary) in August 25, 1899 issue of a Pascoag, Rhode Island newspaper.
- ↑ H. P. Blavatsky, The Letters of H.P. Blavatsky, Volume 1 (Wheaton, Illinois: Theosophical Publishing House, 2003), 253 and 256.