Samuel Brooks was born May 8, 1813 in Elton, Bury Parish, Lancashire, England. He was one of several children born to Richard Brooks and his wife Alice Sandiford. Alice Sandiford had been married previously to a Mr. Boardman and widowed young in life. Samuel had a half-brother, John Broadman, born to his mother’s first marriage. Other brothers and sisters were Nancy Brooks, who married John Hutchinson and lived in Ainsworth, Lancashire, Nathan Brooks, who married Betty Smith, joined the Latter-Day-Saint Church at about the same time as Alice Brooks Anderson did, and emigrated to the United States in 1856, on the same ship, Horizon, that Alice came on.

Nathan settled in South Weber, Utah, where he lived until his death in 1881. Ellen Brooks, another of Samuel’s sisters, died when only four years of age. She and a brother Rodger, who died at eight years of ages are buried in the graveyard of the Ainsworth Cockeymoor Chapel. A sister Betty Brooks married John Dawson and lived in Elton Lancashire. There were also brothers Joseph and James about whom mot much is known.

The area in which the Brooks family lived was a highly populated industrialized district. There were many textile factories which provided one of the main sources of employment for the people. Samuel’s father was a weaver and in early life Samuel also became a weaver, no doubt working in one of the many textile mills. At the age of 21, Samuel was married to Sarah Astley, on the 16th day of February, in the parish church of Ainworth, Lancashire. Sarah was born 2 July 1815, a daughter of Nicholas Astley and his wife Nancy Winwood of Bolton, Lancashire. Four children were born to Samuel and Sarah Brooks, two girls and two boys. Our ancestress, Alice, was born 16 January 1835 at Bolton, Lancashire. The second daughter, Nancy, was born 8 December 1837 at Bolton. This daughter Nancy, also joined the LDS Church in England, but for some reason or other disaffiliated herself and was cut off. A son Richard was born 16 June 1839 at Little Bolton and died when only ten months old. Another son was born 7 February 1841 and was also named Richard as was the custom.

Samuel’s young wife Sarah, became very ill with consumption which caused her death on April 24, 1843, when her youngest child was but 2 years of age and the eldest Alice, only 8 years. How the young father managed to care for these small children is speculation, but it is felt by the author of this narrative that much assistance was rendered by Samuel's elder brother Nathan and his wife Betty, who had no children of their own. It is apparent that at about this time, Samuel changed occupations from that of a weaver to plasterer. Nathan was a painter also and it is assumed that he taught his younger brother Samuel the trade. This profession Samuel followed until the time of his death.

Nathan lived and plied his trade in Tong-with-Haulgh, a town just over a mile outside of Bolton. Next door to Nathan lived a family by the name of Cockshott, the husband of this family died leaving a young widow, Alice, and three daughters, Alice, Mary, and Martha. Samuel Brooks had no doubt been acquainted with the Cockshott family as neighbors of his brother Nathan, and the young widow and the young widower were drawn together by their mutual plight. On the fourteenth of April, 1844. Samuel was married to Alice Cockshott, daughter of Ralph Bromiley, at the parish church of Deane, Lancashire.

To this union were born three sons and one daughter. Joseph was born 3 December 1844, Samuel born 17 July 1846, Betsy born 23 Februrary 1848 and Nathan born 23 April 1850. All were born at Tong-with-Haulgh. Betsy died when only 10 years old. Family tradition has told us that Samuel Brooks was very upset and embittered when his daughter Alice joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and emigrated to America. Yet it is very evident that the same unrest, religiously speaking, that caused Alice to seek out the teachings of the Mormon missionaries, was also manifested in her father Samuel. He became dissatisfied with the Church of England and as a young man, along with various other members of his family, became affiliated with the Presbyterian church, and later the Unitarian church of Ainsworth.

He and his two wives are interred side by side in the churchyard of the Unitarian Chapel in Ainsworth, Lancashire. Samuel died on the tenth day of June 1979 at Tong-with-Haulgh, where he had resided since his second marriage. He died from dropsy, resulting from a heart disease of four years duration. His second wife, Alice, survived him by five and a half years and passed away on the ninth of January 1885.