When the revolution of 1688 set William III and Mary II on the throne, Brokesby refused to take the oath to the new sovereigns. He was accordingly deprived of his living in 1690. He went up to London in July, and appears to have been received by Lady Fairborn at her house in Pall Mall 'over against the Pastures.' Meanwhile, his wife, by that time the mother of six children, did what she could to wind up affairs. Writing to her sister on 8 Aug, she says, 'We are now cutting down our corn, for we cannot sell it.' After his deprivation Brokesby lived for some years in his native village, and there his wife died and was buried on 26 February 1699.