Henry Brooks seems to have materially increased his estate and wealth during his lifetime. While in 1650 he called himself a simple yeoman, in his old age he called himself a clothier. In Pope's words, "A 'clothier' was a man who combined the various departments of cloth-making and handled the products. The clothier criticized, accepted, or rejected, and adjusted the prices of the cloths, and put them on the market. It was also usually very profitable, so that clothiers were very often more wealthy.