Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/380

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Brock
368
Brock

the body and fell beside the road leading from Queenstown to the heights, expiring soon after. His last words, it is said, were, 'Never mind me—push on the York volunteers.' A second action took place at Queenstown the same day, after Major-general Roger Sheaffe had come up with the 41st foot and other reinforcements, when the American brigadier Wadsworth with 950 men laid down their arms. After lying in state at Government House, Brock's remains were interred in one of the bastions of Fort George beside those of Lieutenant-colonel McDonell, Canadian militia, a young man of twenty-five, attorney-general of the Upper Province, who had accompanied Brock in the capacity of militia aide-de-camp and had been mortally wounded the same day. Brock was in his forty-fourth year, and unmarried. He was six feet two inches in height, very erect and athletic, but latterly very stout. He had a pleasant manner and a frank open countenance, bespeaking the modest kindly disposition of one who had never been heard to utter an ill-natured remark, and in whom dislike of ostentation was as characteristic as quickness of decision and firmness in peril. After his death the officers of the 49th placed a handsome sum in the hands of the regimental agent for the purpose of procuring a portrait of the general for the mess, but on reference to the family it was found that no good likeness was extant. It may be added that the whole of the regimental records of the 49th were destroyed, after Brock's death, at the evacuation of Fort George in 1813. The House of Commons voted 1,575l. for a public monument, which was erected by Westmacott, and placed in the south transept of St. Paul's. Pensions of 200l. each were awarded to the four surviving brothers of the general, together with a grant of land in Upper Canada. On 13 Oct. 1824, the twelfth anniversary of his fall, the remains of Brock and his brave companion McDonell were carried in state from Fort George to a vault beneath a monument on Queenstown heights, erected at a cost of 3,000l. currency, voted by the Provincial Legislature. This monument, an Etruscan column, with winding stair within, standing on a rustic pediment, was blown up by an Irish American on Good Friday, 1840. The ruin was seen and described by Charles Dickens (American Notes, ii. 187-8). On 30 July 1841 a mass meeting was held in the open air beside the ruin, the lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, Sir George Arthur, presiding, which was attended by over eight thousand persons, besides representatives of the Indian tribes of the six nations, at which it was enthusiastically resolved to restore the monument forthwith at public cost. A sum of 5,000l. currency was voted for the purpose by the province, and the work at once commenced. Copies on vellum of the correspondence, addresses, &c., relating to the restoration are in the British Museum Library. The monument thus restored is in the shape of a tall column standing on the original site on the heights above Queenstown, and surmounted by a statue of the general. It is enclosed within forty acres of ornamental grounds, with entrance gates bearing the Brock arms. Below, in the village of Queenstown (or Queenston, as it is now written), is a memorial church with a stained window, placed there by the York rifles, the corps to which Brock's last order was given. Brockville and other names in Canadian topography also perpetuate the memory of the 'Hero of Upper Canada.'

[Ann. Army Lists; Bulletins of Campaigns, 1793-1815; Nelson Desp. iv. 299 et seq.; W. James's Military Occurrences in Canada (London, 8vo, 1818); Quart. Rev. liv. (July 1822) 405 et seq.; Nile's Weekly Register, 1812; Colburn's United Serv. Mag. March 1846; Gent. Mag. lxxxii. (ii.) 389, 490, 574, 576, 655, 670; F. B. Tupper's Life and Correspondence of Sir I. Brock (London and Guernsey, 8vo, 2nd ed. 1847); Picturesque Canada, No. 13 (London, 1881).]

H. M. C.


BROCK, WILLIAM, D.D. (1807–1875), dissenting divine, was born at Honiton on 14 Feb. 1807. His father, a man of earnest and religious spirit, whose efforts among the poor were at one time wrongly suspected of insidious political design, married in 1806 Ann Alsop, a descendant of Vincent Alsop [q. v.], ejected for nonconformity in 1662. William, their eldest child, was educated first at Culmstock and afterwards at the grammar school of Honiton. At the age of eight we find him writing to a friend to procure him copies of 'Caesar' and of 'Virgil.' His life at school was one of considerable hardship, inequality of rank subjecting him to the persecution of his school-fellows.

Leaving Honiton, he was placed for some time under the charge of the Rev. Charles Sharp at Bradninch; in 1820, being then thirteen years of age, was apprenticed to a watchmaker at Sidmouth; on the conclusion of his period of 'stern servitude' was removed to Hertford; afterwards joined a baptist church at Highgate; studied subsequently for four sessions at Stepney College; and settled at Norwich in 1833. In the following year he married Mary Bliss of Shortwood, Gloucestershire. During his stay at Norwich