When Isaac was born on October 6, 1769, his mother, Elizabeth, had given birth to ten children — but three had died — and three more would be born subsequently. His father died in 1777, leaving Elizabeth with a large family. Fortunately, “They were left in independent, if not in affluent, circumstances.”[2] Isaac had brothers in the army (John, Ferdinand, William, and Savery), and in business (Irving and William) while Daniel remained on the island, served in the Royal Guernsey militia, and eventually became the island’s chief magistrate. Irving was also a writer and translator while Savery, after he left the army, married and settled in Guernsey. Isaac’s sister, Mary, lived in England with her husband, Thomas Potenger. Another sister, Elizabeth, married John E. Tupper whose son, Ferdinand, wrote The Life and Correspondence of Major-General Sir Isaac Brock, K.B., which provides a great deal of information about its subject.
Tupper writes about the young Isaac, “In his boyhood he was like his brothers, unusually tall, robust, and precocious; and, with an appearance much beyond his age, remarkable in his own family chiefly for extreme gentleness. He was, however, considered by his schoolfellows as the best swimmer and boxer in the school; and he used to swim from the mainland of Guernsey to Castle Cornet, a distance each way of nearly half a mile.” In St. Peter-Port, Isaac attended Queen Elizabeth School, also known as Elizabeth College. At age ten he went to a boarding school in Southampton, England. At age fourteen, in order to learn French, he studied under a French pastor in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Subsequently, he probably spoke and understood French capably and certainly read it, for his possessions included at least eight works (some of several volumes) in French along with a grammar of that language.[3]
When Brock was fifteen his family purchased a commission for him as an ensign in the 8th Regiment of Foot (also called the King’s Regiment), where his brother John held a captain’s commission. A young man would need access to money, either from his family or from a patron, to buy a commission, because it was expensive. The most junior officer rank was ensign and it cost £400. The price for a lieutenancy was £550, for a captaincy £1,500, for a majority £2,600, and for a lieutenant-colonelcy £3,500.[4] A glance at the pay for these ranks will show that a commission could not be financed from an officer’s salary but needed another source. Annual pay and allowances for an ensign amounted to £96, for a lieutenant with up to six years service in that rank £119, for a lieutenant with seven years service £137, for a captain £192, for a major £292, for a lieutenant-colonel £310, and for a colonel £775.[5]
In Isaac’s case, his brother William loaned the money — the loans amounted to £3,000 by 1811 (Chapter Five). Isaac next bought a commission as a lieutenant (1790), but in the same year gained the rank of captain because he had raised enough men to establish an infantry company. This was an independent company with his brother Savery as an ensign. However, Savery resigned the next year to enter a business apprenticeship under his brother William. (Savery would later serve as paymaster in the 49th Regiment.) Isaac purchased his majority in 1795, and in 1797 his commission as lieutenant-colonel. As ensign and lieutenant, his role was to assist a captain in command of a company; as major, he was “the regiment’s senior officer for maintaining discipline”;[6] and as lieutenant-colonel, he would usually command a regiment.
It was also a common practice to transfer from one regiment to another:[7] in 1791, Brock exchanged into the 49th Regiment, joining it in Barbados, and by 1797 he was its senior lieutenant-colonel, in effect its commanding officer. Roger Hale Sheaffe was a junior lieutenant-colonel. Both officers would later be closely identified with that regiment in the War of 1812.[8]
Although Brock purchased his commissions, the practice — which applied only in infantry and cavalry regiments — was producing fewer and fewer infantry officers for Wellington’s army by 1812. One reason was heavy losses of officers in the fighting in the Peninsula, the reluctance of parents to buy commissions for sons in dangerous times, and the rapid increase in the army during the long wars with France. Another reason was reforms beginning in 1795, applied by the Duke of York, as commander-in-chief, as he tried to reduce the abuses of the traditional system. By 1812, over 60 percent of commissions in the infantry were granted free of charge while lesser numbers were awarded to “gentlemen volunteers” and to senior non-commissioned officers who had proven themselves worthy by deed.[9] However, there may have been a higher percentage of purchased commissions in the regiments in North America because they had not suffered heavy casualties before 1812. In any case, while Brock entered the army and rose under the old system, he proved fully worthy of his high officer rank.
During his earliest years in the army, Brock did not see action, for he was on garrison duty in England until 1790 when he moved to Guernsey and Jersey. Tupper tells an anecdote that took place soon after Brock joined the 49th. The regiment was cursed with “one of those vile pests of society — a confirmed duelist,” who was, unfortunately, a dead shot. Brock refused to be intimidated by the other captain and so was challenged to a duel. Being tall, Brock knew that he would present an easy target at the usual distance apart of twelve paces. As they prepared for the duel, he demanded that they meet on equal terms. His answer was to produce a handkerchief and insist they fire across it at each other. Not surprisingly, his antagonist declined and soon after left the regiment.[10] Whether or not this actually happened, it suggests that from an early age Brock had acute insight into what others — particularly opponents — were thinking and how they might respond to determined action. He was to apply this trait very effectively in 1812 both before and after the war broke out.
A good deal of his time he spent in study but he also worked to develop prowess in boxing and swimming. His early enjoyment of reading for a purpose continued for the rest of his life. Twenty years later, Brigadier-General Brock spent a lonely winter in Fort George, Upper Canada. He wrote to his brother Irving,
I hardly ever stir out, and unless I have company at home, my evenings are passed solus. I read much, but good books are scarce, and I hate borrowing … should you find that I am likely to remain here, I wish you to send me some choice authors in history, particularly ancient, with maps, and the best translations of ancient works. I read in my youth Pope’s Translation of Homer, but till lately never discovered its exquisite beauties. As I grow old, I acquire a taste for study.[11]
He had just passed his forty-first birthday.
In 1791, the 49th was sent to Barbados and Jamaica in the West Indies. These islands were unhealthy for European troops, who often fell sick from disease from which few of them recovered. The 49th continued to suffer from its experience even after it returned to England. European doctors did not know the real causes of those diseases and so lacked knowledge of what treatments would cure their patients or what medicines would be effective.[12] Captain Brock fell ill, but survived probably because of the skilful nursing of his servant, known to history only as Dobson. However, to fully recuperate Brock went home on sick leave and there soon recovered his health.
When he became senior lieutenant-colonel of the 49th, the regiment was quartered by the River Thames and crippled by disorganization owing to his predecessor’s mismanagement. The regiment needed many new recruits to replace the men lost in the Islands as well as proper clothing and equipment. It is not surprising that disorganization became discontent in the summer of 1797 at a time when the Royal Navy was wracked by mutiny. He used a combination of conciliation and firmness, namely, courts martial of several officers guilty of gross misconduct, to re-establish the discipline of the 49th. For this he received the praise of the commander-in-chief, the Duke of York. Another test of his leadership came in 1800, when Brock returned from a brief absence and the men, who had been under Colonel Sheaffe’s command, cheered. Brock rebuked them and confined them to barracks for a week. He showed decisively that he would maintain discipline rather than court popularity.[13] These were early demonstrations of a quality of leadership that would later be tested in Upper Canada.[14]
Brock’s combat career really began with the expeditions to Holland (August to November 1799) and to Denmark (Copenhagen, March to April 1801). In 1799, under Sir Ralph Abercromby,