“From the period here alluded to, until within a few days of his death, Mr. Brock was unremittingly engaged in labouring for the public good. The records of the island will show how indefatigably be devoted himself to its service; and it may be truly said of him, that to his latest moment the desire to secure its welfare was the reigning impulse of his heart.”
Mr. Brock left one son, Eugene, a captain in the 20th regiment, since deceased, unmarried; and one daughter, now also unmarried. In countenance and robustness of frame, although not so tall, as well as in vigour of intellect and decision of character, the bailiff strongly resembled his brother, Sir Isaac Brock; and when a friend of the latter, Sir James Kempt, visited Guernsey, in his official capacity as master-general of the ordnance, he was struck with the personal resemblance, notwithstanding that Mr. Brock was then in his 71st year.
The Royal Court, having met on the 26th September, to appoint a judge delegate to replace pro tempore the late bailiff, unanimously requested the family of the deceased to allow him to be buried at the expense of the States of Guernsey, and the funeral was in consequence a public one. “For though Mr. Brock had enriched his country with numerous and inappreciable benefits—though he bequeathed to it an inestimable heritage in his deeds and in his example—he died in honorable and ennobling poverty, resulting from his disinterestedness, his integrity, and his patriotism.[162] The public, we say, were pleased, were gratified, were proud in seeing that their representatives and rulers so promptly and so handsomely anticipated and fulfilled their wishes, and they looked forward to the moment of paying to their departed benefactor the last mournful honors with feelings in which complacency was not unmingled with their grief.
“Some hours before the time appointed for the ceremony, the inhabitants of the country parishes, mostly clothed in respectable mourning, were seen thronging into town; and by eleven o’clock a considerable crowd was collected in the front of Mr. Savery Brock’s house, from whence the procession was to issue. Punctually at the time appointed, (twelve o’clock,) the authorities and other gentlemen invited to take part in the ceremony, together with a large number of persons who attended spontaneously to pay the last mark of respect to the deceased, were assembled; and having been marshalled by the deputy sheriffs and the special constables, in the manner laid down in the programme, the mournful cortege, comprising nearly 500 persons, issued into the Grange Road in the following order of procession: