Westbrook, Andrew

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: D. R. Beasley, “WESTBROOK, ANDREW,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/westbrook_andrew_6E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Businessman and office holder; b. 1771 in Massachusetts, son of Anthony Westbrook and Sarah Decker; m. four times, to Sally Hull, Nancy Thorn, Margaret Ann Crawford, and a woman whose name has not been determined; he had at least 14 children; d. 1835 in St Clair County, Mich.
    • Shortly before the American Revolutionary War, Anthony Westbrook moved with his family from the Minisink (Port Jervis) region of New York state to Massachusetts. During the war Anthony, alone of his family, took the loyalist side. He fought under Joseph Brant and for this service received two tracts of land along the La Tranche (Thames) River in Upper Canada. 
    • Andrew inherited his father’s land by the Thames, the Delaware settlement in 1794. Adding to this land through government grants and business arrangements, Andrew owned more than 4,000 acres at the outbreak of the War of 1812. On a tract in Delaware Township he had built a comfortable house as well as a distillery, barn, storehouse, sawmill, and grist-mill. His status in the community was reflected in his appointment as township constable in 1805.
    • In mid July 1812 an American army under Brigadier-General William Hull crossed the Detroit River into Upper Canada. Daniel Springer of Delaware, who had been appointed a magistrate by Talbot, reported to Major-General Isaac Brock that Westbrook had helped circulate Hull’s proclamation urging the local inhabitants to surrender.
    • He met with Hull at Fort Detroit in early August and returned to Delaware to spy for the Americans. Captured by the militia in October, he escaped to join the American forces as a spy. After the defeat of the British at the battle of Moraviantown in October 1813, he served as a guide to parties who raided the vulnerable settlements along the Thames River and Lake Erie.
    • On 31 Jan. 1814 Westbrook’s band raided Delaware and captured officers and men of the Middlesex County militia, including Daniel Springer and Colonel François Baby. Westbrook then burned his own house, buildings, and corn and guided his family to the American border. On another raid in the spring of 1814, this time on the village of Oxford (Oxford Centre), Westbrook captured an old rival, Sikes Tousley. He took Tousley from his bed at gunpoint and led him to the American lines, although not before Tousley had bayoneted him in the thigh in an unguarded moment.
    • The raids on Port Talbot were particularly damaging. His practice of carrying off high-ranking officers made trouble for his Upper Canadian pursuers who, on one occasion, mistakenly shot a prisoner mounted on Westbrook’s horse. He destroyed mills and plunged the areas he burned and pillaged into great hardship.
    • Westbrook is the hero of John Richardson’s novel Westbrook, the outlaw; or, the avenging wolf. Richardson skilfully draws a connection between Westbrook’s status as a “yeoman” – a term that is used in the 1823 registration of sale of his lands – and the fictional character’s resentment of government favours shown to Captain Stringer, a member of the landed gentry.
  • Son of Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=8932
  • Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/120597390/andrew-wesbrook-westbrook