The commercial growth of the Channel Islands has been divided into five
periods, those of fishing, knitting (the age of the garments known as
"jerseys" and "guernseys"), privateering, smuggling, and agriculture and
commerce. To the third period belong these records. The prosperity of
the islands was greatest from the middle of the seventeenth century up
to the overthrow of Napoleon at Waterloo and the close of Canada's
successful fight against invasion in 1815. During this period the
building of ships for the North Atlantic and Newfoundland trade opened
new highways for commerce, but the greatest factor in this development
was the "reputable business" of privateering, which must not be
confounded either with buccaneering or yard-arm piracy. It was only
permitted under regular letters of marque, was ranked as an honorable
occupation, and those bold spirits, the wild "beggars of the sea"--who
preferred the cutlass and a roving commission in high latitudes to
ploughing up the cowslips in the Guernsey valleys, or knitting striped
shirts at home--were recognized as good fighting men and acceptable
enemies.

Trade in the islands, consequent upon the smuggling that followed and
the building of many ships, produced much wealth, creating a class of
newly rich and with it some "social disruption."

Notable in the "exclusive set," not only on account of his athletic
figure and handsome face, but for his winning manners and ability to
dance, though but a boy, was Isaac Brock. Isaac--a distant descendant of
bold Sir Hugh--was the eighth son of John Brock, formerly a midshipman
in the Royal Navy, a man of much talent and, like his son, of great
activity. Brock, the father, did not enjoy the fruit of his industry
long, for in 1777, in his 49th year, he died in Brittany, leaving a
family of fourteen children. Of ten sons, Isaac, destined to become "the