Daniel de Lisle Brock

Daniel de Lisle Brock (1762–1842), was bailiff of Guernsey from 1821 to 1842.

Brock belonged to an English family established in Guernsey as early as the sixteenth century. His father, John Brock of St. Peter's, who had been a midshipman in the royal navy, married Elizabeth de Lisle, daughter of the then lieutenant-bailiff of the island, and by her had fourteen children, ten of whom attained maturity. John Brock died in 1777, at the age of 48.

Daniel de Lisle, his third son, was born in Guernsey on 10 December 1762. After such schooling as the island afforded in those days, he was placed at Alderney under the tuition of M. Vallat, a Swiss pastor, afterwards rector of St. Peter-in-the-Wood, Guernsey, and subsequently at a school at Richmond, Surrey.

He was, however, taken away at the age of fourteen to accompany his father, who was in failing health, to France, where the latter died at Dinan. He spent about twelve months in visiting the Mediterranean, Switzerland, and France, in 1785-6, and twelve years later, in 1798, was elected a jurat of the royal court of Guernsey, from which time his name is intimately associated with the history of his native place.

On four separate occasions, between 1804 and 1810, he was deputed by the states and royal court of Guernsey to represent them in London, in respect of certain measures affecting the trade and ancient privileges of the island.

In 1821 he was appointed bailiff, or chief magistrate, of the island, and soon after was again despatched to London, to protest, which he did with success, against the extension to Guernsey of the new law prohibiting the import of corn until the price should reach 80s. a quarter.

In 1832, when the right of the inhabitants to be tried in their own courts was menaced by a proposed extension of the power of writs of habeas corpus to the island, Brock and Mr. Charles de Jersey, king's procureur, were sent to London to oppose the measure, and did so with success.

Three years later Brock was once more despatched to London at the head of a deputation to protest against the proposed deprivation of the Channel Islands of their right of exporting corn into England free of duty. Owing to the remonstrance of the deputation, a select committee of the House of Commons was appointed to inquire into the subject, and the bill was subsequently withdrawn. On this occasion the states of Jersey presented Brock with a service of plate valued at 100l., and his portrait was placed in the royal court-house of Guernsey.

Brock was married and had two children: a son, who became a captain in the 20th foot, and a daughter. He died in Guernsey on 24 September 1842. A public funeral was accorded to his remains, in recognition of his long and valued services to his native island.

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Brock, Daniel de Lisle". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 

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Name	Brock, Daniel de Lisle
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Date of birth	1762
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Date of death	1842
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