THE BROME-WALTON FAMILY. 
23 
George's Island, and Annapolis Royal, 1 2 rearing block-houses, drilling 
and arming local militia, &c., with only one regiment of infantry and 
one company of artillery—-ever since that memorable 28th August, 
1753, when the fiat went forth from Downing Street, “ Stand on your 
defence over there ! Repel by force any Foreign encroachments on 
British Dominions :” 3 yet, how efficiently Brome had drilled his gunners 
is evidenced by the following extract from diary of Capt. John Knox, 
43rd regiment, who arrived from England in 1757 :•— 
“1757. Fort Cumberland S.) . . . in the afternoon two brass 6-prs. 
were drawn down to the outside of our trenches, to try how often they could be 
discharged in the space of one minute, with deliberation and in such manner as to 
do service : for this purpose they (R.A.) had a target erected, which was soon 
demolished; the guns were fired eleven, twelve and thirteen times, in that short 
space, without any accident, and were well pointed.” 3 
With inimitable phraseology, Carlyle has depicted the circumstances 
of the opening conflict, the gallant services of the afterwards celebrated 
George Washington, 4 the noble efforts of the good Samaritan Benjamin 
Franklin, and the tragic fate of the brave but incompetent Major- 
General Braddock 5 at Fort Du Quesne , across the Alleghanies, on that 
“ ghastly July day, 1755, when his detachment of Royal Artillery (field 
train), under command of Captain Thos. Ord, R.A. was cut to pieces 
audits ten guns captured;” 6 and it would be impossible to excel in 
succinctness Colonel Duncan's account of the closing operations, on 
land, of the Royal Artillery of the 1757 expeditions against Louisbourg 
and Quebec: 7 but it has become necessary to ransack the Ordnance 
records, muster-rolls, and official despatches, of 1755, to disperse the 
fog which envelops the R. A. siege train operations of that year, on the 
fog-bound coast of Nova Scotia, under command of Captain Charles 
Brome , R.A. 
Under Royal Warrant of 5th November, 1754, the Board of Ordnance 
had despatched a field train of artillery, on board H.M.S. “Lynn,” from 
Spithead, which is of exceptional Artillery interest as the first occasion 
of employment of case shot , which had recently been “ invented ” by 
Lieutenant Abraham Tovey, R.A. 8 
1 These timber and earth fortifications had been considered sufficient protection against Indian 
enemies in this barren and swampy region.-—“ Journal in North America ” (Knox), 1757, p. 30. 
2 Carlyle, p. 305. 
3 “Journal of Campaign in North America ” (Knox), Vol. I., p. 61. 
4 Lieut.-Col. Washington, at this time 23 years of age, was given command of one of the locally 
raised Royal American regiments, 1000 strong. He had been Militia Adjutant since 19 years of 
age, and had previously been midshipman. 
5 Carlyle’s “ Fredrick the Great,” pp. 300 to 309. “Annals of War ” (Gust) 1765, pp. 161, 162. 
—Carlyle and Sir E. Cust present only a garbled account of the Du Quesne tragedy : but we may 
not digress further than to observe that the American is the only complete record, vide Montcalm 
and Wolfe (Parkman). 
6 “ History of the Royal Artillery ” (Duncan), Vol. I., pp. 158-9. 
7 Ibid, pp. 194 to 205. 
8 For the Tovey family see Chap. I., Lieut. A. Tovey was also the first modem British father of 
shrapnel shell, and the want of his shell was much lamented by the gallant R.A. defenders of 
Minorca, 1756 (“ Proceedings ” R.A.I., Vol. XX., No. 11, p. 580). “Little Abra’s ” letters 
to the Board were ever in the strain of “ see what a good boy am I; send me on service anywhere .” 
Colonel Tovey died at Gibraltar of grief, 1781, at failure of his three days’ salvo of artillery, while 
commanding R.A. in the great siege. Little man, with great mind and noble soul: how much 
you deserve a regimental Memoir. You rank among the heroes of your day ! 
