(Vol. iv., p. 271.)
He was born in a house now inhabited by the vicar, at Westerham, Kent,
on the 2d of January, 1727, and not, as the various notices of his life
state, the 15th of January, 1726 (see _Penny Cyclopædia_ and other
works). His mother's Christian name was Henrietta, and she, I believe,
came from or near Deptford, to which place in the latter years of her
life, she again went to reside. Wolfe was an only child; the name is
still to be found in the neighbourhood of Westerham. Shortly after his
birth, his parents removed to a house at the extreme end of the town,--a
picturesque mansion it is, and is named after him Quebec House. Under
this roof Wolfe's happiest hours were spent.
Sir Jeffrey Amherst (a native of the same valley, Holmsdale), patronised
him, but where first engaged I never could discover. His body was
brought to England, and interred at Greenwich; monuments were erected to
him in Westminster Abbey, Squerries Park, Westerham, and Westerham
Church. The inscription on the marble tablet, erected in the latter, I
subjoin:--
JAMES,
Son of Colonel Edward Wolfe, and Henrietta his Wife,
Was born in this parish, January 2d,
MDCCXXVII.
And died in America, Sept. 19th,
MDCCLIX.
Conqueror of Quebec!
"Whilst George in sorrow bows his laurelled head,
And bids the artist grace the soldier dead;
We raise no sculptured trophy to thy name,
Brave youth! the fairest in the list of fame.
Proud of thy birth, we boast th' auspicious year,
Struck with thy fall, we shed a general tear,
With humble grief, inscribe one artless stone,
And from thy matchless honours date our own."
His sword is preserved in the United Service Museum, and was engraved
about two years since in the _Illustrated London News_. An old professed
portrait of him dangles as the sign of a beer-shop in Westerham. Wolfe
was ardently attached to Colonel Barré, whose portrait is introduced in
West's celebrated picture of the Death of Wolfe; another head in the
picture is, I have been told, a likeness of a person who had been
captured by the Indians, and was about to be scalped, when his life was
saved by the intercession of a chief Wolfe had formerly pardoned.
Wolfe was the youngest general ever entrusted with such a responsible
command; but his bravery, his great humanity, his love to his troops,
and above all, his glorious death, will render his name immortal in the
page of British history.