Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bonnycastle, Richard Henry
BONNYCASTLE, Sir RICHARD HENRY (1791–1848), lieutenant-colonel royal engineers, was the son of Professor John Bonnycastle [q. v.], and was born in 1791. He studied at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, as a cadet, and passed out as a second lieutenant of the royal engineers 28 Sept. 1808, becoming a first lieutenant in the following year. He served at the siege of Flushing in 1809, and in the American campaigns of 1812-14, during which he was present at the capture of Fort Castine, and the occupation of the part of the state of Maine east of the Penobscot, and was commanding engineer at the construction of the extensive works thrown up by the British on the Castine peninsula. He attained the rank of captain in 1814, in which year he married the daughter of Captain W. Johnstone. Subsequently he served with the army of occupation in France. As commanding royal engineer in Upper Canada, he rendered very important services during the Canadian rebellion in 1837-9, particularly in February 1838, when, at the head of a force of militia and volunteers, in the absence of regular troops, he defeated the designs of the insurgents at Napairee, and the brigands at Hickory Island, for an attack on the city of Kingston. For these services he was knighted. He was afterwards commanding engineer in Newfoundland. He became a brevet-major in 1837, a regimental lieutenant-colonel in 1840, and retired from the service in 1847. He died in 1848. Sir Richard, who was an excellent and painstaking officer and much esteemed, was author of: 1. ‘Spanish America, a Descriptive and Historical Account,’ &c., 2 vols. 8vo, with maps (London, 1818), a work which appears to have been compiled by the author, who was a good Spanish scholar, when at Woolwich after his return from France. 2. ‘The Canadas in 1842,’ 2 vols. 12mo (London,1842). 3. ‘Newfoundland in 1842,’ 2 vols. 8vo (London, 1842), in which the author sought to call attention to the resources of that oldest and, at the time, least known of British colonies. 4. ‘Canada and the Canadians in 1846,’ 12mo (London, 1846). At his death he left a mass of interesting writings relating to Canada, which were afterwards published under the editorship of Lieutenant-colonel (since General) Sir J. E. Alexander, C.B., with the title ‘Canada as it was and as it may be,’ 2 vols. 8vo (London, 1852).
[Hart's Army Lists; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Canada as it was and as it may be (London, 1832).]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.31
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 363 | i | 9 | Bonnycastle, Sir Richard H.: for 1848 read 1847 |
| 19 f.e. | for in 1848 read on 3 Nov. 1847 at Kingston, Canada |