Note 174 — 1811.

There was a William Painter at Gibraltar, whose affluence was something extraordinary. He enlisted into the corps in July, 1798, and though a man of very useful intelligence, only attained the rank of second-corporal in 1807. He tried to procure his discharge to return to his estate in Cornwall, but such was the pressure for men, his desire was negatived. His humble position, however, did not prevent his living in ease and luxury. He kept his servants, horses, and, it is said, his carriage, and entertained and enjoyed very good society. Well could he do all this, for, coupling with his own receipts his wife’s settlement, he possessed an income of eleven hundreds pounds a-year! He died at the Rock, August 13, 1811, aged 45 years. By his Will he left 5000l. stock to his two sons—John, and William Grible; 300l. to Sub-Lieutenant Falconer and his family, and a few smaller legacies to relatives and an attached servant, besides considerable landed property, houses, and the usual legal addenda of “messuages, tenements, and hereditaments” at Gwennap in Cornwall to his elder son John, “and his heirs for ever.” The widow, under a jointure, was in receipt of 550l. a-year.

As if to show how likely fortune is to be overtaken by calamity, Sub-Lieutenant Falconer, five days after the death-bed remembrance of the corporal, was fired at from an open window by private Samuel Fraser. The ball luckily missed him, but whizzed sufficiently near to be alarming. The ruffian was sent to a condemned regiment in commutation for his sentence of one thousand lashes!