As the War of 1812 loomed, Andrew Westbrook of Delaware Township stood among the most successful and respected men in his community. The son of a Loyalist who had fought alongside Joseph Brant, Westbrook appeared destined for prominence. Yet within months, simmering frustrations and bitter quarrels would push him down a darker path—one that ended with him branded a traitor and, ultimately, one of the most despised figures in Upper Canada.
Born in Massachusetts in 1771, Westbrook moved with his family to the Grand River after Ebenezer Allen established the Delaware settlement in 1794. By the time war broke out, he had built a sizeable fortune: more than 4,000 acres of land, including a prosperous tract at Delaware complete with a comfortable home, distillery, barn, storehouse, sawmill, and grist-mill. (Today, the site is occupied by the Delaware Speedway.)
Despite his wealth and his appointment as township constable in 1805, Westbrook’s life in Upper Canada was far from trouble-free. He felt the sting of the commercial depression of 1810 and clashed with Colonel Thomas Talbot, the powerful landowner behind the Talbot Settlement. According to local accounts, matters worsened when a militia unit was raised and a neighbour, Tawsby, was appointed major—leaving Westbrook expected to serve beneath him as captain, a slight he refused to accept. These grievances, personal and political, may well have planted the seeds of betrayal.
When Brigadier-General William Hull’s American army invaded Upper Canada in July 1812, Westbrook quickly fell under suspicion. Hull issued a proclamation urging local residents to surrender, and many believed Westbrook helped circulate it. Daniel Springer of Delaware, a magistrate appointed by Talbot, reported to Major General Isaac Brock that Westbrook—along with Ebenezer Allen and Simon Zelotes Watson—was openly supporting the American cause. Westbrook even presented Hull with a list of residents who, he claimed, would not resist the invaders if their property was protected.
By early August, Westbrook had visited Hull in Detroit. Returning home, he began acting as a spy. Though captured by local militia in October, he managed to escape and continued gathering intelligence for the Americans, eventually operating under Lt. Colonel George Croghan.
The situation in Upper Canada deteriorated sharply after the British defeat at the Battle of Moraviantown in October 1813. In the chaos that followed, Westbrook led American Rangers on a series of raids against vulnerable settlements along the Thames River and Lake Erie, including Oxford-on-the-Thames. During these destructive campaigns through late 1813 and 1814, Westbrook helped capture several prominent militia officers: Daniel Springer, Colonel François Baby, and his old adversary Tawsby—who wounded Westbrook with a bayonet during the struggle. Westbrook even came close to capturing Colonel Talbot himself.
His attacks grew so brazen that he eventually torched his own home, buildings, and corn before fleeing with his family to American lines. Nor was his wrath confined to his own property; mills and other structures throughout the region were burned during his raids.
After the war, Westbrook settled in St. Clair County, Michigan, where he quickly reintegrated into civic life. He became the county’s first supervisor of highways in 1817 and one of its earliest commissioners in 1821. In gratitude for his wartime service, the American government granted him two substantial tracts of land in 1828.
Across the border, however, his name was synonymous with treason. Indicted in May 1814 and declared an outlaw in 1816 by the Court of Quarter Sessions of the Niagara District, his lands in Delaware Township were seized and sold to Daniel Springer in 1823.
Despite—or perhaps because of—his notoriety, Westbrook later became the subject of Major John Richardson’s postwar novel Westbrook, the Outlaw; or, The Avenging Wolf. Married somewhere between four and seven times and father to at least fourteen children, Andrew Westbrook died in St. Clair County in 1835, leaving behind a legacy equal parts wealth, rebellion, and infamy.
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