of Captain Pears, who was the first to ascend.’ After the capture of the fortified city and heights of Chapoo, Pears was again honourably mentioned for his judgment and gallantry in placing the powder-bags which blew in the defences of a fort where a desperate resistance was offered. With the exception of the attack on Canton and the bombardment of Amoy, Pears was present as commanding engineer in every action of Sir Hugh Gough's China campaign of 1841–2. He was repeatedly mentioned in despatches, and at the close of the war was rewarded with a brevet majority on 23 Dec. 1842, and the companionship of the Bath.
On Pears's return to Madras he was employed in the public works department, as superintending engineer at Nagpúr, and in various other responsible situations, chiefly in the inception and development of the railway system. From 1851 to 1857 he was the consulting engineer for railways to the government of Madras. He was then appointed chief engineer in the public works department for Mysore, and was the trusted adviser of Sir Mark Cubbon [q. v.]
Pears was promoted lieutenant-colonel on 1 Aug. 1854, and colonel in the army on 1 Aug. 1857. He retired on a pension on 8 Feb. 1861 with the honorary rank of major-general, but, on his arrival in England, was offered, unsolicited, the appointment of military secretary at the India office in succession to Sir William Baker.
When Pears took office under Sir Charles Wood (afterwards Lord Halifax) the duties were formidable and delicate, consequent on the reorganisation of the whole military system after the abolition of the East India Company. Vested interests, often extravagantly asserted, had to be defended against attacks often unreasonable in their character. He gained the implicit trust of the several statesmen under whom he served—Sir Charles Wood, Sir Stafford Northcote, the Duke of Argyll, and Lord Salisbury. The organisation at home of the arrangements for the Abyssinian expedition was entrusted to him, and Sir Stafford Northcote wrote to him expressing the highest appreciation of his labours. On 13 June 1871 his services were recognised by the honour of a civil K.C.B. He retired in 1877 from the public service. He died at his residence, Eton Lodge, Putney, on 7 Oct. 1892, and was buried in Mortlake cemetery.
Pears married, at Madras, on 31 Dec. 1840, Bellina Marianne, daughter of Captain Charles Johnston of the Madras army. She died at Putney on 17 Jan. 1892. By her he had seven children, of whom six survived him. His eldest son, in the Bengal civil service, collector of Budáon, died at Allahabád in 1883. His second son, Major T. C. Pears, Bengal staff corps, became political agent at Ulwar, Rajputana. One daughter married Loraine Estridge, vicar of Bursledon, Hampshire; and another, J. H. Etherington-Smith, barrister-at-law and recorder of Newark. A portrait of Pears, by W. W. Ouless, R.A., passed to Mrs. Etherington-Smith.
[Despatches; private information; Vibart's History of the Madras Engineers, 1883, and his Addiscombe, 1894; Ouchterlony's Chinese War, 1844; India Office Records; Royal Engineers' Journal, November, 1892.]
PEARSALL, RICHARD (1698–1762), dissenting divine, was born at Kidderminster 29 Aug. 1698. His eldest sister, Mrs. Hannah Housman, extracts from whose diary he published, stimulated his religious temper. Another sister, Phœbe, was married to Joseph Williams, esq., of Kidderminster, whose ‘Diary’ was published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Richard was educated at a dissenting academy at Tewkesbury under Samuel Jones. Joseph Butler, author of the ‘Analogy,’ and Secker (afterwards archbishop of Canterbury) were among his fellow-students. He was admitted to the ministry among the dissenters before 1721 (Evang. Mag. xviii. 377).
He was ordained at Bromyard in Herefordshire, and succeeded Samuel Philips (d. 1721), whose daughter he married, in the pastorate of the presbyterian (now independent) congregation there. He removed in 1731 to Warminster in Wiltshire, where he apparently ministered to a body of seceders who charged the original presbyterian society with Arianism. From 1747 until 1762 he was minister of the large independent church at Taunton, Somerset. He died at Taunton on 10 Nov. 1762. In the ‘Evangelical Magazine’ (xviii. 377) there is a fine portrait, engraved by Ridley.
Pearsall as a religious writer was a feeble imitator of James Hervey (1714–1758) [q. v.], who gave him much encouragement (cf. Hervey, Theron and Aspasio, vol. iii. letter 9). Apart from a few tracts, sermons, and letters, Pearsall's works were: 1. ‘The Power and Pleasure of the Divine Life exemplified in the late Mrs. Housman of Kidderminster, Worcester, as extracted from her own papers,’ London, 1744; new edit. 1832, London (edited by Charles Gilbert). 2. ‘Contemplations on the Ocean, Harvest, Sickness, and the Last Judgment, in a series of letters to a friend,’ London, 1753; Nottingham, 1801; Evesham, 1804. 3. ‘Meditations on
