[Silas Kitto]. English novelist, born at St. Stephen’s, Cornwall, on the 24th of March 1850 and educated at the local grammar school. He was ordained as a Free Church minister in 1870 but resigned his pastorate in 1896. Both he and his younger brother, Joseph Hocking (b. Nov. 7, 1860), who had a similar upbringing for the Nonconformist ministry, became prolific writers of widely read novels with a distinct religious note. Among those of Silas Hocking were Alec Green (1878); Who Shall Judge? (1910); His Own Accuser (1917) and Watchers in the Dawn (1920). Among those of Joseph Hocking were Jabez Easterbrook (1891); Zillah (1892); The Scarlet Woman (1899); Tommy and the Maid of Athens (1917) and The Pomp of Yesterday (1918).
