Rolls of the Provincial (Loyalist) Corps, Canadian Command American Revolutionary Period. Mary Beacock Fryer

      Copyright © Mary Beacock Fryer, 1981

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       Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

      Fryer, Mary Beacock, 1929-

       Rolls of the Provincial (Loyalist) Corps, Canadian

      Command, American Revolutionary period

      (Dundurn Canadian document series ; 1)

      Companion to: King's men / Mary Beacock Fryer.

      ISBN 0-919670-56-3

      1. United States - History - Revolution, 1775-1783 - Canadian participation - Sources. 2. Canada - History - 1763-1791 - Sources. 3. Canada - History, Military - To 1900 - Sources.* 4. United Empire Loyalists. I. Smy, William A. II. Title. III. Series.

      INTRODUCTION

      These published rolls are intended to provide a fairly comprehensive list of the loyal colonials who joined the Provincial Corps of the British Army, 1775-1784, that were part of the Northern, or Canadian, command during the American Revolution. The name “Provincial Corps of the British Army” applied to regiments established for loyal residents of Britain’s colonies. To conduct the war against the rebels in the Thirteen Colonies, the British government organized military departments at key points which the army could control. The Central Department was the occupied zone around New York City; the Southern was Florida; the Eastern (or Northeastern) was Nova Scotia, which included New Brunswick; the Northern was the old Province of Canada, now Ontario and Quebec.

      Another source of British strength was the Indian Department. Originally created to regulate trade, it assumed a military role with the onset of hostilities. From Fort Niagara, officers of the Indian Department, Northern District, solicited the help of the native peoples against the rebels. Because of the existence of this department, responsibility for the operations in the northern theatre of the war was divided between the Governor-in-Chief of Canada and the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Northern District. On expeditions into the rebelling colonies, the provincial corps were accompanied by native warriors who were led by officers of the Indian Department. Such were not officers of provincials, although they held military ranks and many were famous, and they have not been included in these rolls.

      Provincial Corps of the British Army were attached to each of the four military departments, and when the revolution ended these regiments were disbanded. Troops of the Central and Southern Departments were evacuated, since these areas passed from British control by the terms of the Treaty of Separation. Some of these troops were resettled in Nova Scotia; some became the founders of New Brunswick. Most of the provincials in the Northern Department were resettled in what is now the Province of Ontario. All told, five regiments of provincial troops served from Canadian bases during the revolution. These were, in the order in which they were attached to this department, the Royal Highland Emigrants (1775, first battalion only, placed on the regular establishment in 1778 as the 84th Foot), the King’s Royal Regiment of New York (1776), Butler’s Rangers (1777), the Loyal Rangers (1781), and the King’s Rangers (officially part of the Central Department until January, 1783, although a detachment had been in Canada since the autumn of 1779). The rolls show that more than 3,000 colonials served in provincial corps of the Northern Department.

      Numerically, a provincial corps was similar to a British regular regiment of foot. It consisted initially of one battalion of ten companies. When a battalion was at full strength a corps commander might be empowered to raise more battalions. (The largest provincial corps was the New Jersey Volunteers, of the Central Department, with five battalions.) In the case of the Royal Highland Emigrants, two battalions were raised simultaneously, because they were attached to different military departments. The first was being raised in Canada, the second in Nova Scotia. Each battalion had one company of grenadiers, and one of light infantry, while the others were referred to as battalion companies.

      A provincial corps included a light company, but in some instances one company was of artificers rather than grenadiers, and employed in construction under an officer of the Royal Engineers. Junior officers in regiments of foot were lieutenants and ensigns, but fusilier regiments were entitled to 1st and 2nd lieutenants. For some reason the returns of Butler’s Rangers show 1st and 2nd lieutenants, although the warrant for this corps does not suggest that the rangers were considered fusiliers.

      In each battalion the companies were numbered. The first company in a regiment was the lieutenant-colonel’s, the second the major’s, and the commander of the third company was the senior captain. Each regiment had one captain-lieutenant, a rank lower than captain, higher than lieutenant, who was attached to the first company to assist the lieutenant-colonel. However, there were exceptions to these rules. The second battalion, King’s Royal Regiment of New York, was commanded by a major. The Loyal Rangers, although a full strength regiment of one battalion, was also commanded by a major. The King’s Rangers, which amounted to three companies, was commanded by a provisional major drawing captain’s pay.

      As far as possible we have used the official returns from the War Office, but proper muster rolls for all the corps have not survived. The list of the first battalion, King’s Royal Regiment of New York, is a true copy of a return made by the officers, which was not sent to the governor’s headquarters in Quebec City and never found its way into the War Office records. The nominal roll of Butler’s Rangers is the work of Lieutenant-Colonel William A. Smy, C.D., the commanding officer of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment, which he compiled from a variety of sources. No muster roll of any description has been found for Butler’s Rangers, and Colonel Smy consulted collections of local historical societies, the 1793 Census of Niagara,

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