It was not until the mid-eighteenth century that the British Government began to dispatch Highland regiments-such as Fraser's Highlanders, the Black Watch, and Montgomery's Highlanders-to America. The Seven Years War, 1756-1763, otherwise known in America as the French and Indian War, led to significant recruitment in Scotland, particularly in the Highlands, for service in America. This experience led many soldiers to decide to settle in or immigrate to America. The allocation of land to former personnel in the aftermath of the war was a major incentive.
The Seven Years War between Britain and France involved several campaigns in the West Indies. Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Scottish soldiers were garrisoned throughout the West Indian colonies; some died there, while others settled. In 1776, on the outbreak of the American Revolution, many former soldiers who had received land grants were recalled for duty by the British Government. For example, many former Scottish soldiers who had been settled on the Mohawk Valley of upper New York joined the King's Royal Regiment of New York. At the same time many new or recent immigrants from Scotland formed the Royal Highland Emigrant Regiment. Following the Revolution, large numbers of soldiers from former Loyalist units and from regular British Army regiments, including many Scots, were settled in what has become Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec.
This book, the fifth part and fourth volume in a series, is based on primary and published source material located in Scotland, London, Canada, the United States, and the West Indies. For most of the 1,100 soldiers found here, Dobson provides a place of origin in Scotland, military unit, place of service or settlement in North America, and one or more dates. For many of the soldiers, he also provides birthplace, names of family members, where they were granted land, battles fought in, and more.
David Dobson
2018, paper, 134 pp.
ISBN: 9780806358758
102-9006
