History of the settlement of Upper Canada (Ontario,): with special reference to the Bay QuintéCanniff, William
History
History of the settlement of Upper Canada (Ontario,): with special reference to the Bay Quinté
Canniff, William
Ontario -- History; Quinte, Bay of (Ont.)
“The King’s Rangers; the Royal Fencible Americans; the Queen’s Rangers;
the New York Volunteers; the King’s American regiment; the Prince of
Wales’ American Volunteers; the Maryland Loyalists; De Lancey’s
Battalions; the Second American regiment; the King’s Rangers, Carolina;
the South Carolina Royalists; the North Carolina Highland Regiment; the
King’s American Dragoons; the Loyal American Regiment; the American
Legion; the New Jersey Volunteers; the British Legion; the Loyal
Foresters; the Orange Rangers; the Pennsylvania Loyalists; the Guides
and Pioneers; the North Carolina Volunteers; the Georgia Loyalists; the
West Chester Volunteers. These corps were all commanded by colonels or
lieutenant-colonels; and as De Lancey’s battalions and the New Jersey
Volunteers consisted each of three battalions, there were twenty-eight.
To these, the Loyal New Englanders, the Associated Loyalists and
Wentworth’s Volunteers, remain to be added. Still further, Colonel
Archibald Hamilton, of New York, commanded at one period seventeen
companies of loyal Militia.”
Respecting the officers and more prominent men of the corps, who settled
in Canada, we have succeeded in collecting the following account.
THE QUEEN’S RANGERS.
This corps acted a very conspicuous part during the war. It was raised
by Major Robert Rogers, of New Hampshire, son of James Rogers. He had
served during the French war, with distinction, as commander of Rogers’
Rangers, and was, “in 1776, appointed Governor of Michilimackinac.
During the early part of the rebellion he was in the revolting states,
probably acting as a spy, and was in correspondence with the rebel
Congress, and with Washington himself. He was imprisoned at New York,
but was released on parole, which, it is said, he broke (like General
Scott in 1812), and accepted the commission of colonel in the British
army, and proceeded to raise the corps mentioned.” About 1777 “he went
to England, and Simcoe succeeded him as commander of the Queen’s
Rangers.”
Sabine, speaking of John Brown Lawrence, says he was imprisoned in the
Burlington gaol, New Jersey, and that “Lieut.-Colonel John G. Simcoe,
commander of the Queen’s Rangers, was a fellow-prisoner, and when
exchanged said, at parting, ‘I shall never forget your kindness.’ He did
not: and when appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, he invited
Mr. Lawrence to settle there,” and, through the Governor, he acquired a
large tract of land.
The Queen’s Rangers were disbanded in 1802, having been associated with
the events of the first government of Upper Canada, their colonel
(Simcoe) having been the first Governor. A detachment of this regiment
were stationed upon the banks of the Don, before there was a single
white inhabitant where now stands Toronto.
FERGUSON’S RANGERS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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