Army Lists (WO 65/164-166) : 1770 - 1783.

            Three consecutive volumes of War Office 65, all closely related in content, have been microfilmed on one reel. The volumes contain The Annual Army Lists for the period from 1770-1783 that were compiled for use in the War Office.            

            War Office 65, Volume 164. A printed list of general and staff officers on the establishment in America. Included are staff officers, officers of foot regiments, artillery officers, officers of dragoons, general hospital staff, German officers, and officers of Provincial Regiments. The foot regiments are arranged in order by regimental number and the officers are listed by rank within their regiment. The information includes: rank, name, date of rank in the regiment, and date of rank in the army. The 84th Regiment or Royal Highland Emigrants is found among the British regiments. The lists of the officers of Provincial Regiments are on pages 61-84 where will be found also the dates of their joining the regiment. The lists differ considerably from the lists in Volume 165, the next volume on the reel, and from those in Treasury 64/23, both of which are available in the Loyalist Collection. 

War Office 65, Volume 165. British American Half Pay Lists (Provincial Regiments). In 1783, General Sir Guy Carleton directed that a return be made of the names, services, and ages, up to that time, of the officers belonging to Provincial Regiments, as well as officers of the British-American Staff and others attached to that part of the service. The return was completed by Ward Chipman, Deputy Muster Master-General of Provincial Regiments from 1777-1783, and forwarded to the War Office. The Return is dated at Saint John, New Brunswick, 12 June 1822. The lists in Volume 165 are hand written, but otherwise they are similar in format to pages 61-85 in Volume 164, yet contain information not included in Volume 164 namely: age, country of origin, and lists of seconded officers also not in Treasury 64/23. Information given for the seconded officers includes: regiment they belong to, rank, name, country [of origin], age, British regimental service, and Provincial regimental service. 

War Office 65/166. Officers of British-American Forces Placed on Half Pay and Allowances at the Conclusion of the American War, 1783. This volume begins with a lengthy alphabetical index of surnames containing the page references to the half pay status of each officer. The information is arranged by regiment. As the lists were corrected to 1832, and many of the officers had died by that date, a wealth of information can be gleaned from the dates of death which are often recorded, or from the last date when half pay or an allowance was paid. The lists contain the names of Canadian and West Indian Corps not found in any other lists.            

            A brief table of contents has been created by the author of the Loyalist Collection Inventory. The table of contents is available in print with the Loyalist Collection Finding Aids and as a PDF in the electronic finding aids section.