Papers : 1757-1765.

            Henry Bouquet was the son of French Protestants living at Rolle, Canton Vaud, Switzerland at the time of his birth. In 1736 he entered the States General of Holland as a cadet and later was commissioned a lieutenant. He fought for the King of Sardinia in the War of the Austrian Succession, and in 1755 the Prince of Orange recruited him for the Swiss Guards. Later in the same year he joined the British Army and accepted the lieutenant colonelcy of the First Battalion of the Royal American (60th) Regiment. The following year he came to America and was very successful in recruiting men for the regiment from among the German population of Pennsylvania. In 1758 he was promoted to the rank of colonel and served as second in command in the expedition to Fort Duquesne, later renamed Fort Pitt. During Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763, he held off the Delaware and Shawnee Indians at Bushy Run (Pittsburgh). The natives respected him as a brilliant leader of light infantry and for his use of military tactics well in advance of his day. The following year he was sent on an expedition to conclude a general peace with the natives and of the trans-Ohio region and to force the surrender of all prisoners in native hands. In both objectives he was successful, and in 1765 was promoted, unexpectedly, to the rank of brigadier with command of the Southern District. He died of fever at Pensacola in the same year. In his will he bequeathed a farm in Maryland to his closest friend, Frederick Haldimand.            

            Some or all of this material is available electronically; see Electronic Finding Aid section.

The collection contains letters and documents relating to military events in America from 1757 to 1765, originally belonging to Colonel Henry Bouquet, who held rank of Brigadier-General in the English army in America. The focus is the French and Indian War period. The records include letters to Bouquet and copies of outgoing correspondence; accounts; instructions and orders; warrants; memoranda; a list of officers of the 1st Battalion, Royal American Regiment, arranged by companies; drafts of letters; cash books; returns of officers commanding at Fort Pitt, Bedford and Ligonier; general and regimental orders; papers relating to native/indigenous affairs; public orders; miscellaneous papers relating to commissariat affairs; returns, receipts, etc.; and a copy of Henry Bouquet's will with an inventory of his effects. Correspondents include: General Frederick Haldimand; Major General Sir Jeffery Amherst; Hon. Thomas Gage; Sir William Johnson; Major Generals John Stanwick and John Forbes, Colonel George Washington; Major General Robert Monckton; General James Abercromby; Governor John Penn of Pennsylvania; Hon. James Murray, Governor of Quebec and many others.

Organisation (Shortened version follows of the description found in Catalogue of Additional Manuscripts (see Finding Aid section for more detail).

Reel Number and Series Numbers

Reel 1

21631 - 21632 - letters of Col. Bouquet of 62nd or Royal American Regiment, 1757-1758
21633 - military accounts for South Carolina, 1757-1758; muster roll of the 1st Battalion of the Royal American Regiment

Reel 2

21634 - correspondence with Sir Jeffery Amherst, commander-in-chief of North America, March 1759-Dec. 1763; some letters from Coll. William Amherst

Reel 3

21635 - governmental instructions to Lord Amherst, and orders of Amherst to Bouquet for the reduction of the 42nd and 77th Regiments in 1763
21636 - correspondence with General Thomas Gage, commander-in-chief in North America, Nov. 1763-Feb. 1765
21637 - letters from Bouquet to General Thomas Gage, Oct. 1763-June 1765; also few letters to Colonels Sir William Johnson, Bradstreet, and Reid; and to John Penn, Governor of Pennsylvania
21638 - correspondence with Generals John Stanwix, Thomas Gage, Robert Monckton, and others, 1759-1765

Reel 4

21639 - correspondence with Sir John St. Clair, quarter master general, and Captain James Sinclair, his deputy, 1758-1763
21640 - correspondence with the Earl of Loudoun, commander-in-chief in North America, April-Dec.1757; and Brigadier General John Forbes, May 175-Feb. 1760 (English and French language); and with General Horatio Gates, Sept. 1759
21641 - correspondence with Colonel George Washington July-Nov. 1758

Reel 5

21642 - correspondence of Captain Lewis Curry with Bouquet, June 1758-Sept. 1764 (English and French); with enclosures

Reel 6 - 13

21643 to 21650 - miscellaneous incoming correspondence 1754-1764

Reel 14

21651 to 21652 - general outgoing correspondence, 1757-1764

Reel 15

21653 - general outgoing correspondence, 1757-1764

Reel 16

21654 - papers chiefly relating to commissariat business at Forts Bedford, Cumberland, Pitt, Ligonier, etc; with returns and accounts of the Royal American Regiment, 1758-1765
21655 - papers relating to native/indigenous affairs, consisting of minutes of conferences, agreements, copies of news, and speeches addressed to natives of various tribes, 1758-1765

Reel 17

21656 - public orders issued by Lord Amherst, Bouquet, Hon. Thomas Gage, and others, Apr. 1761-March 1765
21657 - general and regimental orders, 1759-1764
21658 - regimental returns, orders, letters, etc. connected with Col. Bouquet's commands, 1757-1765
21659 - cash book for the South Carolina campaign, 1757-1758; giving the accounts of five companies of the Royal American Regiment under Col. Bouquet, and of the 1st Highland Battalion commanded by Lieut.-Col. Hon. Archibald Montgomery at Charleston, South Carolina
21660 - inventory of Bouquet's belongings made after his death, Pensacola with a copy of his will; and William Smith's 'An historical Account of the expedition against the Ohio Indians...under Henry Bouquet...,' 1766.            

            Online: Many transcribed volumes, prepared under the Pennsylvania Historical Commission, are available digitally from Hathi Trust Digital Library.

Online: A calendar of the Bouquet Papers was published in, A Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the years, 1854-1860 (HIL-REFBib CD1069 .L7A42). The calendar is available in print in The Loyalist Collection red binder, and digitally - see Electronic Finding Aid section below.

Also see: A Guide to the Documents in the Manuscript Room at the Public Archives of Canada. Volume 1 pp. 195-198 shelved with the Loyalist Collection Finding Aids. Call # HIL-REF CD3626 .P37 Volume 1.

Report on Canadian Archives, 1885, (HIL-GOV FN45 R426), contains abstracted document listings (calendar), chronologically arranged.

A microfilm shelf list is available in print and electronically as a PDF.