| Background: |
Sir Guy Carleton authorized the formation of the King's Royal Regiment of New York in June of 1776, and Sir John Johnson was commissioned Lieutenant Colonel of the Regiment. The 1st Battalion was formed in Montreal and the commissions are dated, 19 June 1776. The 2nd Battalion was formed in 1780. The Regiment took part in the siege of Fort Stanwix as well as in the American defeat at Oriskany in 1777, and in 1780 the Regiment participated in raids into the Mohawk Valley to destroy grain and other supplies for the Continental Army. The men of the Regiment were employed in the fortification of Sorel, St. Jean, Isle aux Noir, and other military posts. In 1782, Sir John Johnson was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general on the American establishment and commissioned superintendent-general of the Six Nations Indians. With the end of the American Revolution, thousands of Loyalist soldiers and refugees had to be settled on new lands, and Governor Frederick Haldimand, called upon Sir John Johnson to supervise their settlement in the Upper St. Lawrence River Valley and Bay of Quinte areas. With the disbanding of the King's Royal Regiment of New York on 24 December 1783, the officers and men of the 1st Battalion were settled in the first five townships west of the present boundary of Quebec. The Townships are: Charlottenburg, Cornwall, Osnabruck, Williamsburg, and Matilda. The Loyalists looked upon Sir John as their leader, and in 1785 he petitioned the King on their behalf to separate the new settlements from Quebec so the Loyalists could retain their land freehold and live under English civil law. As a result, Quebec was divided in 1791 into Lower Canada and Upper Canada (Ontario). |
| Contents: |
The manuscripts that have been microfilmed on this reel all concern the King's Royal Regiment of New York. They consist of Orderly and Memorandum Books, 1779-1780 and 1785, and an Account Book containing a muster roll, 1784. The records have been arranged in four files and microfilmed in the following order:
File 1, Captain Samuel Anderson's Orderly Book of the First Battalion, King's Royal Regiment of New York, May 1779-August 1780 (127 pp.)
File 2, Memorandum Book of Adjutant John Valentine, containing a list of Officers of the First Battalion of the King's Royal Regiment of New York, May 1785 (32 pp.)
File 3, Account Book of Captain Crawford's Company of the King's Royal Regiment of New York, 1782, with the Roll of the Second Battalion of the Regiment, 1784, ((131 pp.)
File 4, transcripts of Captain Samuel Anderson's Orderly Book for May 1779-August 1780 (see File 1) and Adjutant John Valentine's Memorandum Book of May 1785 (see File 2) with additional notes by the transcriber, J.F. Pringle, together with copies of some of the orders contained in an Orderly Book of Sir John Johnson's Corps The First Battalion of the King's Royal Regiment of New York 14 May 1779-4 August 1780 (incomplete) with additional notes by the transcriber, J.F. Pringle.
**Shelved and found on same reel as FC LFR .P7J3J6.
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