- Call Number:
- HIL-MICL FC LMR .G7W3M8Q4
- Category:
- Military
- Creator:
- Great Britain. War Office.
- Material Description:
- 1 microfilm textual records 35 mm
- Background:
The Queen's Rangers was first raised in 1776 from Loyalists in Westchester County, New York, and Fairfield County, Connecticut, by Robert Rogers, a hero of the Seven Years War. It was one of the first Loyalist units formed. In 1777, Rogers lost command of the regiment and was retired on half pay. In the same year, the Queen's Rangers absorbed the Queen's Loyal Virginia Regiment and was placed under the command of Inspector-General Alexander Innes. The Rangers were sent with the British Army under General William Howe on the Philadelphia Campaign and fought at the Battles of Brandywine and Germantown. On 15 October 1777, command of the regiment was given to Major John Graves Simcoe, and on 25 May 1778 he was promoted to the Provincial rank of Lieutenant Colonel. The regiment was involved in raids into New Jersey, covered the British withdrawal from Philadelphia to New York, and participated in the Battle of Monmouth Court House on 28 June 1778. The Queen's Rangers was taken on the American Establishment as the 1st American Regiment on 2 May 1779. Captain John Saunders and his troop of dragoons were sent to Virginia, and then to Charleston, South Carolina, where he was garrison commander at Georgetown from February until June of 1781. With him was coronet Thomas Merritt. The Regiment was at Yorkton with Cornwallis when he surrendered the British Army on 19 October 1781. The Queen's Rangers was taken on the British Establishment on 25 December 1782, and at the end of the war the Regiment was disbanded in Saint John, New Brunswick (then Nova Scotia), on 13 October 1783. A number of the Rangers settled in the St. John River Valley.
When the colony of Quebec was divided into Upper Canada and Lower Canada in 1791 and John Graves Simcoe was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, he immediately began to recreate the Queens Rangers. Many of his former officers and men joined him, some traveling from New Brunswick where they had settled in 1783. The Regiment was to be used as a local defense force against the ever present threat from the Americans, and to work part time on construction and road building projects. In 1793, the Rangers began the construction of Fort York, and work on Dundas Street and Yonge Street soon followed. By the time Governor Simcoe left Upper Canada for England in 1796, his soldier-settlement scheme was well established. The Town of York (later renamed Toronto) was established, Dundas Street and Yonge Street were open, and soldiers and settlers had been able to clear hundreds of acres of land for settlement. In 1802, the Queens Rangers as a unit was disbanded, only to be revived and reorganized as the militia of York County in the War of 1812-1814 and in the Rebellion of 1837.
- Contents:
The records of the Queen's Rangers that were microfilmed on this reel include the muster rolls and pay lists of both the Queen's Rangers, a Loyalist regiment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe during the American Revolution, and the Queen's Rangers that Simcoe re-formed when he became the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada (Ontario). The majority of the musters are a record for six months or 183 days, but the revolutionary war musters are for 70 days, and the adjutant's rolls are for a 30 day period. The amount and type of information included in the rolls varies considerably, but always contains the name and rank of the commissioned and warrant officers, non-commissioned officers, drummers, and private soldiers. The dates of enlistment and attestation are given when recruits are listed. The Commissary-General's copy of the muster rolls for the Loyalist regiment of Queen's Rangers, also known as the 1st American Regiment, are the records that have been included.
The muster rolls are not microfilmed in chronological order, but are grouped in three sections on the reel.
Pages 1-102 contain the rolls of the re-formed Queen's Rangers. The earliest date is 11 April 1792, and the latest is 24 December 1798, but the order is not chronological. This section contains both the six month rolls and the adjutant's monthly rolls.
In the second section from pages 104-151, are located the muster rolls of the first Queen's Rangers. The musters are recorded by Captain's Company and are all for the same 70 day period from 25 June 1783 - 2 September 1783. The names of the captains are as follows: James Kerr, Francis Stephenson, David Shank, Morris Robinson, John McGill, John Whitlock, John Saunders, James Murray, Thomas Cooke, Stair Agnew, Aeneas Shaw, Samuel Smith, Bennett Wallop, John McKay, William Sutherland, and Robert McCrea.
The third section begins on page 153 and continues until the end of the reel on page 215. The earliest date in this part is 1 September 1791, and the latest is 24 July 1798, but again, the rolls are not in chronological order. This section contains, Pay Lists and Muster Rolls of the Queen's Rangers, for one month, three month, four month, and six month time periods.
- Originals:
The original records are held by the Public Record office in London, now The National Archives, Kew.
- Archival Ref. No.:
PRO WO 12/ 11035.