| Call Number: | MIC-Loyalist FC LMR .G7W3M8R7 |
| Name: | Great Britain. War Office. |
| Title: | Muster Books and Pay Lists (WO 12/5478-5479) : 42nd Foot, 1stBattalion (Royal Highland Regiment) : 1760 - 1778, 1778 - 1786. |
| Description: | 2 microfilm reels of textual records ; 35 mm. |
| Background Information: |
The Royal Highland Regiment was first formed in 1739 as The Highland
Regiment. It became a numbered regiment, the 42nd Regiment of Foot in 1751, and the designation Royal was conferred in 1758. In July of 1776,
the regiment arrived in New York and fought in Battles at Long Island, Harlem Heights, and Fort Washington. During 1777, the Regiment was
sent to New Jersey, and to Philadelphia where they served in campaigns, including the Battles of Brandywine, Paoli, and Monmouth Court House,
returning to New York in 1778. In September of the same year the Regiment was engaged in the relief of Newport from where they were
ordered to East Florida. They participated in the Siege of Charleston, and the raid on Portsmouth, Virginia in 1780, then returned to Charleston and
finally were sent to New York. The Colonel of the 42nd Regiment was Lord John Murray. At the end of the war when New York was evacuated, many soldiers from the 42nd Regiment arrived in Halifax and settled on lands in Nova Scotia, including the area that was to become New
Brunswick in 1784. One group settled on the Nashwaak River, a tributary of the St. John River, not far from the City of Fredericton, New
Brunswick. A second battalion of the Regiment was formed in 1781 and sent to India. In 1786 that battalion was redesignated the 73rd Regiment of
Foot. |
| Contents: |
The muster rolls of the 1st Battalion, 42 Regiment of Foot (Royal Highland Regiment), are recorded chronologically for the years 1760-1786
and are available on two reels of microfilm. Reel 1, 1760-1767, 1774-1778; Reel 2, 1778-1786. The musters are arranged by company with the names of the officers and men listed by order of rank. The usual annotations describing the status of each individual are given and include:
on duty, sick, recruiting, transferred, absent with leave, dead, prisoner,
deserted, and discharged. The muster rolls during and immediately after the American Revolution are much longer, and contain more detailed
information than the ones from the earlier years. The musters were usually compiled for a period of three or six months, and both the date and the
location where the information was compiled are given. With the use of this information, the movements of the various companies can be traced. In Reel 1, for example, Fort Edward and other Hudson River locations are mentioned, and they are followed by Saratoga, Montreal, Staten Island, Lond Island, Philadelphia, Ireland, etc. There is a break in the record from 1767 until 1774 when there are no muster rolls on the film. Reel 2 begins in Philadelphia, followed by several locations on Long Island, New York, Camp near Greenwich, and Paulis Hook on 6 October 1783. The next recorded location is Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 17 January 1784, and there are several muster rolls for that location. The musters for Paulis Hook and Halifax contain long lists of discharged soldiers and the date of discharge for each man. After June 1784, the lists are shorter, but still contain discharge information. Annapolis and Sydney, Nova Scotia, are locations mentioned in 1786. |
| Originals: | The original records are held by the Public Record Office in London. |
| Other Numbers: | PRO WO 12/5478-5479. |
| 671 |
The Loyalist Collection is located within the Microforms Department at the Harriet Irving Library.
Last update: 2012/12