|
|
 |
King's Orange Rangers |
|
Sir Supposing Your Excellency unacquainted with the following Circumstances, I have taken the liberty to lay them before you, which hope Your Excellency will pardon. As soon as I knew of His Majesty’s Letter promising Establishment to such Provincial Corps as Should be Compleated to five hundred and Seventy Men, I called the Captains of the Regiment together, and proposed subscribing a fund for Recruiting and Compleating the Battalion, which they readily acquiesced to, and Officers were accordingly sent, who before January the 4th 1780, Enlisted & passed one hundred and thirty five Men, Seventy two of whom have Joined the Regiment, and the remaining Number on their Way here, having Just heard from them, which makes the King’s Orange Rangers now three hundred and Sixty one Strong, as appears by a Certifyed State of the Regiment. I herewith take the liberty of laying before your Excellency, as also assuring Your Excelllency, that every one of the Recruits raised in & before Jany. 80 costs twelve pounds a Man, exclusive of the Bounty allowed by Government, which heavy load of debt we all now labour under. This was the situation of the Regiment shortly after Mr. BRIDGHAM, Deputy Inspector General of Provincial Forces, arrived here, with instructions to make a New Arrangement of the Provincial Corps in this Province, and by the Arrangement as it now stands, I shall not only be deprived of the Command of the Battl. raised by the interest of my Father, But shall be prevented serving, by being En Second; and some time ago, given up my Commission in the 60th Regiment, by Your Excellency’s orders. I here beg leave to add, that the Battl. of King’s Orange Rangers is much Stronger than any Provincial Regiment in this Province, & if I am not misinform’d Lt. Col. GORHAM’s Corps at present, is only one hundred & Seventy Effectives, and I am also informed that Major BATT of the Royal Fencible Americans is to have the Command of the Nova Scotia Volunteers; this will be a Very Mortifying event to me to see a Junior Field Officer put in Command, and my Battalion taken from me & I dismiss’d the Service of my Country by being En Second. A few days ago I apply’d to Lt. Col. GORHAM to know how the Officers of the K O Rangers, were to be paid the enormous expence we have been at in Recruiting, to which He Answer’d He could not tell, I then gave a Small Memorial to Brigadier Genl. McLEAN, who assured me He wou’d transmitt it to Your Excellency with his Opinion relative to my situation, as those Matters are not finally settled, and refer’d to Your Excellency, I hope in Your Excellency’s Justice that if it is your pleasure I shall not remain Lt. Col. Commandt. K O R I may be permitted to be Lt. Col. under Col. GORHAM, or appointed to the Command of the Nova Scotia Volunteers, and who have no Field Officer. I Shou’d have made this letter a Memorial wou’d the time have admitted, therefore Pray Your Excellency will be pleased to Excuse it. I have the honor to remain with the greatest deference Your Excellency’s most Obedient & most humble Servt.
John BAYARD Halifax June 22d 1780 University of Michigan, William L. Clements Library, Sir Henry Clinton Papers, Volume 105, item 47.
Click here for ---> Regimental History Main Page More King's Orange Rangers History
The On-Line Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies
|
