The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Father of British Canada: A Chronicle
of Carleton, by William Wood.
[This is Volume Twelve in the 32-volume Chronicles of Canada,
Edited by George M. Wrong and H. H. Langton]

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Title: The Father of British Canada: A Chronicle of Carleton

Author: William Wood

Release Date: November 11, 2003 [EBook #10044]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FATHER OF BRITISH CANADA ***

This etext was produced by Gardner Buchanan.

CHRONICLES OF CANADA
Edited by George M. Wrong and H. H. Langton
In thirty-two volumes

Volume 12

THE FATHER OF BRITISH CANADA
A Chronicle of Carleton

By WILLIAM WOOD
TORONTO, 1916

CONTENTS

I. GUY CARLETON, 1724-1759
II. GENERAL MURRAY, 1759-1766
III. GOVERNOR CARLETON, 1766-1774
IV. INVASION, 1776
V. BELEAGUERMENT, 1775-1776
VI. DELIVERANCE, 1776
VII. THE COUNTERSTROKE, 1776-1778
VIII. GUARDING THE LOYALISTS, 1782-1783
IX. FOUNDING MODERN CANADA, 1786-1796
X. 'NUNC DIMITTIS,' 1796-1808

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

CHAPTER I

GUY CARLETON
1724-1759

Guy Carleton, first Baron Dorchester, was born at Strabane,
County Tyrone, on the 3rd of September 1724, the anniversary
of Cromwell's two great victories and death. He came of
a very old family of English country gentlemen which had
migrated to Ireland in the seventeenth century and
intermarried with other Anglo-Irish families equally
devoted to the service of the British Crown. Guy's father
was Christopher Carleton of Newry in County Down. His
mother was Catherine Ball of County Donegal. His father
died comparatively young; and, when he was himself fifteen,
his mother married the rector of Newry, the Reverend
Thomas Skelton, whose influence over the six step-children
of the household worked wholly for their good.

At eighteen Guy received his first commission as ensign
in the 25th Foot, then known as Lord Rothes' regiment
and now as the King's Own Scottish Borderers. At
twenty-three he fought gallantly at the siege of
Bergen-op-Zoom. Four years later (1751) he was a lieutenant
in the Grenadier Guards. He was one of those quiet men
whose sterl