Francis Grant, Lt. Col. 42d Regiment.
Sir:—
I am convinced from several things that have happened me since I have been in the Regiment that my continuing to serve any longer in it would be disagreeable to the whole corps of officers and being likewise sensible of my own unfitness for a military life I have resolved to quit the Army as soon as I can obtain leave to resign my commission. But as I have nothing else in the world to depend upon and finding myself at present at a distance from my family and friends or anyone whom I can depend on for advice, interest or assistance and having frequently experienced your goodness and favor, I have made bold to apply to you that you would be pleased to intercede with his Excellency the Earl of Loudon, in my behalf that His Lordship in consideration of my distressed situation and circumstances might be moved to give me leave to resign in favor of some person that would be willing to allow me wherewithal to support me till I can settle and apply to some other way of life.
In doing me this favor you’ll forever oblige, Sir,
Your respectful and gratefully obed’t hum. serv’t,
George Maclagan, Ens.
P. S.—If it is agreeable to your Lordship I am willing to pay fifty pound Sterling for Mr. Peter Grant Voluntier.
Francis Grant, Lt. Col. 42d. Regt.”
With these two dispatches from the British War Office as a clew I have tried to learn more about the winter quarters of the Black Watch and have looked through the Colonial manuscript in the New York State Library,[9] the Records of the City of Albany and the published works of the period but so far without success. I have been unable to find any Schenectady records of this period. It seems that a valuable collection of Glen-Sanders papers from the old Mansion across the Mohawk from Schenectady was recently sold and I have been told that in these there were several references to officers of the Black Watch. As the Glens[10] were Scots it would be quite likely that if this collection were not now scattered to the four winds much information about the Highlanders could be obtained. It is said that Schenectady was only a frontier village in 1756 and not large enough to take care of a regiment and it seems to be a fact from the reference given above that only a part of the thousand men were stationed here as it states that the Regiment was stretched along the Mohawk from Schenectady to the German Flats, but that it was a station for troops is proven by the list in the Public Record Office of the winter quarters for the troops in America for 1758, which states that the Black Watch was quartered in New York and Lt. General Murray’s at Schenectady. There is in the Public Record Office no list of winter quarters of the troops in America previous to 1758.[11]
It appears, however, from the Town Records of Stamford, Conn., that a committee representing that town made a claim on the “General Court” of the Colony of Connecticut to reimburse them for £369-13-4½ which the town had expended “in taking care of the Highlanders from November 30, 1757, to March 30, 1758. The soldiers numbered 250 officers and men and they had also belonging to them 17 women and 9 children.” They were probably part of the Black Watch. The only other Highland regiments of that time were Montgomery’s and Fraser’s, both raised in 1757 and their arrival at New York from Halifax is noted in the “Post Boy” of April 11, 1757. This town record also further illustrates the custom of that time as previously stated and as an officer of the present Regiment aptly puts it, “they took not only their mess plate but their wives also, on service with them, and sometimes lost both.”
Copy of an old Engraving showing the method of wearing the Belted Plaid
Drawn from the ... by Jnn Sebastian Müller. Published Apr ... 1746. Engraved by J. S. Müller.