The regiment remained in Portugal, and during the summer of 1712 was encamped on the pleasant plains of the Tarra. In the autumn a suspension of hostilities was proclaimed at the camp by Major-General Pearce, and the regiment went into cantonments.
1713.
On the 11th of April 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht was signed, and by its provisions the fortress of Gibraltar and the island of Minorca, which had been taken by the English during the war, were ceded to Great Britain. The Thirty-ninth proceeded in the first instance to Gibraltar; but in the course of the year 1713, the regiment was selected to form part of the garrison at Minorca.[9]
1719.
Upon the decease of Lieut.-General Nicholas Sankey, in March 1719, His Majesty King George I. appointed, on the 11th of that month, Brigadier-General Thomas Ferrers to be Colonel of the Thirty-ninth regiment.
The Thirty-ninth regiment remained at Minorca until the year 1719, when it embarked for Ireland, in which country it was stationed for some years.
1722.
Colonel William Newton was appointed by King George I. to the colonelcy of the Thirty-ninth regiment on the 28th of September 1722, in succession to Brigadier-General Thomas Ferrers, removed to the Seventeenth regiment of foot.