Loyalist Troops of New England

Abstract

TH-E first loyalist corps raised in the American colonies was a body of three hundred men enrolled and commanded by Colonel Thomas Gilbert in the autumn of I774 at Freetown, Bristol County, Massachusetts, at the request of General Thomas Gage,' who had arrived at Boston on May 13 of the year named to supersede Thomas Hutchinson as governor. Gilbert had been a captain in the siege of Louisburg in 1745, and a lieutenant-colonel in the Massachusetts forces under Timothy Ruggles in the battle at Lake George ten years later, when he succeeded to the command of his regiment. The Boston tea party had occurred in December, I773, and had caused the British government to decide that its rebellious subjects must be dealt with by force of arms. Besides being a colonel in the militia, Gilbert, as a member of the House of Representatives, had prevailed on his town to adopt resolutions against the destruction of the tea. He was also a justice of the quorum, and it was understood that he had been made high sheriff of his county. Accordingly, in 1774, a large body of Taunton Sons of Liberty went to Freetown to warn him that if he accepted the new office, he must abide by the consequences. As a staunch loyalist, he disregarded this re-