Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester

Sir Frederick Haldimand
Succeeded by	Robert Prescott
Personal details
Born	(1724-09-03)3 September 1724 American War of Independence

Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester

was created on 21 August 1786.

He commanded British troops in the

.

The military and political career of his younger brother, Thomas Carleton, was interwoven with his own, and Thomas served under him in the Canadas.^[2]

Early career

Guy Carleton was born into an

In 1742, at the age of seventeen, Carleton was commissioned as an

.

In 1740 the

, and believed his opportunities of advancement would be limited with the end of the war.

In 1751 he joined the

Bergen-op-Zoom

where Guy Carleton first saw action in 1747. His son, George Carleton, would be killed in a later battle there.

Seven Years' War

Germany

In 1757, Guy Carleton was made a

declined to make this appointment, possibly because of negative comments he made about the soldiers of Hanover during his service on the Continent.

For some time he was unable to gain active position, until he was sent back to Germany to serve as an

Canada

Main article:

Battle of Quebec (1759)

In December 1758 Wolfe, now a

and he returned to England after the battle in October 1759.

France and Havana

On 29 March 1761, as the lieutenant colonel of the 72nd Regiment of Foot he took part in the attack on Belle Île, an island off the coast of the northern part of the Bay of Biscay, 10 miles (16 km) off the coast of France. Carleton led an attack on the French, but was seriously wounded and prevented from taking any further part in the fighting. After four weeks of fighting, the British gained complete control of the island.

He was made

, who went on to oppose him in 1775. On 22 July, he was wounded leading an attack on a Spanish outpost.

In 1764 he transferred to the 93rd Regiment of Foot.

Governor of Quebec

On 7 April 1766, Carleton was named acting Lieutenant Governor and Administrator of Quebec with

of all troops stationed in Quebec.

The government consisted of a Governor, a council, and an assembly. The governor could veto any action of the council, but London had also given Carleton instructions that all of his actions required the approval of the council. Most officials of the province at this time did not receive a salary and received their income through fees they charged for their services. Carleton tried to replace this system with one in which the officials received a regular salary, but this position was never supported in London. When Carleton renounced his own fees, Murray was furious.

After Murray resigned his position, Carleton was appointed

Marriage and family

On 22 May 1772, at the age of nearly 48, Carleton married Lady Maria Howard, daughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Effingham.^[10]

They had nine sons and two daughters. His elder brothers having predeceased him, and himself dying two years before his father, third son Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Carleton was father of Arthur, 2nd Baron Dorchester; Christopher's younger brother, the sixth son, Lieutenant-Colonel George Carleton, was father of Guy, the 3rd Baron.

The title was extinct at the 3rd Baron's death in 1897, but it was revived when his daughter, Henrietta, was created Baroness Dorchester; the title was extinct again at the death of her son, Dudley, 2nd Baron, in 1963.^[11][12][10]

Later career

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Carleton was promoted to major general on 25 May 1772.

, based upon his recommendations. It determined how the province was to be administered and was part of a continuing effort to respect some French traditions while ensuring rights of citizens as understood by the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Carleton and Maria returned to Quebec on 18 September 1774, where he began implementing the provisions of the act. While the clergy and the

(a labor requirement).

In late 1774, the

, scheduled to meet in May 1775. Carleton, while aware of this activity, did nothing to prevent it, beyond discouraging publication of the Congressional letter in the province's only newspaper.

American War of Independence

Defence of Canada

Carleton received notice of the start of the rebellion in May 1775, soon followed by the news of the rebel capture of Fort Ticonderoga and Fort Crown Point, and the raid on Fort Saint-Jean. As he had previously sent two of his regiments to Boston, he had only about 800 regular soldiers left in Quebec. His attempts to raise a militia met with limited success at first, as neither the ethnic French nor the English residents were willing to join. Area Natives were willing to fight on the British side, and the Crown wanted them to do so, but Carleton turned their offer down because he feared the Natives attacking non-combatants. For the same reason, he limited Guy Johnson and his Iroquois allies, who had come to Quebec from New York, to operating only in Quebec.

During the summer of 1775, Carleton directed the preparation of provincial defences, which were focused on Fort Saint-Jean. In September, the Continental Army began its invasion and besieged the fort. When it fell in November, Carleton was forced to flee from Montreal to Quebec City, escaping capture by disguising himself as a commoner.

In December 1775 he directed the city's defences in the Battle of Quebec and the ensuing siege, which was broken by the arrival of British troops in May 1776 under command of John Burgoyne, who was appointed second-in-command. Carleton's younger brother Thomas was part of the relief effort.

Guy Carleton launched a counteroffensive against the rebels, which included repelling an attempted attack on

The next month Carleton commanded British naval forces on the Richelieu River, culminating in the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain in October 1776 against a rebel fleet led by General Benedict Arnold. The British, with a significantly superior fleet, won a decisive victory, destroying or capturing most of the rebel fleet, but the delay prevented Carleton from continuing on to capture Fort Ticonderoga that year. His brother Thomas and nephew Christopher both served on his staff during the campaign. The morning following the battle, a small island in Lake Champlain was named Carleton's Prize, perhaps to Carleton's embarrassment at the time.

He was promoted to

Evacuation of New York

In August 1783, Carleton was informed that Great Britain would grant the United States its independence. With his exit from New York imminent, Carleton asked to be relieved of his command. With this news, Loyalists began an exodus from the Thirteen Colonies and Carleton did his best to have them resettled outside the United States.

In May

. Carleton had refused to deliver over the human property to the Americans at the time of the British evacuation. Instead, he proposed a registry so that "the owners might eventually be paid for the slaves who were entitled to their freedom by British Proclamation and promises."

Sir Guy noted that nothing could be changed in any Articles that were inconsistent with prior policies or National Honour. He added that the only mode was to pay for the Negroes, in which case justice was done to all, the former slaves and the owners. Carleton said that it would be a breach of faith not to honour the British policy of liberty to the Negro and declared that if removing them proved to be an infraction of the treaty, then compensation would have to be paid by the British government. To provide for such a contingency, he had a register kept of all Negroes who left, called the

from London.

Washington disagreed with Sir Guy's actions and wrote: "…the measure is totally different from the letter and spirit of the Treaty but waiving the specialty of the point, leaving this decision to our respective Sovereigns I find it my duty to signify my readiness in conjunction with you to enter into agreements, or take any measures which may be deemed expedient to prevent the future carrying away any Negroes or other property of the American people."[21]

On 28 November the evacuation was finished, and on 5 December Carleton departed from

John Campbell of Strachur

succeeded him as Commander-in-Chief, North America, although the post was then much reduced in scope.

Post-war years and death

Upon his return to England, Carleton recommended the creation of a position of Governor General of all the provinces in British North America. Instead he was appointed "Governor-in-chief", with simultaneous appointments as governor of Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and St. John's Island (present-day Prince Edward Island). He arrived in Quebec on 23 October 1786. His position as Governor-in-chief was mostly ignored. He found quickly that his authority in any of the provinces other than Quebec was effective only while he was present in person.

He was raised to the

Dorchester in the County of Oxford

.

The

Constitutional Act of 1791 split the large territory of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada, corresponding roughly to areas settled by ethnic British and ethnic French, respectively. Sir Alured Clarke was named as the lieutenant governor of Lower Canada and John Graves Simcoe the lieutenant governor of Upper Canada. In August 1791 Carleton left for Britain and on 7 February 1792 took his seat in the House of Lords. He left for Canada again on 18 August 1793 to resume his duties there. His replacement, Robert Prescott

, arrived in May 1796. On 9 July 1796 Carleton sailed from Canada to Britain, never to return.

In retirement Lord Dorchester, as he was now, lived mostly at

St Swithun's, Nately Scures

.

Honours and legacy

He was honoured by numerous places and educational institutions named for him:

• HMCS Carleton, a Canadian Forces Naval Reserve Division in Ottawa
• Carleton University in Ottawa
• Dorchester Avenue in Ottawa
• The Carleton, Halifax, Nova Scotia
• Carleton, Nova Scotia
• Carleton Village, Nova Scotia
• Dorchester Road in
  Niagara Falls, Canada
• Dorchester Boulevard, a major thoroughfare in Montreal since renamed René Lévesque Boulevard^[23]
• Dorchester Square in downtown Montreal
• Dorchester Island and the parish and town of Dorchester, all of New Brunswick
• Carleton Street, in:
  • Carlton Street in Downtown Toronto is indirectly named for Carleton via Ann Wood for her brother Guy Carleton Wood of Cornwall, Ontario
  • Saint John, New Brunswick
  • Yarmouth, Nova Scotia
  • Fredericton, New Brunswick
  • St. Andrews, New Brunswick
  • Moosomin, Saskatchewan
• Rue Dorchester, a thoroughfare in Quebec City.
• Old Carleton County Court House, Upper Woodstock, New Brunswick
• Carleton Place, a town in Eastern Ontario
• Carleton County, New Brunswick
• Carleton County, Ontario, that became the Region of Ottawa-Carleton, and then the City of Ottawa with amalgamation in 2001.
• Carleton-sur-Mer, Quebec, a town on the North Shore of Baie de Chaleurs.
• Guysborough County, Nova Scotia (Guys' borough)
• Guy's Restaurant, in his birthplace of Strabane, is also named after Carleton. The restaurant was formerly known as the Carleton Club.
• Lord Dorchester High School in Dorchester, Ontario
• Sir Guy Carleton Secondary School in Ottawa
• Sir Guy Carleton Elementary School in Vancouver, British Columbia.

• Carleton is mentioned in a Fort Saint-Jean plaque erected in 1926 by Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada at the
  Governor de Vaudreuil in order to prevent its falling into the hands of the English. Rebuilt by Governor Carleton, in 1773. During the same year, under the command of Major Charles Preston of the 26th Regiment, it withstood a 45-day siege by the American troops commanded by General Montgomery
  ."
• Jay's Treaty
  .
• Via Rail Canada has a Manor sleeping car named after Sir Guy Carleton in his honour and there is a plaque inside the railcar explaining his exploits.
• The first railroad in Canada, the Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad had its first locomotive (a 0-2-0) named "Dorchester".
• Great Abaco Island
  , Bahamas, was named for him
• The Dorchester Review magazine (est. 2011 at Ottawa) is named in his honour.^[26]
• Before the 1790s, Niagara Falls, Ontario was once called Mount Dorchester in honour of Carleton.^[27]

See also

• List of governors general of Canada
• List of lieutenant governors of Quebec
• Commander-in-Chief, North America
• History of Quebec
• History of North America
• Constitutional history of Canada

References

1. ^ "Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester". Canadian Encyclopedia. Toronto: Historica Foundation. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
2. ^ ^{a b} Nelson, pp. 18–19.
3. ^ Nelson, p. 17.
4. ^ Wrong, p. 224.
5. ^ Nelson, p. 19.
6. ^ Nelson pp. 20–21.
7. ^ Nelson, p. 22.
8. ^ Wrong, p. 225.
9. ^ Browne
10. ^ ^{a b} The New Extinct Peerage 1884-1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms, L. G. Pine, Heraldry Today, 1972, pg. 105-106
11. ^ "Biography – CARLETON, GUY, 1st Baron DORCHESTER – Volume V (1801-1820): Dictionary of Canadian Biography". Retrieved 20 January 2023.
12. ^ "RBH Biography: Guy Carleton, Baron Dorchester (1724-1808)".
13. ^ "No. 11251". The London Gazette. 23 May 1772. p. 2.
14. ^ "No. 11651". The London Gazette. 23 March 1776. p. 2.
15. ^ "No. 11802". The London Gazette. 2 September 1777. p. 2.
16. ^ "No. 11867". The London Gazette. 21 April 1778. p. 1.
17. ^ Shenstone, Susan Burgess (2000) So Obstinately Loyal: James Moody, 1744-1809. McGill-Queen’s University Press. p. 96
18. ^ Lossing, Benson John (1852) The Pictorial field-book of the revolution; or, illustrations, by pen and pencil ... Harper & Brothers, Publisher, New York. Vol. II footnote 1 on p. 835
19. ^ "Sir Guy Carleton". George Washington's Mount Vernon. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
20. ^ Smith, Thomas W. (1896–1898). "The Slave in Canada". Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society. X (1): 22.
21. ^ Fitzpatrick, John C., ed. (10 June 1783). The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources 1745–1799. Vol. 26. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office.
22. ^ Moore, Christopher. The Loyalists: Revolution Exile Settlement, 2011
23. ^ Reford, Alexander. "Smith, Donald Alexander, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
24. ^ "Map of Wolfe Island". The Canadian County Atlas Digital Project. McGill University Library. 1878. A map of Wolfe Island with Carleton Island to its south, and Simcoe (then Gage) Island to its north. Amherst Island is off-page to the northwest, while Howe Island is downstream to the northeast.
25. ^ "Opinion: Wolfe celebrations set for 2009". The Kingston Whig-Standard. 22 September 2008. Archived from the original on 13 September 2012. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
26. ^ Inaugural editorial, The Dorchester Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring-Summer 2011, pp. 2-3.
27. ^ "Evolution of the City of Niagara Falls". Niagara Falls Museums. Retrieved 1 June 2021.

Bibliography

• Billias, George Athan, Editor, George Washington's Opponents, William Marrow and Company, Inc., New York, 1969, 103–135.
• Browne, G. P. (1983). "Carleton, Guy, 1st Baron Dorchester". In Halpenny, Francess G (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. V (1801–1820) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
• Nelson, Paul David. General Sir Guy Carleton, Lord Dorchester: Soldier-Statesman of Early British Canada. Associated University Presses, 2000.
• Reynolds, Paul R., Guy Carleton, A Biography, 1980,
  ISBN 0-7715-9300-7
• Wrong, George M. Canada and the American Revolution. New York, 1968.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester.

• St Swithun's Church, Nately Scures, England Plaque memorial for Guy Carleton, Gobernador de Quebec y Thomas Carleton Gobernador de New Brunswick
• Archives of Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester (Sir Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester fonds, R7136) are held at Library and Archives Canada

Government offices
Preceded by James Murray	Governor of the Province of Quebec 1768–1778	Succeeded by Sir Frederick Haldimand
Preceded by none	Governor-General of The Canadas 1786–1796	Succeeded by Robert Prescott
Military offices
Preceded by Sir Henry Clinton	Commander-in-Chief, North America 1782–1783	Succeeded by John Campbell, of Strachur
Peerage of Great Britain
New creation	Baron Dorchester 1786–1808	Succeeded by Arthur Carleton