Between 1997 and 2024, Genealogical.com published the nine-volume series, Scottish Soldiers in Colonial America, by Dr. David Dobson. We are delighted to present those books in a new, fully indexed, consolidated edition.
Although Scottish soldiers could be found in the Americas during the seventeenth century—oftentimes originally transported as prisoners of war and subsequently recruited into the British army–it was not until the mid-eighteenth century that the British Government began to raise Highland regiments, such as Fraser’s Highlanders, to fight in North America.
The French and Indian War led to significant recruitment in Scotland, particularly in the Highlands, for service in America. The allocation of land to former military personnel in the aftermath of the war was a major incentive for former soldiers to settle there.
On the outbreak of the American Revolution, former soldiers, who had received land grants in America, were recalled for duty by the British Government. For example, many former Scottish soldiers, who had been settled in the Mohawk Valley of upper New York, were recruited into the King’s Royal Regiment of New York. After the war, large numbers of soldiers from former Loyalist units and from the regular British Army regiments were settled in what would become Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec.
The practice of settling former soldiers in the colonies continued into the nineteenth century. For example, when the War of 1812 revealed the insecurity of the American-Canadian borders, Britain alleviated the problems by establishing settlements for former military personnel on the Canadian side.
This consolidation edition of Dr. Dobson’s nine-part series identifies over 10,000 Scottish soldiers who served in the Americas. The new comprehensive index of names enables genealogists and historians to easily identify every person named in the soldier descriptions—spouses, children, parents, ship captains, and so on–and not just the soldiers themselves. This edition improves on the originals in two other respects. Dr. Dobson has attached a detailed list of Scottish regiments that were stationed in colonial America. We also encourage readers to consult the rich Appendix, for it contains all the “American” entries from the author’s 2021 book, Scottish Soldiers in Europe and America, 1600-1700, which was published separately from the colonial America series.
