Memorial of Roderick McCloud, 78th Regiment

It is believed that the men of the 78th Regiment, who were a mix of farmers, tailors, blacksmiths, and weavers, would have gone back to their previous occupations to earn a livelihood after the war. However, some former soldiers struggled to survive and needed government assistance to make ends meet because of injuries they acquired during the numerous conflicts. (Jeffrey Campbell, The Workshop, 2024. Artist's rendition created with Perchance AI Image Generator)

Memorial of Roderick McCloud, 78th Regiment

Memorials are written as a statement of facts, events, and important information that summarizes tragic events, or key points in a case (when submitted by a lawyer to a court), or to honor soldiers who fought in battles of war. In the following case of Private Roderick McLeod, a Private soldier in Colonel Simon Fraser's 78th Foot, a memorial was presented as a legal document to outline specific details related to the petitioner's personal endeavors, and reads as follows:

MEMORIAL

To His Excellency Friderick Haldimand Esquire, Captain General, Governor, and Commander in Chief of the Province of Quebec, General & Commander in Chief of His Majesty's Forces in said Province and Territorys depending thereon &c. &c. &c.

The most humble Petition of Rodrique McClaud, formerly belonging to his Majesty's 78th or Colonel Frazer's Hig[h]land Regt.

    Shew'd

            That in 1759 at the Battle before Quebec the 13th of September he receiv'd such a terrible wound on the forehead, that eighteen pieces of bone we[re] taken out of his skull. That after the Reduction of said Regiment he obtain[e]d his lawful Discharge, besides a recommendation for Chelsea. But thinking himself than young and apt, he thought it better to stay in Canada, where he Married, and has at present a Wife and four Children; which he brought up with pains and labour, Industry and fatigue, to this Day. But comming now to a certain Age, where by every change of weather, his Wound causes him the most Languishing and Inexprimable pains, which hinders him very often to provide the Necessary for his poor Fameily.
            For which most humbly besuch's your Excellency, who is a real father to Veterans, a support of the Afflicted, and whose charity extens to all persons, which implore his Bounty, to grant to most humble Petitioner, a little Provision and wood for the support of his poor fameily; for which they shall ever pray -/

No.4
Memorial From
Roderick McCloud.
formerly of the 78th Regimt.
a Private Soldier
March 1782.

Note: In 1762, two men by the name of Roderick McLeod are recorded as serving in Captain Simon Fraser's Company (later to become Captain Hugh Montgomeries Company) of the 78th Foot.

Source:

British Library, Haldimand Papers, Memorials from the Provincial Corps and Loyalists, n.d,. 1777-1782, MG 21, ADD. Mss. 21874, (B-214). LAC, Microfilm H-1743, images 1203-1204.

©  Jeffrey Campbell, Fraser's 78th Regiment of Foot, 2023.