Second Highland Battalion Recruiting Efforts

Two concerned mothers in the Scottish Highlands discuss their recent encounter with a civilian recruiting officer regarding their sons enlisting in the British Army, to serve in Major James Clephane's Company of the Second Highland Battalion. Raised in early 1757 for service in North America, this mostly...

Requesting Levy Money and Tents for Two Highland Battalions

A clerk at the War Office in Westminster, London, processes several requests from Lord William Barrington (1717-1793; 2nd Viscount Barrington) regarding levy money and tents to be issued for two new Scottish Highland battalions raised for service in North America. (Jeffrey Campbell, Supplying the Battalions, 2024....

Recruiting Progress in North Britain, Feb. 1757

An 18th-century downtown Caithness, Scotland, bathed in the soft, golden light of early morning. Cobblestone streets, still glistening from the night's dew, meander between neatly lined stone buildings with thatched roofs. The quaint architecture, with its white-washed exteriors and dark wooden beams,...

Colonel Fraser's Request for Levying Assistance, 1757

An ethereal 18th-century Scottish Highlands countryside at the break of dawn. The sun, a fiery orb of gold, is just peeking over the distant, craggy peaks, casting a warm glow that slowly unfurls across the undulating landscape. In the foreground, a solitary stone cottage, with a thatched roof and a...

Instructions for Draughting of Foot Guards, Jan. 1757

During the early recruitment of soldiers for both the newly established Highland Battalions [Colonel Montgomery's and Colonel Fraser's Regiments], leadership requested senior non-commissioned officers [serjeants and corporals] from those that were already established. Veteran soldiers were highly sought after for their ability to not only successfully train the new recruits, but it was also required...

Colonel Simon Fraser's Recruits

Alexander Fraser [1860-1936], a native of Inverness-shire, who was the first Archivist of Ontario [1903-35], was an acknowledged authority on Scottish history in general and Fraser history in particular. In 1934 he advised a descendant of Malcolm Fraser of Mount Murray that the Rev. Dr. Archibald MacDonald - then quite an old man - had written a short history of the Lords of Lovat. In The...

Colonel Simon Fraser's Letters to Lord Murray, 1757

The Scottish Highlanders who served in North America were recruited by a variety of methods, but records do indicate most were volunteers. Economic depression swarmed their homelands, and the thoughts of prosperity and securing a better livelihood in the new world certainly would have contributed to each man's decision to enlist. Recruiters scoured the countryside, some concentrating their efforts...

The Raising of the Highland Regiments in 1757

In his eloquent survey of the career of the elder Pitt Lord Stanhope says---      Was it not he who devised that lofty and generous scheme for removing the disaffection of the Highlanders by enlisting them in regiments for the service of the Crown? Those minds which Culloden could not subdue at once yielded to his confidence; by trusting he reclaimed them; by putting arms into...

Letter from Major Clephane, Second Highland Battalion, to the Doctor, 1757

Kilraick, April 8, 1757 My dear Johnie, No doubt that you will be much surprised that, till now, you have had no letter from me ever since I came to this place, which is not 20 days, but I’m persuaded you’ll give great allowance for my silence, when I tell you that till yesterday I have not been 24 hours at one time here; sometimes one day at Inverness, next day return here, and a third day...

Extract of Letter from Lord Breadalbane to John Campbell of Barcaldine, Feb. 1757

London, 19 Feby. 1757 Sir,  I have now before me your letters of the 30th past and the 6th and 10th inst. I hope the Major is with you before now. I'm glad to hear his Company is in such forwardness. I wrote long ago to Achalader to help him what he could, and I wrote the same two posts ago to Carwhin. I have heard (and also believ it is true) that the D. of Ar. had insisted that no men...

Recruitment

One question most often asked by genealogists is where they can obtain a roster of soldiers recruited in Scotland, who served with Fraser's Highlanders (originally numbered 2nd Highland Battalion) during the Seven Years' War, 1757-63. At the outset, the chances of identifying your ancestor as a soldier from the regiment are slim but not entirely impossible. Officer's biographies are much more common...