A Call to the Colours. Kenneth Cox

      Is there any truth to the Hind’s story that an ancestor served at the battle of Waterloo and earlier at New Orleans? And did a member of the Turcott family also serve during the War of 1812 and eventually settle on Wolfe Island near Kingston, Ontario?

      William Hinds is listed as receiving the Waterloo Medal and Military General Service Medal with two clasps. A search of the Military General Service Medal rolls shows the same individual entitled to this medal as a gunner in Ross’s E Troop Royal Horse Artillery. So this individual must have transferred from the Corps of Drivers to become a gunner in a Troop of Artillery. Ross’s troop, Royal Horse Artillery (R.H.A.) served in the Peninsula and Southern France, (1809–14), from Busaco to Orthes with the Light Division, and at Helder in 1799 and at Waterloo in 1815. A check of the Battery Records of the Royal Artillery, 1716–1859, definitely shows three batteries in service at New Orleans: Carmichael’s Corps, Michell’s Corps, and Munro’s Corps, but not Ross’s Corps. Also, no mention was made of any Royal Artillery officer by this name on any medal rolls. My next step was to search for a will left by William Hinds and any online records of the British East India Company’s European Regiments organized for service in India following the war with Napoleon. I also discovered an Edward Cox, ensign 6th Foot, 17th September 1805, Captain 6th Foot, 18 May 1809, who served in North America, November 1814–February 1815 at Fort Erie and died 27 August 1825 in Bombay, India! Perhaps the Hinds portrait was incorrectly identified. Maybe it was sent by a relative on the Cox side of my family? The 6th Regiment of Foot was a Warwickshire unit and the Coxes are all from the Birmingham region. This could take my research in a new direction. Now I have to research early parish records in Warwickshire/Derbyshire England and check the Indian army records at the National Archives in England.

      The Turcott story is a little more interesting. I already knew a Turcott had fought at the battle of Châteauguay and so was entitled to the Military General Service Medal with Châteauguay clasp. Originally this medal was to be issued to senior officers only. However, after some protest, Lord Elgin, the governor general of Canada, was informed on 2 August 1847 that the Military General Service Medal was to be awarded to Canadian militia and Indian warriors as well. There were only three clasps awarded for this medal: Fort Detroit (16 August 1812), Châteauguay (26 October 1813), and Chrysler’s Farm (11 November 1813). At the urging of the Parliament of Canada a request was made for further clasps: Queenston Heights, Lundy’s Lane, Ogdenburg, Lacolle, and Plattsburg. These requests were refused by the authorities in England because it would be too difficult to identify the appropriate recipients. By 1853 the whole matter of additional clasps seems to have been dropped, probably because of the situation developing in the Crimea and the fact that the British Parliament did not want to incur any more expense.[7]

      Remember, all British medals were engraved around the edge with the name of the recipient and the regiment in which they served. This practice only stopped with the issue of Second World War medals. Thus, if you discover a British military medal with a “bar” or “clasp” it is relatively easy to trace the individual and acquire knowledge of the military action for which they were awarded the medal.

      In 1875 the Parliament of Canada did decide to reward the remaining veterans of the war with a gratuity. Anyone wishing to claim the gratuity had to submit an application proving he had served in the militia during the war. The list of claimants was published in 1876 showing name, age, place of residence, and name of division or corps in which he served. This is an interesting source of information for anyone doing genealogical research because not only does it give some important statistics but also provides two important file numbers: the government file and the case file.

      In this record I found the name Jean Baptiste Turcott, age seventy-eight, living on Wolfe Island, Frontenac County, private in the Boucherville Division. I had already traced the family back to this Jean Baptiste, establishing connections through the 1851 census and earlier church records. Because he had provided, on his gratuity request, the name of the division in which he served, I now had a location in Lower Canada (Quebec) in which to conduct further searches. Boucherville, Quebec, is on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, just south of the city of Montreal. It was originally settled in 1660 and is just north of Châteauguay.

      A later search of the nominal/subject index to British and Naval Records did provide information that Turcott, Jean Bte., did apply in 1841 for one-hundred acres of land for service during the war.[8] A search of Lower Canada land petitions showed that a Jean Baptiste Turcott had also applied earlier, in 1838.[9] My future searches will attempt to connect the Turcotts who served with the 104th New Brunswick Regiment and the Canadian Volitgeurs. Interestingly, the 1838 land grant application added another piece to the puzzle when it stated that Turcott was living in Sainte-Marie, Beauce, and had been a corporal in the 4th Battalion during the war. His 1838 application had been published in the Quebec Gazette.

      Jean Baptiste Turcott’s 1841 application was a group application made on his behalf by an independent applicant. I’ll have to get a translation because it will be interesting to discover if he had requested a further land grant because he had fought with the government forces during the rebellions of 1837.

      LAC PRE-1812 RECORDS

      • RG 1, L3, Upper Canada land petitions, 1788–1848.

      • RG 1, L1, Upper Canada land and state books, 1787–1841.

      • RG 5, correspondence of the civil and provincial secretaries.

      • RG 8, finding aid 1800, British records, muster rolls of Loyalist Provincial Corps, volumes 1851 to 1908, microfilm C-3873 to C-3874, C-4216–4217 to C-4224.

      • Black Loyalist muster rolls can be found at epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/200/301/ic/can_digital_collections/blackloyalist/index.html.

      • WO 17/24, if your ancestor served in a British or German regiment.

      • War Office (WO) 28, volumes 2–10, microfilm reels, B-2862-2867, finding aid 87, British records of many of the Northern Dept. Loyalist units.

      • Manuscript Group (MG) 13 and WO 36, the American Rebellion Entry Books (1775–83). These records contain information on the history of the revolution, British Army returns, France and Spain — armed forces, Order Books — Britain plus Prisoners of War and Prisons.

      • MG 21 contains five volumes of reference material containing northern command muster rolls, lists of provisions to refugees, and service lists for the Provincial Marines. These are the records most used by researchers, finding aids 599 and 90, indexes on microfilm C-1476.

      • MG 23, B1, microfilm M-341 to M-370, the records of Sir Guy Carleton, who was responsible for the evacuation from New York, references to soldiers, ships, refugees, and Loyalists.

      WAR OF 1812

      This is only a small part of the resources you can use to research your 1812 ancestors.

      • MG 13, WO 10, Reel C-12568 contains muster books and pay lists for the Royal Artillery serving in Canada.

      • MG 13, WO 12, 1759–1839. British Regiments of the Line who served at Louisburg and Quebec, 1759–67; Fencible Regiments, 1791–98 and 1812–16; Canadian Volunteers 1838–39. On microfilm reel C-9202 you will find the 1795–1816 reference material. The microfilmed originals are on microfilm reels B-110 to B-118 and B-3196.

      • MG 13, WO 17 — 1758–1865 — vols. 1489–1569, “Canada,” 1758–1865, vols., 1570–80, “British, Provincial, and German Troops serving in Canada,” 1776–86, microfilm B-1585 and B-1587 to B-1590, vols. 2241–2293, “Newfoundland,” B-1591 and B-1606 to B-1613. These records show the distribution of British forces in North America, records effective strength of all ranks in each regiment with the names of all commissioned officers present and absent. The returns also provide information on the dates of any officers dying since the last return, the rank and file fit for duty, and the number of men discharges for any reason since the last return.

      • RG 10, microfilm, C-11120, claims for pensions by veterans, contains a list of Natives who served during the War of 1812.

      LAC LAND GRANT RECORDS

      • RG 1 - 9, Crown