Carleton was promoted to major general on 25 May 1772.[13] While he was in London, Parliament passed the Quebec Act 1774, 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 seigneurs (petty gentry) were happy with provisions favorable to them, British merchants and migrants from the Thirteen Colonies objected to a number of the provisions, which they thought were pro-Catholic. They argued that only English-speaking Protestants should be able to vote or hold public office. Many of the habitants were unhappy with the provisions reinstating the tithe in support of the Catholic Church, as well as seigneurial obligations, such as the corvée (a labor requirement).
In late 1774, the First Continental Congress sent letters to Montreal denouncing the Quebec Act for promoting Catholicism by allowing Catholics to hold civil service positions and reinstating the tithe. John Brown, an agent for the BostonCommittee of Correspondence, arrived in Montreal in early 1775 as part of an effort to persuade citizens to send delegates to the Second Continental Congress, 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.
Canadian-British forces repel American rebels during the Battle of Quebec.
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 Trois-Rivières. In June 1776, he was appointed a Knight Companion of the Bath. He was promoted to the rank of a general for America only on 26 March 1776.[14]
Number One Broadway. This building was the headquarters of the British Commander-in-Chief during the American Revolution.
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 lieutenant general on 6 September 1777.[15] In 1777, command of the major northern expedition to divide the rebel colonies was given to General Burgoyne. Upset that he had not been given its command, Carleton asked to be recalled. He was replaced as governor and military commander of Quebec in 1778 by Frederick Haldimand,[16] and returned to England. In 1780 he was appointed by Prime Minister Lord North to a commission investigating public finances. This post he held until 1782, when General Sir Henry Clinton was recalled in the aftermath of the 1781 surrender at Yorktown. Carleton was appointed to replace Clinton as Commander-in-Chief, America, in May 1782. His headquarters in New York City were located at Number One Broadway.[17][18]
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[19] he had met with George Washington, among others, to arrange for the implementation of those parts of the Treaty of Paris relating to the evacuation of New York City, then commanded by Carleton and still occupied by the British Army, many Loyalists and former slaves. 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 Book of Negroes, entering their names, ages, occupations, and names of their former masters. The Americans agreed to this but the Crown never paid compensation. The Loyalist Claims Commission, using the logic of the Somerset Case and the Philipsburg Proclamation, determined that people could not be claimed as property, and only property could be a matter of compensation.[20] The British transported about 3,000 freedmen and other Black Loyalists to Nova Scotia, The Bahamas, and as far away as Germany for resettlement in the evacuation of New York City in November 1783 alone. Thousands more, under the same agreement, were evacuated from Charleston, Savannah, and St. Augustine. All told, historians estimate that between 50,000 and 80,000 enslaved people were freed as the result of Carleton's final enforcement of British proclamations, leading to, as historian Cassandra Pybus has described it, the "single greatest act of abolition in early American history."[21]
Washington, who worked to re-enslave free Black Loyalists (which included former slaves at Mount Vernon), strenuously 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."[22]
On 28 November the evacuation was finished, and on 5 December Carleton departed from Staten Island[23] to return to England. 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.
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.
Carleton County, Ontario, that became the Region of Ottawa-Carleton, and then the City of Ottawa with amalgamation in 2001. The name continues in Carleton_(Ontario_federal_electoral_district). [25]
Carleton-sur-Mer, Quebec, a town on the North Shore of Baie de Chaleurs.
Carleton is mentioned in a Fort Saint-Jean plaque erected in 1926 by Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada at the Royal Military College Saint-Jean. "Constructed in 1743 by M. de Léry under orders from Governor la Galissonnière. This post was for all the military expeditions towards Lake Champlain. On 31 August 1760, Commandant de Roquemaure had it blown up in accordance with orders from 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."
The UELAC Dorchester Award, established in 2007 by Dominion Council exemplifies Volunteer Excellence and Participation, by conferring recognition for lengthy contribution to the United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada.
1 2 The New Extinct Peerage 1884-1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms, L. G. Pine, Heraldry Today, 1972, pp. 105-106
↑ Smith, Thomas W. (1896–1898). "The Slave in Canada". Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society. X (1): 22.
↑ Pybus, Cassandra. Epic Journeys of Freedom: Runaway Slaves of the American Revolution and Their Global Quest for Liberty (2006)
↑ 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.
↑ Moore, Christopher. The Loyalists: Revolution Exile Settlement (2011)
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