Fonds
A native of Scotland, John Munro (1731-1800) came to America in 1756 to fight in the Seven Years War. After the war, he became a merchant-trader and a large landowner near Albany, New York. A leading Tory, he was a captain in the 1st Battalion of the King's Royal Regiment of New York during the Revolutionary War. In 1784 he came to Canada as a Loyalist and settled in what became the Lunenburg district of Upper Canada. Leaving his family in Canada, he spent the next three years in England, lobbying in vain for adequate compensation for the property which he had lost in New York. However, he received land grants in the Eastern District and in 1792 was named to the Legislative Council of Upper Canada. His son, Henry Munro (1770-1854), joined the North West Company as a surgeon in 1796 and served at the Grand Portage and the Pic fur trading posts.
Scope and Content
These papers pertain to the military career of John Munro and his re-settlement in Canada as a Loyalist.
The fonds also contains records concerning the private life and business interests in land of his son, Henry Munro.
It consists of correspondence from his brother-in-law Chartier de Lotbinière, 1808-1809; a brother, 1802-1805; and a nephew, 1821-1824; it includes family and domestic news and a letter from John Strachan on the impoverished state of his sister-in-law Frances Munro, 1811. His land dealings are documented by land grants in Upper Canada, 1796-1797, and correspondence from George Hay in Ottawa concerning land sales, taxes and mortgage payments, 1854-1855. The papers also contain some legal documents of the Seigneury of Boucherville, including leases, sales and land transfers, 1685-1809.
The military material respecting John Munro includes copies of letters of recommendation, 1780-1785, a master roll and a comptroller's roll for his regimental battalion, 1782, correspondence from his family in Canada describing their living conditions, 1785, and from James Laing concerning economic and political news.
The fonds is divided into the following series:
P049/A
Legal papers
P049/B Letters
P049/C Military
P049/D Genealogy
P049/E Photographs
Information about the objects in our collection is updated to reflect new research findings. If you have any information to share regarding this object, please email reference.mccord@mccord-stewart.ca.Information about rights and reproductions is available here.
This project is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Azrieli Foundation and Canadian Heritage.