Drummond, Peter

Person

Drummond, Peter

fl. 1770s

Peter Drummond left his native Scotland and arrived in the Province of New York, settling with Major Daniel McAlpine at Sarasota in 1774. At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Drummond formed his own small loyal company and fought his way to Crown Point where Lord Dorchester gave him a Lieutenant's commission in Jessup's Loyal Rangers. Drummond took part in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga and then the Battle of Saratoga, where he was captured and imprisoned in Albany. Drummond escaped through a subterfuge in 1779 and made his way to Canada where he was given command of all British and Loyalist Troops at Vercheres with the rank of Captain. Drummond saw no further combat.

For his services, Drummond received a significant amount of land in the Johnstown District. His most southerly property is now the village of New Wexford, immediately east of Prescott. Here, his original post and beam house still stands which appears to have existed well before 1796 when Lord Simcoe asked Drummond to oversee the moving of the British Fort at Michelmackinac to St. Joseph's Island in response to the terms of Jay's Treaty. To effect this operation, Simcoe formed the Royal Canadian Volunteers and appointed Drummond as Captain. As officer commanding, Drummond's signature appears on "Treaty #2" for the purchase of St. Joseph's Island. Simcoe then solicited Drummond to serve on his Executive Council, where members are perhaps best described Ministers of the Crown. In 1800 Peter Hunter appointed Drummond a Justice of the Johnstown District. Peter Drummond's signature also appears on a Loyalist petition which resulted in the Canada Act, creating what is now Ontario and Quebec.

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