History - Kings Orange Rangers

55
Perkins settled his accounts for wood sold to the KOR with Captain Howard. He gave them to
Ensign Cameron and Lieutenant McLeod for transmittal. He also settled accounts perhaps for
his store or for work done by the soldiers, with them. On July 4th the express boat returns from
Halifax with the news that Secretary Bulkley had agreed to leave 20 KORs in Liverpool.
Lieutenant McLeod was the officer ordered to stay. The non-commissioned officers who remain
are Serjeant Robert Dickson and Corporal Ball 213 . On July 9th, “Capt. Howard & Lady, with
some of the Soldiers, embark in the Buckram, Mr. Cameron & Some Soldiers in the Liverpool”
and get away around sunset. Perkins writes, “I went of board the Buckram to bid them Good
by.” Clearly Perkins and Howard had become friends during the latter’s two and a half year
posting in Liverpool. 214 Howard returned to Liverpool Friday August 3rd. 215
On October 15th 1781 a report reached Liverpool that privateersmen were at Herring Cove
[Brooklyn]. Lt. McLeod and some KORs along with Prince Snow, Elkanah Freeman and Roger
Parker went over about 10:00 AM to apprehend them. They brought several men back and put
them in one of the soldier’s huts at the Fort. One of them was recognized as one Wescott who
had previously been taken by the Lucy from a New London schooner. 216 One of them, John
Frost the captain of a shallop, on October 20th asked Lieutenant McLeod to take him to see
Perkins. He introduced himself as son of John Frost who was a member of the Massachusetts
Legislature and related to the Pepperell family of Kittery, Maine. Perkins agreed and invited him
for tea and determines that “he is Come of a Good Family”. 217 On the 28th of October,
Lieutenant McLeod and Perkins paroled John Frost, John Wescott and Benjamin Hayes, the
three privateersmen taken at Herring Cove. They in turn promised to return two soldiers of the
KOR who were taken from Liverpool by a privateer providing they had not entered into
American service. The two soldiers were Robert Hopkins and Stephen Warren, both described
by Perkins as “Servants”. 218
On October 19th John Hopkins Jr., Thomas Harrington and Joseph Verge arrived from Halifax
with sufficient provisions to keep the KOR for six to eight months. 219 On November 1st 1781
Lieutenant Donald McLeod was married to Betsey Lee, widow of the late Michael Lee of
Liverpool. They were married under a licence from Halifax by Rev. Israel Cheever. 220 McLeod
had relations in LaHave. In October Mordow McLeod asked Perkins to draw up a will for him
which name Lieutenant McLeod as his heir. 221
213
John Ball was mustered in Captain John Bayard’s Cp,[amu pm February 26, 1778 at Fort Knyphausen. Op.
Cit.NAC.
214
Ibid. P. 83.
215
Ibid. P. 86.
216
Ibid. P. 95.
217
Ibid. P. 96.
218
Ibid. P. 97.
219
Ibid. P. 96.
220
Ibid. P. 98.
221
Ibid. P. 97.
King’s Orange Rangers