Alexander Munros of the 76th Regiment of Foot

Alexander Munro of Armadale received an appointment from the Earl of Caithness in about 1784 according to the book Australian Representative Men, 2nd Edition, published by Wells and Leavitt, 1887. Why and what this appointment was for is not known. The earl, John Sinclair, 11th Earl of Caithness (d.1789) was a commanding officer in the 76th regiment of foot which coincidentally was disbanded in the same year of 1784. The regiment was made up of ten companies of soldiers. The earl, as well as commanding one of the individual companies of the regiment from 1777 until 1784, was also in command of the entire regiment until 1780. The earl was promoted from the rank of Major to Lieutenant-Colonel and was known as Lord Berriedale until he succeeded his father in 1781 as the earl. The muster rolls for the regiment (although incomplete) are available in the National Archives, Kew, London (Ref: WO 12/8191) and show that in Lord Berriedale's (Earl of Caithness's) company for the years 1777 and 1778 there was a sergeant named Alexr Munro. Below is a list of three Alexander Munros who are found on the surviving (incomplete) muster rolls for the regiment between 1777 and 1784:

Muster roll for Lord Berridale's (Earl of Caithness's) company of the 76th Regiment of Foot for 25th Dec 1777 to 24th June 1778 showing Sergeant Alexr Munro. National Archives, Kew, London (Ref: WO 12/8191).

Muster roll for Lord Berridale's (Earl of Caithness's) company of the 76th Regiment of Foot for 25th June 1778 to 24th Dec 1778 showing Sergeant Alexr Munro. National Archives, Kew, London (Ref: WO 12/8191)

Timeline for the 76th Regiment of Foot

Dec 1777 - early 1778

Regiment first mustered

March 1778

Regiment garrisoned in Fort George, Scottish Highlands

March 1779

Regiment removed to Perth

1779

Regiment sailed to Spithead, Portsmouth, England

1779

Regiment sails to isle of Jersey to defend it against the enemy but did not land and returned to Spithead, Portsmouth, England

27th August 1779

Regiment sails and lands in New York, America and encamps on Long Island

March 1780 - May 1780

Regiment involved in defeating American and French forces at the Siege of Charleston, where the Earl of Caithness was wounded in the fighting, leading the elite light infantry and grenadier companies of the 76th Regiment. The elite light infantry and grenadier companies were the only members of the 76th Regiment known to have taken part in the Siege of Charlston. The Earl of Caithness soon after returned to Scotland due to his wound and did not return to America, but remained as the official commander of his company as confirmed by the muster rolls of 1782, 83 and 84.

February 1781

Regiment stationed between New York and Staten Island, America

March 1781

Regiment lands in Portsmouth, Vaginia, America

April 1781

Regiment involved in defeating American forces at the Battle of Blandford (also known as the Battle of Petersburg)

1781

Major Lord Berridale who commanded a company of the 76th Regiment succeeds his father as Earl of Caithness

July 1781

Regiment defeats the French Marquis de la Fayette at the Battle of Green Spring in James City County, Virginia, America

October 1781

Regiment taken prisoner at the Siege of Yorktown

June 1783

British prisoners ordered to march from Lancaster (America) to New York in consequence of peace, the 76th go to Staten Island

February 1784

Regiment arrives back in England from America

March 1784

Regiment disbanded at Stirling Castle, Scotland

The Siege of Charleston 1780 where the Earl of Caithness was wounded leading men of the 76th Foot

Below: page from Australian Representative Men, 2nd Edition, published by Wells and Leavitt, 1887. The article is about James Munro, Premier of Victoria and confirms that his grandfather, Alexander Munro of Armadale, received an appointment from the Earl of Caithness in about 1784:

The Earl of Caithness

As mentioned on page Possible origins of Barbara Mackay of Armadale, Alexander Munro of Armadale's wife, Barbara Mackay, may have been born in 1773, daughter of Janet Sinclair who it is confirmed was a second cousin of John Sinclair, 11th Earl of Caithness from whom Alexander Munro of Armadale received his appointment in 1784. Janet Sinclair was the daughter of William Sinclair and descended paternally from the noble Sinclair of Forss family, a branch of the Sinclair of Dun family, who in turn are believed to have been paternally descended from a younger son of John Sinclair, 3rd Earl of Caithness (d.1529). No less than four of the male Sinclairs of Forss in this line married women who also had the surname Sinclair and who it is confirmed all descended from different paternal lines of George Sinclair, 4th Earl of Caithness (d.1582), including Janet Sinclair's mother Barbara Sinclair. However, it is through Janet Sinclair's paternal grandmother, who was also called Barbara Sinclair by maiden name, that she was a second cousin of the 11th Earl of Caithness. When Alexander Munro of Armadale received his appointment from John Sinclair, 11th Earl of Caithness in 1784 it probably included for him to be married to Barbara Mackay, who if the same person born in 1773, daughter of Janet Sinclair, the earl was thus making arrangements for his wider family or "clan".

If this theory is correct then it would mean that I am a descendant of William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness who founded the famous Rosslyn Chapel.

Previous regiments of Sergeant Alexander Munro of the 76th Regiment of Foot

The document of 1780 states that Sergeant Alexander Munro of the 76th Regiment of Foot (MacDonnell's Highlanders) had been in the "regiments for 16 or 18 years", thus having joined up in 1762 or 1764. However, the 76th Regiment had only been formed in December 1777 and as such I have often wondered which regiments he had been in before that time. Most of the Highland regiments from this era were raised upon the outbreak of wars and disbanded when the wars ended, such as the Seven Years War (1756 - 1763) and the American War of Independence (1775 - 1783). In fact it appears that the only Highland regiment to be maintained throughout the period between these two wars was the Royal Highland Regiment that was numbered as the 42nd Regiment of Foot, otherwise known as the Black Watch. The muster rolls for this regiment are in the National Archives, London and seem to confirm that there was an Alexander Munro who was promoted to the rank of Corporal and then to Sergeant in exactly the right time period. The Sergeant Alexander Munro of the 42nd Foot first appears as a private soldier in the regiment in 1760. The joining age in the army in those days was 16. Even if he joined at that age he would have been born in at least 1744. Inspection returns for the 42nd Foot confirm that he was born somewhere between 1735 and 1744 and Alexander Munro of Armadale having died in the winter of 1834/1835, means that he would have lived to somewhere between 89 and 100 years of age, which makes it unlikely for them to have been the same person, but not impossible. See page: Alexander Munros of the 42nd Regiment of Foot for more information.

Miscellaneous:

See this link for a History of the 76th Regiment of Foot which has been taken from the book Sketches of the Character, Manners and Present State of the Highalnders of Scotland, by General David Stewart (1825), pages 84 - 91, as published on the Electric Scotland website. See the original here. The regiment was nicknamed MacDonald's or MacDonnell's Highlanders after the commander Lieutenant-Colonel John MacDonnell and several of the other commanding officers were MacDonalds (or had similar surname varients). Six of the ten companies that made up the regiment were recruited in the Highlands, three were recruited in the "Low country" (Captain William Cunningham's, Captain Montgomery-Cunningham's and Lieutenant Samuel Graham's - who served as an officer under Major Lord Berriedale, later the Earl of Caithness) and one company was recruited in Ireland (Captain John Bruce's).

The following table shows the ten companies and commanders of the 76th Regiment of Foot, commanded by Lt. Colonel Commander John MacDonnell. The table shows which muster rolls have survived and are available in the National Archives, Kew, London:

Further notes

According Alexander Mackenzie's History of the Munros of Fowlis (Foulis) (1898), p.338, James Munro, I of Ingsdon (Devon, England), returned to Scotland where he raised a battalion "chiefly among the members of his own clan" to fight in the American Revolutionary War (War of Independence) and that he was the son of Andrew Munro, IV of Fearn which is a place in Easter-Ross. However, Mackenzie states that James Munro of Ingsdon specifically raised his own battalion that was incorporated into the British Army and does not mention anything about the 76th Regiment of Foot, and as already mentioned above it appears that Sergeant Alexander Munro of the 76th had come from the 42nd.

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