King's Royal Regiment of New York - After-war Years

After-war Years

New York City remained in British hands until the end of the war, behind the protection of its large garrison and the Royal Navy. However, the inability of British commanders to defeat the Revolution led the war to drag on for 8 years, resulting in the Continental Army capture of two major British armies (Battle of Saratoga, Battle of Yorktown) and eroding the British political will to attempt a military solution. As a result, the government of Lord North collapsed and the new British government was formed from parliamentary advocates of a negotiated peace.

The Treaty of Paris of 1783 ended the war but left little opportunity for loyalists to return to their former homes. Municipal and state government in the new United States were held by supporters of Congress. Few of the former rebels were prepared to forget, no less forgive, the punishing raids by the loyalist regiments in Canada. Still other Congressional sympathizers had enjoyed profit by selling land, homes and farms seized from loyalists. Under the Treaty, the loyalists were to be compensated for their losses by the State governments under the arbitration of the United States government. This compensation was never paid. Instead, the British government offered land grants in Canada to the refugees who had fled their homes during the War and those who left afterwards.

In 1783, the 1st Battalion of the King's Royal Yorkers was disbanded and settled along the St. Lawrence Valley in the vicinity of Cornwall in modern Stormont and Dundas counties. The following year, the 2nd Battalion was disbanded and settled in modern Frontenac and Lennox and Addington counties.

Sir John Johnson himself settled in Montreal and also held farms in Williamstown, Ontario and the seigneuries of Monnoir and Argenteuil in Quebec. He was buried in a family vault at Mont Saint-Gregoire, Quebec.

Other officers of the Regiment have known graves. Jeremiah French, a Lieutenant in the second battalion of the Regiment, was buried at the Maple Grove Cemetery, west of Cornwall, Ontario. In 2004, a new gravestone was dedicated for French in the presence of several of his descendants and members of the recreated King's Royal Yorkers.