Extract of a Letter from the Earl of Suffolk, to Governor LEGGE, dated Whitehall, 16th Octr. 1775.

I have in Lord DARTMOUTH’s Absence, who is in Staffordshire for a short time, received the King’s Commands to signify to you His Majesty’s Pleasure, that you do immediately take the necessary Steps for raising and forming from amongst the Inhabitants of Nova Scotia and in Newfoundland, a Corps of 1,000 Men, divided into 10 Companies, with the usual Establishment of Commission & Non Commission Officers, and His Majesty is graciously pleased to allow you to command this Corps with the Provincial Rank of Colonel;

but you are to understand that neither yourself nor any other Officer, to whom you grant Commissions, are to be intitled to any Rank in His Majesty’s Army, or to any Half Pay when the Corps is reduced, it being His Majesty’s Intention that the Corps should be merely provincial for the Service of Nova Scotia only, subject however to the Control & Orders of the Commander in Chief of His Majesty’s Forces in North America, who must be obeyed as such in all Military Services whatever.

With Regard to the Pay & Subsistence of this Regiment, it is His Majesty’s Intention that it should be the same as is allowed to the national established Troops, and you will accordingly draw upon the Lords of the Treasury for the Levy–Money & Subsistence of this Corps, and Arms & Cloathing will be sent out as soon as possible, the Orders having been already issued for that purpose.

Upon such an Occasion, and in such a service, Grants of Land to the Officers & Men may perhaps be some Encouragement, and facilitate the speedier Completing the Corps, and if you should find it so, His Majesty is pleased to permit and allow you to make such Grants in the Proportion reserved to Officers & private Men, by His Majesty’s Royal Proclamation of the 7th of Octr. 1763.

Great Britain, Public Record Office, War Office, Class 1, Volume 681, folios 59-60.

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