Robert Prescott

General Robert Prescott ( 1726 – 21December 1815) was a British military officer and colonial administrator. During a military career which spanned over fifty years, he participated in the Seven Years' War, the French and Indian War, and the American Revolutionary War, including key engagements such as the Montreal Campaign. He later became the Governor of Martinique and then, in 1796, Governor General of the Canadas, and the British Army's Commander-in-Chief for North America. He was recalled to England in 1799 after conflict with the Catholic Church and disputes with Anglo-Canadian colonial elites over the distribution of land in the colonies. He continued to hold his position until 1807, with his lieutenant governors acting in his absence. He died in 1815 after unsuccessful attempts to clear his name. Biography Modern sources generally agree that Robert Prescott was born in Lancashire in 1726 or 1727. Some sources, such as the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, claim that he was the son of a cavalry officer named Richard Prescott, though the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says that "on what grounds [this] is not clear." Other sources also suggest that he was the brother of Colonel William Prescott, who fought in some of the same conflicts, although William Prescott was an American who was born in Massachusetts. Older sources differ from modern ones in some respects, with the 1896 Dictionary of National Biography and the 1900 Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography both claiming that he was born in 1725; the Dictionary of National Biography further states that "his family lost their estates owing to their opposition to the revolution of 1688." Prescott's military career is much more well documented than his early life. He enlisted in the British Army in 1745 and became an ensign in the 15th Regiment of Foot. On 22 January 1755, he reached the rank of captain in the 15th Foot. With the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, Prescott saw action in the 1757 British raid on Rochefort, France, and in 1758, the 15th Foot sailed for North America to participate in the French and Indian War, an ongoing conflict which had become the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War. Prescott was present at the 1758 Siege of Louisbourg. He became an aide-de-camp to General Jeffery Amherst in 1759, participating in the capture of Montreal. Afterward he served under General James Wolfe.