Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester, KB (Strabane, Co. Tyrone, Ireland, September 3, 1724 – November 10, 1808 Stubbings, Maidenhead, Berkshire), known between 1776 and 1786 as Sir Guy Carleton, was an Irish - British soldier and administrator. He twice served as Governor of the Province of Quebec, from 1768 to 1778, concurrently serving as Governor General of British North America in that time, and from 1785 to 1795.

He commanded British troops in the American War of Independence, first leading the defence of Quebec during the 1775 rebel invasion and the 1776 counteroffensive that drove the rebels from the province, and then in 1782 and 1783 as the commander - in - chief of all British forces in North America. In this capacity he oversaw the evacuation of British forces, Loyalists and thousands of freed slaves from New York in 1783.

The military and political career of his younger brother Thomas Carleton was interwoven with his own career. He was frustrated to still only be a Lieutenant, and believed his opportunities of advancement would be limited with the end of the war.

On April 7, 1766, he was named acting Lieutenant Governor and Administrator of Quebec with James Murray officially in charge. He arrived in Quebec on September 22, 1766. As Carleton had no experience in public affairs and came from a politically insignificant family his appointment is hard to explain and was possibly a surprise to him. The Duke of Richmond had in 1766 been made Secretary of State for the North American colonies and fourteen years earlier Carleton had been the Duke's tutor. The Duke was also the colonel of the72nd Regiment of Foot while Carleton was its Lieutenant Colonel. He was also appointed commander - in - chief of all troops stationed in Quebec.

The government consisted of a Governor, a council, and an assembly. The governor could veto any action of the council, but London had also given Carleton instructions that all of this actions required the approval of the council. Most officials of the province at this time did not receive a salary and received their income through fees they charged for their services. Carleton tried to replace this system with a system in which the officials instead received a salary, but this position was never supported in London. When Carleton renounced his own fees, Murray was furious.

After Murray resigned his position, Carleton was appointed Captain General and Governor in Chief on April 12, 1768. Carleton took the oath of office on November 1, 1768. On August 9, 1770 he sailed for England for what he thought was for a few months. During his absence Hector Theophilus de Cramahé, the lieutenant governor, ran the provincial government.

He married Maria Howard, daughter of the second Earl of Effingham, who was twenty-nine years his junior, on May 22, 1772. He was promoted to Major - General on May 25, 1772. The Quebec Act of 1774, which determined how the province was to be administered, was based upon Carleton's recommendations. Carleton arrived back in Quebec on September 18, 1774, and began implementing the provisions of the act. While the clergy and the seigneurs (landowners) were happy with provisions favorable to them, British merchants and migrants from the Thirteen Colonies were unhappy with a number of its provisions, which they saw as undemocratic and pro-Catholic. Many of the habitants were unhappy with the provisions reinstating the tithe, as well as seigneurial obligations like the corvée.

The First Continental Congress in late 1774 sent letters to Montreal denouncing the Quebec Act for being undemocratic and for promoting Catholicism by allowing Catholics to hold civil service positions, and reinstating the tithe. John Brown, an agent for the Boston Committee of Correspondence, arrived in Montreal in early 1775 as part of an effort to persuade the inhabitants to send delegates to the Second Continental Congress, scheduled to meet in May 1775. Carleton, while aware of this activity, did nothing to prevent it, beyond discouraging publication of the Congressional letter in the province's only newspaper.

Carleton received notice of the start of the rebellion in May 1775, soon followed by the news of the rebel capture of Fort Ticonderoga and Fort Crown Point, and the raid on Fort Saint - Jean. He had previously sent two of his regiments to Boston and he had only about eight hundred regular soldiers left in Quebec. His attempts to raise a militia met with limited success at first, as neither the French nor the English were willing to join. Area Indians were willing to fight on the British side, and London wanted them to fight, but Carleton turned their offer down because he was worried about the Indians attacking non-combatants.

Carleton directed the preparation of provincial defences, which were focused on Fort Saint - Jean, during the summer of 1775. In September, the Continental Army began its invasion, besieging the fort. When it fell in November, Carleton was forced to flee from Montreal to Quebec City, only escaping capture by disguising himself as a commoner.

In December 1775 he directed the city's defences in the Battle of Quebec and the ensuing siege, which was broken by the arrival of British troops in May 1776 under command of Allan Maclean who was appointed Second - in - Command. He then launched a counteroffensive against the rebels, which included repelling an attempted rebel attack on Trois - Rivières. In June 1776, he was appointed a Knight of the Bath. The next month he commanded British naval forces on the Richelieu River, culminating in the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain in October 1776 against a rebel fleet led by General Benedict Arnold. The British, with a significantly superior fleet, won a decisive victory, destroying or capturing most of the rebel fleet, but the delay prevented Carleton from continuing on to capture Fort Ticonderoga that year. His brother, Thomas Carleton, and nephew, Christopher Carleton, both served on his staff during the campaign. The morning following the battle, a small island in Lake Champlain gained the name Carleton's Prize, perhaps to Carleton's embarrassment at the time.

Guy Carletons Father Died at the age of 43, and his mother remarried.

In August, Carleton was informed that Britain would grant the United States its independence. Carleton asked to be relieved of his command. With this news, there came an exodus of Loyalists from the Thirteen Colonies. Carleton did his best to have them resettled outside the United States. Carleton has never received the approbation to which he is rightly due for his honorable action with respect to slaves promised their freedom by England for services rendered on behalf of the Crown during the Revolutionary War. At a meeting with George Washington, among others, to arrange for the implementation of those parts of the Treaty of Paris as they related to the evacuation of New York City, then commanded by Carleton, and still occupied by the British Army, many loyalists and slaves, Carleton refused to deliver over the human property to the Americans at the time of the British evacuation. Instead he proposed a registry so “that the owners might eventually be paid for the slaves who were entitled to their freedom by British Proclamation and promises.”

Sir Guy pointed out that nothing could be changed in any Articles that were inconsistent with prior policies or National Honor. He added that the only mode was to pay for the Negroes in which case justice was done to all, the slaves and the owners. Carleton stated that it would be a breach of faith not to honor the British policy of liberty to the Negro and declared that if removing them proved to be an infraction of the treaty then compensation would have to be paid by the British government. To provide for such a contingency, he had a register kept of all Negroes who left, called the Book of Negroes, entering their name, age, occupation, and name of their former Master. The Americans agreed to this, but as far as can be determined no compensation was ever paid. Some of the evacuated slaves were later transported to Freetown, Sierra Leone, from Nova Scotia where they had been taken from New York. Washington was not pleased with Sir Guy’s behavior and to him wrote: “…the measure is totally different from the letter and spirit of the Treaty but waiving the specialty of the point, leaving this decision to our respective Sovereigns I find it my duty to signify my readiness in conjunction with you to enter into agreements, or take any measures which may be deemed expedient to prevent the future carrying away any Negroes or other property of the American people.”

On November 28, the evacuation was finished, and Carleton returned to England.

In 1783, John Campbell of Strachur succeeded him as Commander - in - Chief, North America.

Quote: 'Remain on duty until every man, woman and child who wanted to leave the United States is safely moved to British soil.'

He recommended the creation of a position of Governor General of all the provinces in British North America. Instead he was appointed "Governor - in - chief", and also Governor of Quebec, Governor of New Brunswick, Governor of Nova Scotia, and Governor of Prince Edward Island. He arrived in Quebec on October 23, 1786. His position as Governor - in - chief was mostly ignored. His authority in any of the provinces other than Quebec was effective only while he was present in person.

He was raised to the Peerage in August 1786 as Lord Dorchester, Baron of Dorchester in the County of Oxford.

The Constitutional Act of 1791 split Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada. Sir Alured Clarke was named as the lieutenant governor of Lower Canada and John Graves Simcoe the lieutenant governor of Upper Canada. In August 1791 Carleton left for Britain and on February 7, 1792 took his seat in the House of Lords. He left for Canada again on August 18, 1793.

His replacement, Robert Prescott arrived in May 1796. On July 9, 1796 Carleton sailed from Canada to Britain never to return.

In retirement he lived mostly at Greywell Hill, adjoining Nately Scures, in Hampshire. After about 1805 he moved to Stubbings House at Burchett's Green, near Maidenhead, in Berkshire. On November 10, 1808, he died suddenly at Stubbings. He was buried in the parish church of St Swithun's, Nately Scures.