The Loyal Rangers were created on November 12, 1781 from a number of smaller military units including the Loyal Americans. They were led by Edward Jessup.
They were usually stationed at Sorel or Verchères and provided garrisons for posts at Yamaska, Rivière-aux-Chiens, Île aux Noix, and Dutchman’s Point (near Alburg, Vermont).
The rangers were disbanded on December 24, 1783.
After the war, Jessup’s Rangers were allotted townships number 6 (Edwardsburg), number 7 (Augusta), and part of number 8 (Elizabethtown), all on the St Lawrence, as well as No 2 (Ernestown), west of Cataraqui (Kingston).
United Empire Loyalists were Americans who remained loyal to King George III and the British Empire. They moved to Canada after the American Revolution.
January 22, 1783
Nathan Brown, a deserter, says that if pardoned he can give information against a number of men in Rogers' corps who have agreed to desert. Is very doubtful of the truth of Brown's story, owing to his including the names of men who have always been not only faithful but zealous. (from Report on Canadian Archives by Douglas Brymner)
from The Canadian Antiquarian and Numismatic Journal
.... Major Edward Jessup, who commanded a colonial corps which was known as the Loyal American regiment, and who was born in the parish of Stanford, in the county of Fairfield, Province of Connecticut, in 1735.
He was the son of Joseph Jessup, who died in Montreal, in 1779, and great grandson of Edward Jessup, who emigrated from England about 1640 and settled in the colony of New York.
At the breaking out of the revolutionary war, Major Jessup and his family resided at the City of Albany, New York, where he was extensively engaged in business, and in the possession of a tract of 500.000 acres of land. A staunch loyalist, Major Jessupsacrificed his fortune by taking up arms for the king. In T777 he joined the army under Burgoyne, who was then marching against Ticonderoga, and continued in the service until the close of the war, when the Major proceeded to Canada with his corps, which was then known as "Jessups Rangers."
They were first stationed at St. Denis, St. Charles, Riviere du Chene, Verchères and Sorel. When peace was declared in 1783, large tracts of land were granted by the Crown to the ofiicers and men, who accompanied by their families in the spring of 1784, proceeded up the River St. Lawrence, thus commencing the settlement of Leeds and Grenville, Addington and the Bay of Quinte.
After locating his men, Major Jessup proceeded to England, where he remained for several years. When he returned, he settled in the township of Augusta, county of Grenville.
In 1810 he laid out the town of Prescott, where he died in February, 1816, at the age of eighty-one years.
