Loyalist Peter Drummond

Loyalist Peter Drummond

Peter Drummond came to America about 1774 and settled with Captain Daniel McAlpin at Saratoga Lake, New York. In 1776 McAlpin was arrested and jailed in the Albany gaol. After being released due to his advanced age he made a break for Canada with 50 Loyalists. I do not know if Drummond was among them (The Clinton Papers states that in “The spring of 1777 Drummond went over to the enemy with McAlpin) as it is reported all were caught but McAlpin who hid in the hollow of a tree to avoid capture. This was in the middle of Febuary in the Adirondacks. No small feat for a man of “Advanced Age,” Peter Drummond is listed as a Lieut. in Captain Edward Jessups Royal American Corps of Rangers .He was commissioned on November 4,1776. Jessups Corps were assigned to Brig. Fraser’s Brigade at the battle of Saratoga. McAlpin escaped to Canada after Saratoga but Drummond did not. He was taken prisoner at Saratoga and jailed in the fall of 1777. Drummond was captured Sept.19,1777 at the Battle of Saratoga.

On July 31st 1778 Drummond was brought before the Commissioners of Conspiracies and he asked to be liberated. He was released on Bond Agust 1 1778 pending an exchange. John Roff, Matthew Watson and Drummond had to put up £500 each for his release. On October 10,1778 Drummond requested and received a pass to travel to Poughkeepsie NY “to solicit his Excellency the Governor an Exchange for some Officer of equal Rank with him in the power of the enemy.” On the 22nd of October at Peekskill NY a Proposition to Exchange Prisoners At Albany was drawn up. A return of “five officers in the British Service belonging to the New Levies taken Summer 1777 up the Mohawk River and at Saratoga and now residing at Albany” was proposed. Peter Drummond, Capt., William McCrea’s Company, McAlpin’s Corps was one of the five. On 18th December 1778 it was proposed to exchange Drummond for an American Quartermaster. In 1779 Drummond was still not exchanged. On 8 September 1779 it was proposed to exchange him for a Lieut. Dodge. On the same day Drummond signed an oath to “Proceed from this place(Kingston NY) by the most direct route to the Quarters of Colonel Beatie Commissary of Prisoners for the army of the United States of America, deliver myself up to him and abide his further orders and directions.” It appears the exchange never took place. Drummond was released and his bail returned in November 1779.

The next we hear of Drummond was in a memorandum Condemning Tories in Albany and Tyron Counties dated June 1780. It states “Lieutenant Drummond is still at Schenectady (NY), his behaviour is not as it ought to be.” It appears Drummond left for Canada shortly after this as it is stated in the Haldimand Papers that “He came to this Province on August 20,1780. He also appears in 1781 when the Loyal Rangers was formed. Drummond is listed as Captain of the 8th Company of Loyal Rangers. In a List of officers, non-commissioned officers and men of the 84th Regiment, the King’s Royal Regiment of New York, the Loyal Rangers (Major Jessup’s corps), Butler’s Rangers, etc., who settled in the eastern part of Upper Canada we find Peter Drummond Esq, Eastern District, listed. In 1793 Peter Drummond is listed with Richard Duncan and Associates and listed as receiving an order of council for seven townships in the Eastern district. Richard Dorrough 1995