ALS, DLC:GW.

Samuel Mckay (Mackay; d. 1779) served as a lieutenant in the British 62d Regiment during the French and Indian War and afterwards became surveyor of woods in Canada, a position in which he was responsible for selecting masts for the Royal Navy. In the spring of 1775 Mckay raised a small corps of volunteers at Montreal and took post at St. Jean (St. Johns), where he was captured when the garrison surrendered on 2 Nov. 1775. In considering Mckay’s case, GW may have been influenced by remarks that Gen. Richard Montgomery made in his letter to Schuyler of 19 Nov. 1775, a copy of which Schuyler apparently sent to GW. “Capt. McKay,” Montgomery wrote from Montreal, “generously offerd Mr Carlton if he would give him Two hundred Men, to go & burn the New Church at Saratoga last Summer, he is so inveterate a fellow that I think if the other prisoners shoud be indulged in returning to their familys this winter, he ought not to be permitted to enter this province” (DLC:GW). For Mckay’s escape from Hartford later this spring and his prompt recapture, see Israel Putnam to GW, 24, 31 May 1776. Sometime during the ensuing several months Mckay succeeded in escaping to Canada, however. In February and March 1777 he reconnoitered the area around Ticonderoga for Gen. Guy Carleton, and later in the year he commanded a small provincial corps on campaign with Burgoyne. After Burgoyne’s surrender at Saratoga, Mckay returned with the military chest to Canada, where Carleton subsequently relieved him of his provincial command, an action that Mckay vigorously disputed.