James Endicott

In some documents his name is spelled “Entecott.”  He fought on the British side, not the American side, in the American Revolution and he may have even served under Benedict Arnold.

In an accepted source book about loyalists serving in the Revolution, Esther C Wright's 1955 book, The Loyalists of New Brunswick,  he is listed as a Corporal in the Light Infantry of the Queen’s Rangers of Upper Canada.  Other documents indicate that he served 5 years there.  He is also cited in the same source as living about 1783 in New Brunswick, Canada.  As we’ll see later, though, he turns up in York, Canada by 1802.

In 1783 the Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolution and 60,000-70,0000 Loyalists fled America to establish a new life in Europe, England, the West Indies, and Canada.  In Canada they came especially to the St. John River area in New Brunswick (up until 1783 part of Nova Scotia), and subsequently to Ontario.  It is further known specifically that the men of the Queen’s Rangers settled primarily in these places.

Queen’s Rangers

During the American Revolution, no Loyalist corps was more celebrated than the Queen's Rangers, named to honor Queen Charlotte, King George III’s wife.

The origin of the Queen's Rangers was Rogers’ Rangers during the French and Indian War.  To counter the French tactics, Robert Rogers raised companies of New England frontiersmen for the British and trained them in woodcraft, scouting, and irregular warfare, sending them on raids along the frontiers of French Canada.

The Rangers soon gained a considerable reputation, particularly in the campaigning in upstate New York around Fort Ticonderoga and Lake Champlain. They also launched a long-range raid to destroy Indian allies in the St. Lawrence valley, gained the first lodgement in the amphibious landings on Cape Breton to capture Louisbourg, and took the surrender of the French outposts in the Upper Great Lakes at the conclusion of the war in 1763.

Then, a decade later, to help the British during the American Revolution, Rogers created the Queen’s Rangers named in honor of Queen Charlotte, consort to King George III.  He recruited the regiment in 1776 mainly in New York, mostly from loyalists living in Westchester, Long Island, and western Connecticut.  Later, the Queen's Own Loyal Virginia Regiment joined the unit.

The Queen’s Rangers first assembled on Staten Island in August, 1776 and grew to 937 officers and men, organized into 11 companies of about 30 men each, and including five troops of cavalry.

Rogers proved not to be a successful commander of the Queen’s Rangers, however, and the regiment suffered serious casualties at Mamaroneck, Brandywine and Germantown under a series of replacement commanders until, on October 15, 1777 Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe was given command, and the unit became known unofficially as Simcoe’s Rangers.  Simcoe was a graduate of Eton College and Oxford University.

Under Simcoe’s command, the unit became one of the most successful British regiments in the war, distinguishing itself throughout the southern campaigns in 1780 and 1781.  Simcoe wrote a journal that provides important information on how the regiment was used and on the development of its tactics.   The Rangers fought as reconnaissance and outpost troops.

One advantage the Rangers had was the fact that they were the first British regiment to wear green uniforms and that made them harder to target than soldiers in the scarlet of normal British regiments.
Another advantage they had was the British Pattern 1776 Rifle, the first military “pattern” of rifle (as opposed to smoothbore musket) used by the British and in North America.  Records show that about 1,000 of these rifles were shipped to the British forces in North America.  But very few exist today so they are very valuable.  The Queen’s Rangers are documented as having received at least 33 of these rifles.
The Rangers did escort and patrol duty around Philadelphia (1777-8), fought in the Pennsylvania campaign, served as rearguard during the British retreat to New York (1778), fought at Perth Amboy, New Jersey (1779-80), at Charlestown, South Carolina (1780), in the raid on Richmond, Virginia with Benedict Arnold and in other raids in Virginia (1780-1) –– and in the Yorktown campaign (1781), which proved to be their undoing.

Serving under Benedict Arnold

After Benedict Arnold switched sides and started fighting for the British, one of the things he did was lead a British invasion of Virginia in 1781.  Among the troops led was the Queen’s Rangers, commanded by Simcoe.
George Washington wanted to capture Arnold in Virginia, and had ordered his immediate hanging. But the British ordered Arnold back to New York, and while he plundered his native Connecticut, burning New London to the ground, British General Charles Cornwallis and the Queen’s Rangers were caught in the trap set for Arnold at Yorktown.
Since records show that John Endicott served 5 years with the Queen’s Rangers, this suggests he served the entire time of the American Revolution with them, including at Yorktown.
At Yorktown the Queen’s Rangers surrendered along with the rest of Cornwallis’s force, which effectively won the war for the Americans, and the Rangers’ rank and file were imprisoned at Winchester, Virginia
So ironically, while more than any other individual, Arnold had first prevented a British victory in the early stages of the war, he had now set the stage for the final defeat of the British in 1781.
While the Queen’s Rangers were among those who surrendered at Yorktown, a point of pride for the regiment is that they smuggled away the "colors" (banner) of the Queen's Rangers so it could not fall into enemy hands.  Today those same colors are on display in Toronto in the officers' mess of the Queen's Rangers.

As the finest Loyalist unit, the Queen’s Rangers were awarded the title 1st American Regiment and enrolled in the British Army in 1782.

Fleeing to New Brunswick

In 1783, when the Treaty of Versailles ended the war, and the Queen’s Rangers had been released from captivity, they left for New Brunswick, where they disbanded.  (Benedict Arnold got to New Brunswick via England in 1785.) They were among the approximately 60,000 - 70,000 Loyalists to leave what would become the United States. But the Queen’s Rangers were reformed again in Upper Canada (today’s Ontario) before disbanding a second time, in 1802, a decade prior to the War of 1812.

By 1802, however, John Endicott shows up in records, this time appearing not only to be in dire need of funds, but also living in York (present-day Toronto) as this passage from a meeting of Canadian Freemasons shows:

“On the 7th June, 1802, the one hundred and twenty-first meeting was held.  Fourteen brethren were present, one being visitor, a Bro Clinch, from St. George’s Lodge, No. 1. … A petition was received from W. Bro. Spencer Evans, W.M. lodge no. 3 praying for relief for a distressed brother of the name of John Endicott, and it was agreed to grant him £4, York Cy.

“No. 3 was Queen Rangers lodge, which met in the Old Fort at York, Upper Canada.  Its warrant had been handed in in 1800 and the number had afterwards been transferred to Cornwall. Bro. Evans should, therefore, be spoken of as a P.M. for the lodge has ceased working, and the regiment has been disbanded two years before this date.”

So, how/why did John get from New Brunswick, where he was living in 1783, to York by 1802?  Part of the reason could have been looking for better farmland.  In New Brunswick, the former Queen’s Rangers drew lots for land and some of them ended up with land that wasn’t very good, being full of rocks.

Another reason may well have had to do with the fact that in 1791 John’s former commander, Colonel John Simcoe, became Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada (present-day Ontario) and picked Toronto as his capital, renaming it York.  One reason for his doing this was to create a British presence in the area because he feared the Americans might try to take it over ¬¬–– which indeed, they did try to do, in the War of 1812.

It is known that members of the Queen’s Rangers assisted Simcoe by cutting roads into York, but it is not known whether John Endicott was part of that group or not.

It is known, however, that in 1806, John petitioned to construct a 10-mile road from the Humber River to Lake Ontario –– and was charged £20 Provincial for the privilege.   So this seems to indicate that he owned land along the Humber River. Other documents show him making various petitions to the authorities of Upper Canada as late as 1840 to be granted benefits based on his service with the Queen’s Rangers.  But not much else is known about what happened to him.

Simcoe also authorized a fort to be built at York that was destroyed in the Battle of York in the War of 1812. Another John Endicott (see below) probably fought in that battle but it is not known whether he was the son of John Endicott of the Queen’s Rangers or not.

The Queen's Rangers exits to this day, having gone through several different names but now known as the Queen’s York Rangers (1st American Regiment) Royal Canadian Armored Corps (R.C.A.C.).  It is based Toronto and Aurora about 32 miles away ( and which is ranked in some sources in the top 10 wealthiest towns in all of Canada).  It fought during WWI and WWII.⁷ ⁸ ⁹ ¹⁰ ¹¹