Description

The King’s Royal Regiment of New York, also know as Johnson’s Royal Regiment of New York,King’s Royal Regiment, Kings’s Royal Yorkers and the Royal Greens, were one of the first Loyalist regiments, raised on June 19th 1776, in British Canada, during the Revolutionary War.

The King’s Royal Regiment of New York was formed by exiled Loyalist leader, Sir John Johnson, from American refugees, fleeing persecution. On 19th May 1776, Sir John Johnson left his home at Johnson Hall in the Mohawk Valley and travelled with his family and approximately 200 retainers through the Adirondack Mountains to Montreal, Quebec. They arrived on the 15th June, just days after Governor Sir Guy Carleton’s army recaptured the city.
Johnson soon left Montreal to chase the retreating Continental Army southwards down the Richelieu Valley towards Lake Champlain. He met Carleton at Fort Chambly where the Governor authorized Johnson to raise the King’s Royal Regiment of New York.
Initially, the members of the regiment comprised Johnson’s refugee retainers from his estates in the Mohawk Valley, but the steady stream of Loyalist refugees fleeing to Montreal provided a ready source of recruits for the King’s Royal Yorkers. The Regiment served with distinction throughout the war, launching raids and relief missions into the Mohawk Valley of New York.