Carleton, Thomas
Carleton, Thomas
CARLETON, THOMAS. (1735?–1815). British army officer and colonial governor. Thomas Carleton, youngest brother to Sir Guy Carleton, was born in Ireland. He became an ensign in the Twentieth Foot in 1753, lieutenant by 1756, and captain in 1759. He fought in Europe during the Seven Years' War and afterwards toured to watch other armies in action. By November 1775, during the war of American Independence, when he became quartermaster general to his brother Guy in Canada, he had been made a lieutenant colonel in the Nineteenth Foot.
Thomas was wounded at Valcour Island (in Lake Champlain) and led the Indian canoe-borne advance up Lake Champlain in September 1776. He remained in Canada after his brother's departure and became increasingly critical of the British government's handling of the war. In 1782 he was promoted to the rank of colonel and in 1784, after two others had declined it, he was appointed governor of New Brunswick, Ontario. He served there for nineteen years. He was made major general in 1793 and lieutenant general in 1803. He died in England on 2 February 1817.
SEE ALSO Valcour Island.
revised by John Oliphant