Person:Jasper Leslie (3)

Jasper Leslie arrived in Port Mouton, Queens County, Nova Scotia in 1783 with what is called the ‘remnants of Tarleton’s Legion.’ He was in his early twenties. Tradition states that 125 soldiers drew their land grants from tickets shaken up in a hat. Some of these ‘chits’ are still in existence and the one drawn by Jasper Leslie is preserved in the collection of the Queens County Museum in Liverpool, Nova Scotia. His name is on the ‘chit’. He was granted 100 acres of land at Bells Point in Port Mouton on 2 Sept 1784. It was described as a ‘lot up the Great River, No. 98’.

There is a question whether Jasper Leslie (Lesley, Lusly) is of German or Scottish descent. Further research needs to be done to determine his ancestry.

According to a muster roll taken on 24 October 1778, a Gosper Leslie joined a troop of Dragoons in his Majesty’s corps of Chasseurs under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Andreas Emmerick on 15 June 1778 in Westchester County, New York. Andreas Emmerick, a German officer, who served under Captain Benjamin Ogden, organized this Corp, known as Emmerick’s Chasseurs, in 1777. By 1779, this Corp was disbanded and from it a troop of Light Dragoons was formed coming under the command of Captain Christian Huck. This Troop of Light Dragoons was placed with the British Legion, known generally as Tarleton’s Legion. On 12 July 1780 Captain Huck was killed at Fishing Creek, South Carolina. At that time Captain David Ogilvie took command. When the British surrendered at Yorktown on 19 October 1781, Jasper Leslie is listed among the prisoners of war as a member of Captain David Ogilvie’s troop.

In response to a query regarding Jasper Leslie in the United Empire Loyalists on-line newsletter, this answer was received in December 2009, from Todd Braisted HVP UELAC, www.royalprovincial.com

To another subject, that of Jasper Leslie. Jasper Leslie enlisted in Captain Ogden's Troop of Emmerick's Chasseurs, commanded by Lt. Col. Andreas Emmerick. According to the muster rolls, the date of his enlistment was 15 June 1778. However, we have an extremely rare document that gives the date as a few weeks earlier, as well as providing a wealth of information rarely found for Provincials. It is transcribed below in full:

I Jasper Lesley of the County City of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania aged Seventeen Years by Trade a Husbandman declare that I am a True & Loyal Subject to His Majesty King George the Third and that I have no Rupture, nor ever was troubled with Fits; that I am not disabled by Lameness or otherwise, and that I have voluntarily inlisted myself to serve his Majesty King GEORGE the Third, as a Private Dragoon during the present Rebellion or Disturbance in America in & do hereby make over all my estate both Real & personal for my good Behaviour in a Corps of Chasseurs whereof Andreas Emmerick is Lieut. Colonel Commandt. and that I have received the Inlisting Money which I agreed for. Witness my Hand, this Twenty Eighth Day of May 1778.

his Jasper X Lusly mark

THIS is to certify that the above-named Jasper Lesley came before me, one of his Majesty’s Justices of the Peace for the County of West Chester declared that he had voluntarily inlisted himself to serve his Majesty King GEORGE the Third, in the above-mentioned Battalion of Chasseurs and doth acknowledge to have heard read unto him the second and sixth Sections of the Articles of War, against Mutiny and Desertion, and took the Oath of Fidelity mentioned in the Articles of War. Sworn before me, this first Day of August 1778.

David Oakley/ Justice

Source:k State Library, Miscellaneous Manuscripts, No. 3616.

I have only run across about 50 such documents of this type, all for Emmerick's Chasseurs, 1778-1779. Captain Christian Huck of the Chasseurs was from Philadelphia and recruited there in 1778, before the British evacuation in June of that year. It is possible Leslie was one of those recruits.

The Chasseurs were drafted on 31 August 1779. From them Leslie went with a troop of light dragoons commanded by Captain Christian Huck into the British Legion, commanded by Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton. Huck being killed at Brattonsville, South Carolina in July 1780, the troop was taken over by Captain David Ogilvie. Leslie had not served much longer before the spectacular British victory at Camden, South Carolina on 16 August 1780. Leslie, unfortunately for him, was one of the few casualties of the British Legion, being taken prisoner, probably during the initial skirmish in the road in the middle of the night, between the advance guard cavalry of each side. He would remain a prisoner for the remainder of the war, until exchanged in May/June 1783. Records show him as a prisoner in Philadelphia in February 1782, where he had probably been since shortly after his capture.

Sorry to be so lengthy, but thought this may be of interest to folks.

www.royalprovincial.com

1. ↑ E. Murray Mosher. The Leslie Family of Port Mouton, Queens County, Nova Scotia. (Queens County Museum, Liverpool, Queens, NS, 17 July 2002 (date found)).
2.   Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia Database, Url: http:/freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~downeast/3index..
3.   Institute for Advanced Loyalists Studies, Url: www.royalprovincial.com/military/rhist/emmerick/emmhist.htm.
4.   1787 Nova Scotia Census.
5. ↑ Birth year is based on he was 17 in 1778 when he enlisted in the British Legion.
6. ↑ when last child was born.