Collection search - Siege of Quebec by an American force [textual record (chiefly microform)]

When the American Revolution began in 1775, the rebels decided to invade Quebec in order to remove a military threat in the north and also in the hope of winning that colony over to the revolutionary cause. In May, they captured Ticonderoga and Crown Point. In November, a force under Richard Montgomery (1738-1775) took Forts St. John's and Chambly on the Richelieu and accepted the capitulation of defenceless Montreal, where the Governor, Major-General Guy Carleton (1724-1808), was almost captured. Montgomery then joined the army with Benedict Arnold (1741-1801) outside Quebec. In a blinding December snowstorm, the rebels attacked the city, which was defended by Carleton, and were repulsed. Montgomery was killed and Arnold wounded. One hundred Americans were killed and four hundred captured. When a British fleet arrived in the Spring with reinforcements for Carleton, the besiegers were forced to withdraw.

The title was supplied from the first frame of the microfilm.

The authorship of the diary is uncertain. The title, "J. Danford's (Dornford's) Book of Memorandums on the Siege and Blockade of Quebec by the Rebels under the Command of Richard Montgomery [and] Benedict Arnold", is scored out. On the back of the vellum cover is the name A.D. Bell in a nineteenth century handwriting. The first initial "J." in J. Danford is either Jacob or John.

Additional Manuscripts 46840 was presented to the British Museum (now the British Library), in 1949, by Messrs. Bamtree and Sons, Solicitors of Witham, Essex, England, through the courtesy of the Essex County Archivist, F.G. Emmison. In 1951, the National Archives of Canada made a transcript of the volume; then in 1967, a microfilm copy of it was presented by Professor John F. Roche of Fordham University, New York, U.S.A.

The originals are held by the British Library, London, England.