General Robert Prescott ( – 21 December 1815) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator. During a military career which spanned over fifty years, he participated in the Seven Years' War and the American War of Independence, including key engagements such as the Montreal campaign. Prescott subsequently became the Governor of Martinique and then, in 1796, Governor General of the Canadas and Commander-in-Chief, North America. He was recalled to England in 1799 after conflict with the Catholic Church and disputes with Anglo-Canadian elites over land distribution. Prescott continued to hold his position until 1807, with his lieutenant governors acting in his absence. He died in 1815 after unsuccessful attempts to clear his name. though the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says that "on what grounds [this] is not clear." Other sources also suggest that he was the brother of Colonel William Prescott, the Dictionary of National Biography further states that "his family lost their estates owing to their opposition to the revolution of 1688."
The Dictionary of Canadian Biography is correct in its claim that General Prescott was the son of Captain Richard Prescott of Major-General Charles Sybourg's Horse, now the 7th Dragoon Guards. In the will of Richard Prescott, of Hanover Street, London, proved in London on 7 April 1747, Captain Richard Prescott lists his five sons - Richard, Robert, Isaac, Arthur and William - and his four daughters - Mary, Sarah, Rebecca, and Elizabeth. When the eldest son, General Richard Prescott, died in 1788, he left legacies to his brother, General Robert Prescott (who was also an executor of his will), to his sisters, Rebecca, Sarah and Elizabeth, and to Robert's daughter, Susanna Dalton.
Military career
Prescott's military career is much more well documented than his early life. He enlisted in the British Army in 1745 and became an ensign in the 15th Regiment of Foot. On 22 January 1755, he reached the rank of captain in the 15th Foot. With the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, Prescott saw action in the 1757 raid on Rochefort, and in 1758, the 15th Foot sailed for North America to participate in the French and Indian War, an ongoing conflict which had become the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War. Prescott was present at the 1758 Siege of Louisbourg. He became an aide-de-camp to General Jeffery Amherst in 1759, participating in the Montreal campaign. Afterward he served under General James Wolfe.
Prescott reappears in the military record with the outbreak of the American War of Independence in 1775. With the situation in the American colonies worsening for the British government, a number of units were mustered to be sent there. On 8 September 1775, he became lieutenant-colonel of the 28th Regiment of Foot, He also banned the immigration of Catholic priests from France, and placed the Catholic Church in Canada under strict surveillance, arguing that the colonial government should confiscate the estates held by the Sulpician order. and Prescott County are named in his honour.
See also
- List of governors general of Canada
- List of lieutenant governors of Quebec