DORCHESTER, GUY CARLETON, 1ST BARON (1724— 18o8), British general and administrator, was born at Strabane, Co. Tyrone, Ireland, on Sept. 3, 1724. He served in 1759 in America as quartermaster-general, under his friend Wolfe, He was wounded at the capture of Quebec, and promoted to the rank of brigadier-general. From 1766 to 1778 he was governor-general of Canada. His justice and kindliness greatly endeared him to the recently conquered French-Canadians, and did much to hold them neutral during the War of American Independence. He ordered the first codification of the civil law of the province, and was largely responsible for the passing of the Quebec Act. On the American invasion of Canada in 1775 he was compelled to abandon Mon treal and narrowly escaped capture, but defended Quebec (q.v.) with skill and success. In October of the same year he destroyed the American flotilla on Lake Champlain. In 1777 he was super seded in his command of the military forces by Maj.-Gen. John Burgoyne, and asked to be recalled. He returned, however, to America in May 1782 as commander-in-chief, remaining till November 1783. In 1786 he was again sent to Canada as gov ernor-general and commander of the forces, with the title of Baron Dorchester. Many important reforms marked his rule ; he kept the country loyal to the British crown amid the ferment caused by the French Revolution. In 1791 the province was divided into Upper and Lower Canada by the Constitutional Act. Of this division Carleton disapproved, as he did also of a provision tending to create in the new colony an hereditary aristocracy. In 1796 he insisted on retiring. He died in England on Nov. 1o, 1808. On the death in 1897 of the 4th baron (a grandson) the title became extinct, but was revived in 1899 for his cousin and co-heiress Henrietta Anne as Baroness Dorchester.
See J. C. Dent, Canadian Portrait Gallery (Toronto 188o) ; A. G. Bradley, Life of Guy Carleton, Lord Dorchester (19o7). Most of his letters and state papers are calendared in Brymner's Reports on Canadian Archives (Ottawa, 1885, seq.) .