HAL'DIMAND, Sir FREDERICK ( 1718-91 ) . A Swiss soldier of fortune in the service of Great Britain. He was born in the Canton of Neu chatel, served in the Sardinian Army and under Frederick the Great, but was in the Swiss Guard at The Hague in 1756, when, together with his friend and fellow countryman, Col. Henry Bou quet, he went to the British colonies in America, then in the throes of the French and Indian War, to enlist and command, under Lord Loudoun, a regiment of Germans, Swiss, and other nationalities, chiefly in Pennsylvania, to be called the Royal Americans. He successfully defended Oswego, and thus saved Niagara, in 1759; was with General Amherst at the capitula tion of Montreal, 1760; was Military Governor at Three Rivers; for six years was in charge of the English garrison at Pensacola, Fla. (1767-73), and then in command at New York for about a year during Gage's leave of absence.
He supported that general through the siege of Boston, and was recalled to advise the British Ministry upon American affairs, but was sent out again as Governor of Canada (1778-84). General Haldimand held down with a firm hand the French Canadian sympathizers with the American Revolution, and welcomed and cared for the many thousands of loyalists who sought refuge in Canada during and after the war. He represented Great Britain in the Vermont negotiations with the Allens and others, and he left behind him a mass of most valuable official correspondence relating thereto, as well as to the general history of America for the latter half of the eighteenth century. These papers. called the lialdimand Collection, were bequeathed to the British Museum by Sir Frederick's grand nephew (1858), and have recently been copied for the Dominion Archives at Ottawa.