The following information was provided by Tom McLachlan of the Maclachlan Society:
"Thomas MacLachlan was enrolled as a private soldier in the 44th regiment of Foot in 1780, serving at Quebec in 1783 being discharged ten years later. He re-enlisted as an ensign (2nd lieutenant) in the 3rd West Indian Regiment in 1795 and reached the rank of captain.
"... Thomas ... married Isabella Kennedy. By July 1781 he was in the 44th Regiment of Foot.He was at St Antoine in 1782, Quebec in 1783 in Captain George Benson’s company, at Cumberland Fort in 1786 and Dublin in September 1792. He was discharged from the 44th in September 1793.
"On 1st July 1795 he was gazetted an Ensign in the 3rd West Indian Regiment and a Lieutenant on 1st January 1798.He was in Captain Gladstone’s company at St Lucia and Tobago in 1803-4 and in Barbados in June 1804.His name was omitted from the regiment’s muster role in July 1804 and from the Army List of 1805.1n 1828 his son described him as a Captain of the 3rd WI."
Regarding his origins, Tom Maclachlan added:
"Bill Maclachlan said that the Doctor's father was referred to in the family as The Irishman, indicating his country of birth. Many years ago I found his name in regimental pay return spelt in one of the Irish forms although that was seldom proof of anything more that the writer's habit.
"I am convinced that inhabitants of the northern coastal areas of Ireland and those that dwelt along the West Coast of Scotland from the Mull of Galloway to the Isle of Mull, migrated in both directions encouraged by the knowledge that other members of their families had done so in the past for as long as boats have been made and, probably, earlier by land bridge(s)."
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