Thomas Ainslie (8 February 1729 – 7 April 1806)
is most known for his role as HM Collector of Customs at Quebec, with the British
HM Customs
HM Customs (His or Her Majesty's Customs) was the national Customs service of Kingdom of England, England (and then of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain from 1707, the United Kingdom from 1801) until a merger with the HM Excise, Departme ...
, a department of the British Government. He served in Quebec as a loyalist to the crown, staunchly protecting its interests in the colony. Thomas Ainslie is the author of a journal on the siege of Quebec by the American Continental Army in the
Battle of Quebec (1775)
The Battle of Quebec () was fought on December 31, 1775, between American Continental Army forces and the British defenders of Quebec City early in the American Revolutionary War. The battle was the first major defeat of the war for the America ...
.
On 29 September 1768, Ainslie registered arms with Lord Lyon as the descendant of the Ainslies o
Dolphinston The Lord Lyon Depute granted Thomas's request, and the arms implicitly claim descent as the senior descendant of the Ainslies of Dolphinston.
In the
Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies were the British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America which broke away from the British Crown in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), and joined to form the United States of America.
The Thirteen C ...
, Ainslie appears to have been the British Customs Officer presiding over the Duty that provoked the
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a seminal American protest, political and Mercantilism, mercantile protest on December 16, 1773, during the American Revolution. Initiated by Sons of Liberty activists in Boston in Province of Massachusetts Bay, colo ...
.
Marriage
His first wife, Mary Potts, was twenty-five when she died. Ainslie had eight children with Elizabeth Martin. His daughter of that union, Christian, married his business partner,
John Young (seigneur)
Heraldry
On 15 August 2012, the registration of the Armorial Bearings of Thomas Ainslie was given under the seal of the Canadian Heraldic Authority.
Bibliography
* Canada preserved; the journal of Captain Thomas Ainslie, ed. S. S. Cohen (
oronto, 1968
Blockade of Quebec in 1775–1776 by the American revolutionists (les Bastonnais), ed. F. C. Würtele (Quebec, 1906; repr. Port Washington, N.Y., and London, 1970)
References
Further reading
* Gabriel, Michael P., Québec during the American invasion, 1775-1776 : the journal of François Baby, Gabriel Taschereau, and Jenkin Williams, East Lansing : Michigan State University Press, ©2005, Abstract: ''"The 1776 journal of Francois Baby, Gabriel Taschereau, and Jenkin Williams provides an insight into the failure to incite rebellion in Quebec by American revolutionaries. The journal focuses on French-Canadian peasants, who made up the majority of the population; and helps explain why Quebec did not become the "fourteenth colony"."''
External links
Dolphiston Castle, Canmore, National Record of the Historical Environment, Scotland.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ainslie, Thomas
1729 births
1806 deaths
People from Jedburgh