A distant grave on the shores of Lake Ontario - John Ricclass

John Ricclass served with the 55th Foot at Oswego on the southern shore of Lake Ontario. The 55th Foot would become the 2nd Battalion The Border Regiment in 1881.

We only know that he died aged 32, and that he was buried at Fort Ontario's cemetery outside Oswego, now in New York State, in 1764.

Corporals

The military title Corporal appears in Shakespeare. It comes from Italian and dreives from 'Capor' meaning head.

The date of introduction of lance corporals to the British Army is unclear, but the rank is mentioned in late-18th century military essays such as Major William Young's "An essay on the Command of Small Detachments" (1766) and John Williamson's "The Elements of Military Arrangement" (1781):

"When from sickness or other causes there are not in a company a sufficient number of non-commission officers to do the duty, the captain can appoint corporals to do the duty of serjeants, who are called lance serjeants, and private men to do the duty of corporals, who are called lance corporals.".

North America

The 55th had arrived in North America in 1757. They took part in the disatrous assault on Fort Ticonderoga in 1758. Was Ricclass present when the Regiment’s Colonel, Lord Howe and the Regiment's Lieutenant Colonel were killed during the crazy frontal assault of the Fort's defences?

Howe’s successor, Colonel John Prideaux , was also killed in action, though this time at the the successful siege of Fort Niagara at the western end of Lake Ontario in 1759.

After Niagara the 55th were part of the army that attacked Montreal from Lake Ontario in the summer of 1760. Montreal was attacked by armies,from Quebec, Ticonderoga and Oswego. Between 1763 and 1766, the 55th fought in Pontiac’s Rebellion, the largest organized Indian campaign against British or US westward expansion in North America.

Corporal Ricclass died on 15 July 1764, of unknown causes at Fort Ontario, during this largely forgotten conflict that ended with the signing of the Treaty of Fort Ontario in 1766.

Peter Green