The Hon. John Munro (1728 – October 27, 1800) was a soldier, judge and political figure in Upper Canada.
Born in 1728 at Fyrish, Alness, he was descended on both sides from the Clan Munro of Foulis Castle. His father, Hugh Munro, was a Munro of Milntown of Katewell, and his mother, Christiana Munro of Fyrish (the builders of the Fyrish Monument), was descended from Robert Munro, 14th Baron of Foulis. His precise ancestry is recorded in the Lord Lyon Court of Arms.
John Munro came to North America in 1756 with 48th (Northamptonshire) Regiment of Foot during the Seven Years' War to fight in the French and Indian War. In 1760 he married Marie Talbot Gilbert Brouwer (1738-1815) of 'a prominent Dutch family', descended from Admiral Hendrik Brouwer who discovered the Brouwer Route.
After his military service he chose to stay in America. Awarded for his military service, he settled on extensive land grants east of the Hudson River at Schenectady, Albany County where he built a large estate which he named Fowlis. He prospered in business (particularly the fur trade, becoming a close life-long friend of Simon McTavish) and became a magistrate for the county of New York, where he came into open conflict with Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys during the dispute over the New Hampshire Grants.
At the outset of the American Revolutionary War he openly declared his loyalty to the Crown and was instrumental in secretly enlisting many of his tenants and neighbours (many of whom were disbanded soldiers of the British and Highland Regiments) into the British Army before he was arrested and jailed. Sentenced to hang, he escaped to Dundas County, Ontario to join his friend Sir John Johnson who appointed him a captain in the First Battalion of the King's Royal Regiment of New York. This account appears in the history of Schenectady,
On the 16th October, 1780, a party of 400 Regulars and Indians from Canada, under Major Munro, a Tory from Schenectady, made their appearance in the Ballston settlement. They designed to attack Schenectady, but returned without effecting this object. They pillaged several houses and took 24 prisoners [1]
In 1781 Munro found himself stationed in Montreal in charge of the housing and care of the many Loyalist refugees who ended up there. In 1784, at the conclusion of the American War of Independence, Munro settled in what would become the Lunenburg District of Upper Canada. Some accounts state that he retired with the rank of Colonel.
Although he received almost no compensation for his lost property in the America, he was appointed to the land board for the Lunenburg district in 1788 and received large land grants in the area. He was appointed to the Legislative Council for the province and became a judge in the district court. He died at Dickinson's Landing in 1800.
His wife, Mary, with their seven children had also eventually escaped to join Munro in Canada, making their home at L'Assomption, Quebec whilst they waited for the resolution of Munro's loyalist claims. Their son Hugh married Angelique, daughter of Laurent Leroux, and a daughter, Mary Charlotte, married Michel-Eustache-Gaspard-Alain Chartier de Lotbinière.