Date Published:
July 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Thomas Gage

Gage, Thomas (1721-1787), military governor of Montreal (1760-63), was born in 1721, the second son of Thomas, first Viscount Gage, in the peerage of Ireland, and Benedicta Hall. He entered the British Army, as a lieutenant in the 48th Foot, in 1741, and he rose to the rank of a full general (1782). He was with Braddock at the Monongahela in 1755, with Abercrombie at Ticonderoga in 1758, and with Amherst at Montreal in 1760. From 1760 to 1763 he was military governor of Montreal ; and his rule was marked by great leniency toward the French Canadians. In 1763 he became commander-in-chief of the British forces in North America, with headquarters at New York, and he retained this post until 1772. In 1774 he was appointed governor of Massachusetts, and he was in command at Boston during the outbreak of the American Revolution. In 1775 he was a second time appointed commander-in-chief in North America, but within a few weeks he resigned and returned to England. He died on April 2, 1787. In 1758 he married Margaret, daughter of Peter Kemball, president of the Council of New Jersey; and by her he had six sons and five daughters. His Correspondence with the secretaries of state, 1763-1775, is being edited by Carter (New Haven, 1931).

[Consult his biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.]

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Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. III, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 396p., p. 1.