75th Foot

[JanPennington]

I have been researching a family from Dumfriesshire in late 18th century and early 19th century.  Five of the eight sons died before their father and although I have not found exact details of the deaths it seems they died overseas.  The family had military and East India Company links.
The son that I am particularly interested in is David Maxwell (b 1761 - d 1835)
In Dec 1787 according to a newspaper article offering a reward for information about a deserter he was recruiting for the 75th Foot Regiment.  He married in March 1788 ( an irregular marriage for which he was fined 9 shillings) and in May his son was baptised with a note that his brother stood as sponsor as the father was overseas.
I have been unable to find anything about the 75th Foot except that it was funded by the East India Company and then merged with Gordon Highlanders.  I was wondering whether someone could point me in the right direction to find out where exactly the 75th Foot went in 1788 and if it is possible to find details of people who went to India for the Est India Company in mid to late 18th Century.
Jan

[Forfarian]

I was wondering whether someone could point me in the right direction to find out where exactly the 75th Foot went in 1788 and if it is possible to find details of people who went to India for the Est India Company in mid to late 18th Century.

The place to look is in the British India Office records. These are in the special collections in the British Library in London, but a lot of them have been digitised and are available online via FindMyPast. If you don't have a subscription, you may find that your local library has a subscription to FindMyPast.

It may also be worth having a look at https://www.fibis.org/

Not sure I can help with where the 75th Foot would have been but if they were part of the HEICS Army the records should be in the BL.

[scotmum]

Brief newspaper mention (Hampshire Chronicle), on 24th March 1788, of the 75th Foot being inspected before heading to East India. They were at Hilsea Barracks before embarking.

This article says they assembed in June 1788 before heading to England, then India (so obviously, a slight discrepancy in timescale):

http://www.electricscotland.com/history/scotreg/75th.htm

[JanPennington]

Thanks Forfarian and Scotsmum.
I have a subscription for findmypast.co.uk ( local library doesn't have the any subscriptions for Australian sites (that's where I am) let alone UK sites.  The librarians keep apologising when I ask for something that the council wouldn't fund.  I'll also try 'fibis'.

The timescale is a bit out but if he was waiting for a ship in Hillsea he would not have been able to attend his son's baptism.  The second son was born July 1792 so that defines when he got back. 
Jan

[Forfarian]

local library doesn't have the any subscriptions for Australian sites (that's where I am) let alone UK sites.  The librarians keep apologising when I ask for something that the council wouldn't fund.

That sounds very familiar!