Kingston, a city since 1846Kingston was successively an Indian encampment, a French fort and trading post, a United Empire Loyalist settlement and a British garrison town. Kingston owed its continuing military and commercial importance to its strategic position at the head of the St. Lawrence River and the foot of the Great Lakes. From 1841-1844, Kingston was the capital of the United Province of Canada. Late in the nineteenth century, Kingston declined as a port and transportation centre; it has become a city of institutions and service industries - recreation, education, military, penal and health care.The largest Loyalist Corps in the Northern Department during the American Revolution, the King's Royal Regiment of New York, was raised on June 19, 1776 under the command of Sir John Johnson. Originally composed of one battalion with ten companies, a second battalion was added in 1780. The regiment known as the "Royal Yorkers" participated in the bitter war fought on the colonial frontier, conducting raids against settlements in New York and employed in garrison duty. When active campaigning ceased in 1783, the regiment assumed various responsibilities, notably the establishment of a base in Kingston in preparation for the settlement of the Loyalists.In 1846 Edward Horsey designed and built Elizabeth Cottage (Page 32) as his architectural office and home for his wife Jane and their seven children. The Gothic Revival style was novel for Kingston House at this time. His design features lacy verge boards and strong finials accenting the parapeted front wall (low wall at edge of roof), quatrefoils, crenellations, a variety of decorative window types, including oriel, pointed-arch, and bay windows enlivened with label moldings and tracery. Below the oriel window is a verandah with openwork buttresses as posts.