Robert Monckton was only 15 years old when he enlisted in the British army. He arrived in Nova Scotia in 1752 and the Governor Thomas Hopson put him in command of Fort Lawrence, situated on the banks of the Missaguash River across from French Fort Beauséjour. In 1754, Monckton was appointed Lieutenant General of Annapolis Royal and he orchestrated the capture of Fort Beauséjour in June 1755. The following fall he was put in charge of supervising the deportation of Acadians in the Minas Basin, which earned him a promotion to Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia in December 1755. Under his orders, many Acadian settlements near the Saint John and Petitcodiac Rivers were destroyed in 1758, and the following year, he took part in the siege of Québec with British commander James Wolfe. He gradually climbed through the ranks, becoming a Major General in 1761, Governor of New York in 1762 and a Lieutenant General in 1770.