Basket Hilt help?

[Jim McDougall]

Absolutely mid 18th or slightly earlier, Glasgow style hilt Beautiful!!!
French were not only in Canada then but all through upper midwest and the northeast.......French Indian wars 1740s, mostly due to English concerns over French encroachment into territories etc.
The Scots were of course part of English military forces after Culloden (1746) but in many cases before.

Scottish settlers in Canada through 18th into 19th ....my grandparents were among them.
Story could be right.............regardless, magnificent basket hilt.
PLEASE clean with restraint, stablilize any corrosion.................this is breathtaking,

Another note on potential French element in the provenance, France had a profound Jacobite presence, in fact Prince Charlie was in France preCulloden.
The Jacobite presence continued there after Culloden, and Charles returned there for a time. It would be hard to say exactly how the sword was in Canada, but it is not surprising, these were widely present in America and probably Canada through the latter 18th c. after Culloden.

These also saw extensive use in the American Revolution, see "Swords and Blades of the American Revolution" George Nuemann, 1973.