The regiment was raised in Scotland by Colonel Sir John Mordaunt as Sir John Mordaunt's Regiment of Foot in 1741. In 1743, Peregrine Lascelles was appointed Colonel and until May 1745, the regiment was employed building a military road near Loch Lomond, part of a new route from Dumbarton to Inverary. On the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in 1773, the 47th was posted to New Jersey. It took part in the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775 and the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775 and the Battles of Saratoga in September 1777. The main body of the regiment was interned as part of the Convention Army and did not return home for another six years. In 1782 the regiment was given a county distinction when it was given the title the 47th (The Lancashire) Regiment of Foot. In 1791 the regiment was sent to the West Indies where it was garrisoned during much of the French Revolutionary Wars. In 1794 a second battalion was raised in Norfolk but disbanded soon afterwards.