 The regiment was raised by General James Marsh for service in India due to fears that war with France was imminent as the 77th (Hindoostan) Regiment of Foot in October 1787.In accordance with the Declaratory Act 1788 the cost of raising the regiment was recharged to the British East India Company on the basis that the act required that expenses "should be defrayed out of the revenues" arising there.First assembled in Dover in early 1788, the regiment arrived in India in August 1788, and saw action at the Siege of Seringapatam in February 1792 in the Third Anglo-Mysore War and the capture of the Dutch settlements in Ceylon in 1795.