There were four 76th regiments of foot - formed and disbanded, with no connection between them …
The 76th Regiment of Foot was originally raised as Lord Harcourt's Regiment on 17 November 1745 and disbanded in June 1746.
Following the loss of Minorca to the French, it was raised again in November 1756 as the 61st Regiment, but renumbered to 76th, by General Order in 1758, and again disbanded in 1763. A second battalion raised by that regiment in October 1758, for service in Africa, was renumbered as the 86th Regiment and also disbanded in 1763.
On 25 December 1777 the 76th was again re-raised as the 76th Regiment of Foot (Macdonald's Highlanders) by Colonel John MacDonell of Lochgarry, in the West of Scotland and Western Isles, as a Scottish Light Infantry regiment. It was disbanded at Stirling Castle in March 1784.
The regiment was again raised for service in India by the Honorable East India Company in 1787.
The Third Iteration of the 76th:
The 76th Regiment of Foot (MacDonald's Highlanders), sometimes referred to as 'MacDonnell's Highlanders' after its colonel, John MacDonnell of Lochgarry, was a Scottish Light Infantry regiment raised in the west of Scotland and western isles of Scotland on 25 December 1777, by the Clan MacDonald. It consisted of seven companies of Highlanders: two of Lowlanders and an Irish company.
It was presented with its colours at Inverness in March 1778 and moved into barracks at Fort George. In March 1779 it moved to Perth where, following a dispute over their pay and bounty payment, soldiers from the regiment took part in the Burntisland mutiny of March 1779, whilst under the command of Major John Sinclair, 11th Earl of Caithness (Lord Berridale), after which it was transferred to Jersey in the Channel Islands and embarked for New York in August 1779.
The regiment campaigned from March 1781, under the command of Major Francis Needham, 1st Earl of Kilmorey (who was also the regimental Colonel of the 86th Foot) in the American Revolutionary War at Petersburg, Portsmouth and Osborne's Hill in the Battle of Brandywine. The regiment was captured in the Siege of Yorktown seven months later in October. It was split up and the troops were interned at various locations throughout Virginia. Following the end of the war, in 1783, it returned to Scotland and was commanded by Sir Robert Stuart. The regiment was finally disbanded at Stirling Castle in March 1784.