In The March of Folly, B.W. Tuchman writes how many colonists feared the idea of the British maintaining a permanent force of around 10,000 on the continent for defense. She attributes this to the association of that force with tyrrany. Did any precedence exist to justify this feeling among the colonists?
It was not so much contempt for the British soldiers, but rather where those troops were housed. The British government was reluctant to build barracks or large fortresses. There were some exceptions to this rule, like Fort Pitt. However, in most cases, the British quartered their troops in private houses. This was one of the major bones of contention in the run up to war, in 1775. It is also the big reason why the Third amendment to the constitution prohibited the Federal government from forcing private citizens to quarter troops on their property.
Source: "A Country Made by War" by Geoffrey Peret