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Career op Hugh Macdonell (Aberchalder),
M.P. for First Riding of Glengarry in First Parliament of Upper
Canada.—Testimony of Colonel Mathews, Military Secretary to Lord Dorchester,
as to Services of Himself and his Family.—First Adjutant-General of Militia
Upper Canada.—Appointed Consul-General at Algiers.—Duke of Kent's Tribute to
his Memory.— His Family.—His Brother, Colonel Chichester Macdonell, Another
U. E. Loyalist Officer.—Alexander Macdonell (Collachie), M.P. for Glengarry
and Speaker House of Assembly, 1804.—His Services in Revolutionary War and
War of 1812.
Another of the Highland
Loyalist Officers who settled in Glengarry at the close of the Revolutionary
War, represented the County in Parliament, achieved considerable distinction
in the Province, and afterwards rose to high position in a far distant part
of the world, was Hugh Macdonell, a brother of Colonel John Macdonell of
Aberchalder. This gentleman commanded a company in his brother's Regiment
(Royal Canadian Volunteers) on its first establishment, and afterwards was
transferred to the Second Battalion, and in which he was at once the Senior
Captain. In 1803 he was Lieutenant Colonel of the Glengarry Militia
Regiment, of which his elder brother was Colonel. He was appointed by
Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe to be the first Adjutant-General of Militia in
Upper Canada, and was the founder of our Militia system. He sat as one of
the members for Glengarry in the first Legislature of the Province. On the
18th September, 1792, the day following the opening of the first session,
the Address in reply to the Speech from the Throne having been adopted, it
was "ordered that Mr. Smith and Mr. Hugh Macdonell do Wait on His Excellency
to know when His Excellency Will be pleased to receive the House with the
said Address."
In the debate on the Dual
language question, in 1890, reported in Hansard, vol. 1, p. 894, Sir John
Macdonald-quoted an order of the House of 3rd of July, 1793, on a motion
made by Mr. Macdonell as follows:—"Ordered that such Acts as have already
passed, or may hereafter pass the Legislature of the Province, be translated
into the French language for the benefit of the inhabitants of the Western
District of this Province and other French settlers who may come to reside
within the Province, and that A. Macdonell, Clerk of this House, be employed
for this and other purposes."
The meagre records, even
where any exist at all, of the proceedings of the earlier Legislatures do
not enable us to ascertain what particular part any individual member took
in parliamentary life in those days. This gentleman, however, did not remain
very long in Parliament or in the Province. Letters in my possession at
present show him to have enjoyed the friendship and patronage of the Duke of
Kent, and he appears to have merited it.
Of the services of himself
and family (Aberchalder) and the clansmen of Glengarry during the
Revolutionary War, Colonel Mathews, Military Secretary to Lord Dorchester,
who was in a better position to speak authoritatively than any other man,
wrote as follows to the Under Secretary of State for War, when Capt.
Macdonell, after leaving Canada, laid his claim for continued employment in
the service before the British Government:—
"Chelsea College, 23rd June,
1804,
"Dear Sir,
"Understanding that Captain
Hugh Macdonell. late of the Royal Canadian Volunteers, has been particularly
recommended to the Earl of Camden, and that he will consequently have the
honour to wait upon you, I cannot, with the intimate knowledge I possess of
his own and the meritorious services and sufferings of his family, forbear
of taking the liberty of troubling you with a few lines, in the hope of
interesting you in his favour.
"His father and uncle,
respectable men in the Highlands of Scotland, left that country with their
families and considerable property, a few years before the Rebellion in
America, with a view to establish themselves in that country, having for
that purpose carried out a number of their dependents. They obtained a
valuable grant of land from Sir John Johnson on the Mohawk River, in the
settlement of which they had made considerable progress.
"When the Rebellion broke out
they were the first to fly to arms on the part of Government, in which they
and their adherents, not less than two hundred men, took a most active and
decided lead, leaving their families and property at the mercy of the
rebels.
"I was at that time quartered
at Niagara, and an eye-witness of the gallant and successful exertions of
the Macdonell's and their dependents, by which, in a great measure, the
Upper Country of Canada was preserved, for on this little body a very fine
battalion was soon formed, and afterwards a second.
"Captain Macdonell's father
and uncle, at that time advanced in years, had companies in that Corps and
in which his elder brother, afterwards an active and distinguished partisan,
carried arms. The sons of both families, five or six in number, the moment
they could bear arms, followed the bright example of their fathers, and soon
became active and useful officers in that and another corps of Rangers,
whose strength and services greatly contributed to unite the Indians of the
Five Nations in the interest of Government, and thereby decidedly to save
the Upper Country of Canada and our Indian trade.
"These Corps were reduced on
the peace in 1783, and were settled in Upper Canada on grants of land from
Government, where Captain Macdonell's father and uncle died a few years
after with a total loss of all their property and the-means of assisting
their families.
Captain Macdonell afterwards
held a company in the Canadian Volunteers, of which his elder brother,
before mentioned, was Colonel but that also being disbanded, and he not
having rank in the army, he is literally left destitute after a service of
twenty-six years—for I countersigned his commission as Lieutenant twenty
three years ago. Thus a valuable officer is lost to himself and to the
service, whose abilities either in a civil or a military capacity,
particularly in Canada, where his knowledge of the French language, the
customs and manners of the people, and of the interests of the Indian
nation, might be turned to good account, while the services and sufferings
of very deserving officer would be rewarded.
"I have the honour to be,
dear sir,
"Your very obedient and
humble servant,
"R Mathews.
"Edward Cooke, Esq."
Such statements emanating
from one who had so long been on the staff of Sir Guy Carleton (Lord
Dorchester) constitute high praise indeed, and are indisputable proof of the
loyalty and merit of the Glengarry men. Colonel Mathews and that eminent
essayist, Mr. George Sandfield Macdonald, do not appear to agree, but I
venture to suggest that the former is probably the better authority of the
two as regards the United Empire Loyalists. Psychological and sociological
research and disquisition is evidently Mr George Sand held Macdonald's
forte. He had better follow John Richard Green in that field, and leave the
"humble and ignorant" Highlanders alone or confine himself to "individuals
of distinction." The descendants of "the people" will preserve the memories
and deeds of their own forbears and write their history.
Lord Camden, then Colonial
Secretary, writing to Lieutenant-Governor Hunter, under date Downing Street,
2nd August, 1804, states : * * * a very favourable representation
having been made to me by General Simcoe of the merits and services of
Captain Hugh Macdonell, who was formerly appointed Adjutant-General of the
Militia Forces in Upper Canada, and who appears to have received, up to the
1st June, 1795, only, the pay intended to have been allowed to him, I am to
authorize you to issue to him or his agent from the date above specified
until your arrival in Canada in 1799, when his services as Adjutant-General
appear to have been regularly dispensed with, an allowance at the rate of
five shillings per day."
After the close of the
Revolutionary War, and previous to the raising of the R. C. V., Mr.
Macdonell was Surveyor of the Eastern District of Upper Canada, and
surveyed, I believe, the greater portion of it. including the County of
Glengarry. After his death, his widow prepared a statement of his services
in Canada, from which I take the following extract:—
"It was universally known
that the settlement of Upper Canada was originally a matter resorted to on
the cessation of the hostilities with the United States, consequent on the
extensive reduction in the army which took place on that event, the
Government granting portions of land proportioned to respective grades on
which occasion Mr. Macdonell was allotted five hundred acres as a reduced
Lieutenant on half-pay. Subsequently a more liberal allowance was extended
to the officers, by which he became entitled to one thousand five hundred
acres more, which grant, from inadvertence, was deferred and finally was
never located, although he was Surveyor to the Eastern District of the
Province, and in virtue of which the duty of the assignment of land to those
entitled devolved upon him.
The Government under the
anxious desire of conciliating the the (Lower) Canadian gentry. to their
rather recent condition of British subjects, authorized Lord Dorchester, the
Governor and Captain-General of the Canadas, to raise a certain force as an
expedient, his Lordship committed this service to Mr. Macdonell's elder
brother, the officers being selected from half-pay native Canadians. Two
Battalions were within a reasonable time embodied, in one of which Mr.
Macdonell was Senior Captain. This levy, destined for the service and
security of the Canadas and other colonial possessions in British North
America, volunteered to extend their services to any quarter where they
might be deemed to be most available, and had existed for a period of about
eight years, until the measure of the Treaty of Amiens was compassed, when
this force, which was always considered to be intended to be permanent, was,
to the astonishment of all and indignation of many, included in the
reduction of the army which followed that event, without conferring rank,
half-pay on any remuneration whatsoever on the unfortunate officers, by
which narrow policy and unlucky parsimony the case that was meant to be
propitiated became on the contrary more deeply aggrevated.
Having abandoned the pursuits
and occupations that he held previously to joining the lately-reduced Corps,
considering them to be incompatible with his new position, he parted with a
valuable water mill property to satisfy a considerable claim upon him in
consequence of having become security for an individual who failed in his
engagements. In short, he parted with whatever property he might have
remained possessed of, and determined to move from a country where his lot
had been so singularly uuprosperous, and with what he considered his
incontestable claim for employment, he repaired to London. He was about to
be satisfied with a lieutenancy in the Fusiliers when the extreme benignity
of His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent saved him from the mortification of
having again to enter the army in the grade of subaltern by obtaining for
him the appointment of Assistant Commissary General within his own
government (Gibraltar). He continued in this department till he was, still
through the protection of his Royal benefactor, called upon to repair to
Algiers.
"I have entered into a
tedious detail of matters persona, to my late husband solely to establish
that his absence from Canada while engaged in the public service ought not
surely to be considered prejudicial to any claims he might have pending in
that country.
"I might further add, without
grounding any pretensions on it, that Mr. Macdonell had a younger brother,
Lieut.Col. Chichester Macdonell, who died in India while in command of the
54th Regiment, who was entitled to an equal grant of land with himself, and
which he firmly believed was never located—if any part, certain!/ not to the
extent of the second allotment. Further, to obviate a doubt that might arise
respecting the perfect authenticity of my children's claims I have to state
that Mr. Macdonell was a Member for the first Riding of the County of
Glengarry of the first House of Assembly of which his elder brother was
Speaker and that he was appointed by General Simcoe, Lieutenant-Governor of
the Province, to the post of Adjutant-General of the Militia Station, to
which from relative circumstances he attached some moment, the number of
troops assigned for the service of Upper Canada being necessarily limited."
Captain Hugh Macdonell's
subsequent career is so interesting and so well worth recording that I
venture shortly to digress with that object.
Colonel Playfair, H. M.
Consul-General at Algiers, in his annals of British relations with Algiers,
entitled "The Scourge of Cbristendom" states that Mr. Macdonell began his
career in 1778 as an Ensign in the King's Royal Regiment of New York, and
that he rose to be Adjutant-General of the Province of Upper Canada; that in
1805 he was appointed Assistant Commissary-General at Gibraltar. In 1810 he
with Lord Cochrane, K. B., and Captain Harding, R. E., was sent to Algiers
to inspect and report upon La Calle, and in 1811 Mr. Macdonell, under the
patronage of the Duke of Kent, was sent as Consul-General to Algiers, where
it the hands of the infamous Dey he suffered the greatest hardships and
privations the lives of himself and his family being in almost constant
jeopardy, and he not infrequently imprisoned. It was necessary for Lord
Exmouth, then in command of the Mediterranean fleet, to bombard Algiers in
order to procure his release in August, 1816. Having effected his purpose
and before resigning his command, Lord Exmoulh publicly thanked Mr.
Macdonell as follows :—
"I cannot deny myself the
satisfaction of offering you my public thanks for the assistance I have
received from your activity and intelligence in my late negotiations with,
the Regency of Algiers, and more especially for the manly firmness you have
displayed throughout all the violence and embarassments occasioned by the
late discussions, of which it will afford me sincere pleasure to bear
testimony to His Majesty's Ministers on my return to England."
The plague, which had broken
out in 1817, spread rapidly throughout the country. The Dey continued to
send out plague-stricken cruisers against vessels of Prussia and the Hanse
Town especially, but they visited those of every other nation and thus
spread the contagion all over the Mediterranean. He had a fiendish delight
in thus propagating the fell disease, and he even on one occasion attempted
the life of Mr. Macdonell by causing a wretch who had it to cast a cloak on
the Consul's shoulders. Retribution however, speedily overtook him, and he
died of it himself on March 1, 1818.
His successor, Hussein bin
Hassan, took immediate steps to hasten the equipment of Algerine cruisers
but he yielded to the representations of the British Government that they
should not be sent forth during the continuance of the plague. The average
number of deaths from the plague was fifty daily. It was computed that
16,000 souls had died of it in Algiers, while Constantina, Bona and Blidah
were almost depopulated.
Mr. Macdonell continued as
Consul at Algiers until 1820, when he was pensioned by the British
Government.
Colonel Playfair states of
Mr. Macdonell: "For many years he had rendered excellent service to the
state. The Duke of Kent always entertained the highest opinion of his
character and abilities, and maintained a constant personal correspondence
with him." A letter written by Lieutenant-Colonel Harvey contains a most
flattering testimony of his worth: His Royal Highness has always understood
from those who have had occasion to be acquainted with his proceedings at
Algiers that his conduct has invariably met with the highest approbation of
Government for the judgment and firmness he has evinced in the most trying
moments, a circumstance peculiarly gratifying to the Duke, who reflects with
pleasure upon his being the first who brought him forward."
Alter Mr. Macdonell's death,
his widow (his second wife,' who was a daughter of Admiral Uirich, Danish
Consul-General at Algiers) married the Duke de Talleyrand-Perigord, and died
at Florence in 1870 at a very advanced age.
Mr. Macdonell's two
sons—General Sir Alexander Macdonell, K.C.B., Colonel-Commandant of the
Prince Consort's Own Rifle Brigade, and Mr. Hugh Guion Macdonell, C.B.,
C.M.G., Her Majesty's Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy-Extraordinary to
the King of Denmark—still survive. It is gratifying to find that the sons of
a gentleman who first represented the County of Glengarry in Parliament have
risen to the highest preferment in the military and diplomatic services.
Hart's Army List gives Sir Alexander Macdonell's distinguished career as
follows :—
"Second lieutenant, 23 June,
1837, Lieutenant. May 11, 1841 Captain, 24 October 1845; Brevet Major, 12
December, 1854, Major, 22 December, 1854; Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel, 17 July
1855; Lieutenant-Colonel, 1 June, 1857; Colonel, 20 July, 1858;
Major-General, 6 March, 1868; Lieutenant-General. 1 October, 1877; General,
1 April, 1882; Colonel Commandant Rifle Brigade, 14 January, 1886. &
"Served with the Rifle
Brigade in the Kaffir War of 1846-7 medal; also . throughout the Eastern
Campaign of 1854 as Aide-de-Camp to Sir George Brown, and present at the
affair of Bulganac capture or Bahklava and Battles of Alma and Inkernu;
Commanded the 2nd Battalion from May, 1855, to the Fall of Sebastopol
including the defence of the Quarries on 7 June and assaults of the Redan on
18 June and 8 Sept. [medal with three clasps, brevet of Major and
lieutenant-Colonel, t.S., Knight of the Legion of Honour Safsmran and
Turkish medals, and 5th class of the Medjidie]
"Commanded the 3rd Battalion
during the Indian Mutiny, in eluding the Skirmish of Secundra, Siege and
Capture of I.ucknow and subsequent operations [brevet of Colonel, medal with
clasp]. Also served in the campaign on the Northwest Frontier of India in
1864 [medal].
"Commanded the Expedition
against the Mohmund tribes in 1863-4 [medal with clasp].
In this Regiment (the Prince
Consort's Own Rifle Brigade), in which Sir Alexander Macdonell is now
Colonel-Commandant, and of which His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught
and Strathearn, K.G., is Colonel-in-Chief—another officer, a native of this
country, and son of a gentleman whose name will ever be held in grateful
remembrance by all Canadians, has attained high rank. I refer to Colonel C.
W. Robinson, C. B., now Assistant Military Secretary at the Horse Guards.
Colonel Robinson is the youngest son of the late Sir John Beverley Robinson,
Bart., for many years the eminent Chief-Justice of Upper Canada, and a
brother of the Honourable John Beverley Robinson, recently
Lieutenant-Governor of this Province. This is not the first time these names
have been associated; both gentlemen are descendants of Loyalist officers of
the Revolutionary War, Sir Alexander Macdonell, as we have seen, being a son
of an officer in the King's Royal Regiment of New York, and Colonel Robinson
the grandson of Chistopher Robinson, who was an Ensign in the Queen's
Rangers in the same War, and both of whom held seats in the earlier
Parliaments of Upper Canada.
Again, Mr (afterwards Sir
John) Robinson, at the time a student m the office of Colonel John Macdonell
(Greenfield), who was then Attorney-General of Upper Canada, was a
Lieutenant in the York Volunteers, and present with Colonel Macdonell at the
Capture of Detroit and the Battle of Queenston Heights, where Sir Isaac
Brock and Colonel Macdonell fell, and he was one of the pall-hearers of the
latter when the remains of General Brock and his Aide de-Camp were interred
after the dearly-bought victory then achieved. It is a somewhat strange fact
that the present Sir Alexander Macdonell should be a first cousin of the
then member for Glengarry, Colonel Macdonell, who was killed seventy-seven
long years ago, "while gallantly charging up the hill with the hereditary
courage of his race," as Sir Isaac Brock's biographer states of him, Wounded
four places, and with a bullet having passed completely through his body."
Perhaps here I may mention
that Mr. John Beverley Robinson, the recent Lieutenant-Governor, was one of
nose who strongly urged me to attempt the task I have now undertaken, of
writing a sketch of the early history of our County on the ground, as he
wrote me, that "the history of Glengarry is a proud record of most valuable
services rendered to the country in early times, when the men of that County
made its name famous in War and Peace."
The youngest son of Mr. Hugh
Macdonell, M. P. for Glengarry, Mr. Hugh Guion Macdonell, at the age of 16,
also obtained a commission in the same distinguished Regiment as his
brother, the Rifle Brigade, and served on the Cape Frontier, where he
contracted a severe rheumatic fever, which precluded him from joining his
Regiment in the Crimea. He was then obliged to enter the diplomatic service,
in which his career has been as follows :—
"Was appointed attache at
Florence, February 8, 1854; passed an examination for a paid attachment,
October 27, 1858; was appointed paid attache at Washington, November 23,
1858 ; it Constantinople, December 13, 1858 fourth paid attache there,
December 31, 1859, and third paid attache, November 24, 1869. Was appointed
a second secretary, October 1, 1862; was transferred to Rio de Janeiro,
August 10. 1865 (but did not proceed thither), and to Copenhagen, July
24,1866. Was promoted to be Secretary of Legation at Buenos Ayres, April 9,
1869, where he was Acting Charge d'Affaires from December 12, 1869,.till
December 15, 1872. Was transferred to Madrid, October 26, 1872, where he was
Acting Charge d'Affaires from June 26 to October 6, 1873, and from June 24
till September 25, 1874. Was promoted to be Secretary of Embassy at Berlin,
January 15, 1875, where he was Acting Charge d'Affaires from August 4 till
September 13, 1875; from June 26 till July 15, 1876; from August 4 till
September 4, 1876; from May 3 till July 3, 1877; and from September 26 till
November 24, 1877. Was transferred to Rome, May 6, 1878, where he was Acting
Charge d'Affaires from July 7 till October 29, 1878; from August 23
Jill September 27, 1879; from July 19 till October 23, 1880; from April 23
till May 2, 1881 : and from Jjuly 28 till September 28, 1881. Was promoted
to be Charge dAffaires at Munich, February 23, 1882, and to be Envoy
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Emperor of Brazil,
November 5, 1885. Transferred in the same capacity to the King of Denmark,
February in 1839."
The daughters of Mr. Hugh
Macdonell (the member for Glengarry) were married to Mr. Holstein, who
succeeded Admiral Ulrich as Danish Consul-General at Algiers ; General Sir
Robert Wynyard, Military-Governor of the Cape of Good Hope ; General Sir
George Brown, who commanded the Light Division in the Crimea War, and was
Adjutant-General of the Forces; Captain Buck, Royal Navy; Viscount Aquado;
Captain Cumberland, Forty-Second Royal Highlanders ; and Don Augusto Conte,
late Spanish Ambassador in Vienna. Another daughter was a religieuse of the
Order of the Sacred Heart.
A brother of Colonel John
Macdonell and Mr. Hugh Macdonell was Lieutenant-Colonel Chichester Macdonell,
who also was a Loyalist Officer in the Revolutionary War, having commenced
his military career as a Second Lieutenant in Butler's Rangers. He did not
remain in Canada on the conclusion of that War, but continued in the service
and became successively Lieutenant-Colonel of the Eighty-Second and Thirty
Fourth Regiments of Foot. He served under Sir John Moore at Corunna and died
on service in India. After his death, a medal having been struck for
Corunna, a gold medal was transmitted to his family by direction of the
Prince Regent to be deposited with them "as a token of the respect which His
Royal Highness entertained for the memory of that officer." Mr. Hugh
Macdonell, the British Minister at Copenhagen, had the kindness and courtesy
to send me the original letter from H. R. H. the Duke of York,
Commander-in-Chief, enclosing his uncle's medal. It is a coincidence that it
should be from the same illustrious personage as another in my possession
forwarding another gold medal (to my grandfather) for the Capture of
Detroit, to be deposited with his family, "as a token of the respect which
His Majesty entertained for the memory of Lieutenant-Colonel John Macdonell,
who was killed with Brock at Queenston Heights, and who was a nephew of
Colonel Chichester. Still another of their relatives, Sir James Macdonell,
Glengarry's Brother, "the stalwart and indomitable defender of Hougoumont,"
"the bravest man in Britain," had another of these hard-earned but glorious
tokens of the Sovereign's approbation and their country's gratitude, while
Colonel George Macdonell, of the Glengarry Fencibles, another relative and
clansman, was awarded one of the two gold medals given for Chateauguay, de
Salaberry getting the other.
A sister of the foregoing
gentlemen had been marred in Scotland to Alexander Macdonell of Greenfield
before either of the families came to this country, and was the mother of
Lieutenant-Colonel Duncan Macdonell of Greenfield, Lieutenant-Colonel John
Macdonell, and Lieutenant-Colonel Donald Greenfield Macdonell—the two latter
of whom both afterwards represented the County of Glengarry in Parliament,
and all of whom, together with their father and relatives innumerable, did
their fair share of fighting in perilous times not far distant. Another
sister was married to Captain (afterwards General) Wilkinson, and a third to
Captain (afterwards General) Ross, and brother of Field Marshal Ross.
Still another of the Loyalist
officers who represented the County-was Alexander Macdonell (Collachie).
This gentleman was born at Fort Augustus, in Glengarry, Scotland, in 1762,
and was a son of Mr. Allan Macdonell, whose name is appended with that of
Sir John Johnson to the various negotiations with the American General
Schuyler before hostilities actually took place in the ill-fated Valley of
the Mohawk in 1776, and who appears to have been commissioned to speak more
particularly on behalf of the Scotch inhabitants of that district. His
father was one of the six prisoners taken by General Schuyler on the 19th
January of that year, together with two of his nephews, it being previously
agreed that "all due deference should he paid to their rank, and that being
gentlemen they should be permitted to wear their side arms." They were sent
to Lancaster in Pennsylvania, and were detained during the greater portion
of the continuance of hostilities. Mr. Alexander Macdonell's mother was a
daughter of the Chief of MacNab, and, like most of the Scotch women of that
day, made of good stuff. She, too, was eventually taken prisoner, as was
Lady Johnson. From her place of captivity at Schenectady, whither she was
taken with her two daughters, she wrote to her son on learning that he had,
though too young for a commission, joined her Sovereign's forces as a
volunteer, exhorting him to be brave and "never to forget that all the blood
in his veins was that of a Highland gentleman"—much the same sentiment as
was in Fraser's mind when he wrote:
Fight as your fathers fought,
Fall as your fathers fell;
Thy task's taught; thy shroud is wrought—
So, Forward and Farewell!
Mrs. Macdonel1 managed to
effect her escape from her place of imprisonment in 1780, and made her way
to New York, which was then in possession of the British forces.
An interesting letter of
hers, written before she was taken prisoner and when, her husband being
prisoner of war, she appears to have been left in charge of the settlement
and such of the men as had not already accompanied Sir John Johnson to
Canada, is given in a book lately published at Albany, "The Orderly Book of
Sir John Johnson"
"Collachie, 15th March, 1777.
"Sir,
"Some time ago I wrote you a
letter much to this purpose concerning the inhabitants of this bush being
made prisoners. There was no such thing then in agitation as you were
pleased to observe in your letter to me that morning. Mr. Billie Laird came
among the people to give them warning to go in to sign and swear. To this
they will never consent, being already prisoners of General Schuyler. His
Excellency was pleased by your proclamation directing every one of them to
return to their farms, and that they should be no more troubled nor molested
during the war. To this they agreed, and have not done anything against the
country, nor intend to if left alone. If not, they will lose their lives
before being taken prisoners again. They begged of me the favour to write to
Major Fonda and the gentlemen of the committee to this purpose. They blame
neither the one nor the other of you gentlemen, but those ill-natured
fellows amongst them that got up an excitement about nothing in order to
igratiate themselves in your favour They were of very great hurt to your
cause since May last, through violence and ignorance. I do not know what the
cause would have been to them long ago if not prevented. Only think what
daily provocation does! Jenny joins me in compliments to Mrs. Fonda.
"I am, sir,
"Your humble servant,
"Helen Macdonell."
Mr. Alexander Macdonell
served as a cadet under Sir John Johnson at the Attack upon Fort Schuyler,
the Battle of Oriskany and in most of the severe skirmishes which took place
in the Valley of the Mohawk in 1777. In 1778, being then sixteen years of
age, he was appointed to an ensigncy in the Second Battalion of the Royal
Highland Emigrant Regiment (.Eighty-Fourth), and was present at the Battle
of Monmouth, and served under General Clinton at Philadelphia until that
city was evacuated by the British forces, who retired to New York. Mr.
Macdonell there received his Lieutenancy. He was made the bearer of
despatches from Sir Henry Clinton to General Haldimand, commanding in
Canada. From New York he proceeded to Rhode Island, thence making his way
via Lakes George and Champlain to Canada, principally on foot. Shortly after
his arrival, he was transferred to Butler's Rangers, with which he remained
on active service until the close of the War, when he was placed on
half-pay. When General Simcoe was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Upper
Canada in 1792, he appointed Mr Macdonell—who had been favourably known to
him during his service in the army—Sheriff of the Home District, which
included the present Counties of Northumberland, Durham, Ontario, York,
Halton, Peel, Simcoe and others. Upon the removal of the seat of Government
from Newark to York in 1797, he went to reside in the latter place, and
continued to be Sheriff of the Home District until 1805. From 1805; to 1812
Mr. Macdonell acted as agent for Lord Selkirk in superintending his
settlement at Baldoon in the Western District. This settlement was formed by
Lord Selkirk subsequent to a similar one he had formed in Prince Edward
Island for the purpose of benefitting his Highland fellow-countrymen.
Mr. Macdonell represented the
County of Glengarry in several of the earlier Parliaments, and in 1804 was
elected Speaker of the House of Assembly of the Province.
When war was declared m 1812,
he hastened to return to Canada from London, whither he had gone on private
affairs, was gazetted Colonel of Militia and appointed Assistant
Paymaster-General to the Militia force.
At the Capture of Niagara by
the Americans on May 26, 1813, he was made prisoner of war, and sent to
Lancaster in Pennsylvania, where he was detained until the close of the War.
It happened, singularly enough, that he was then imprisoned in the same
place in the same town in which his father (who in early life had fought
with Prince Charlie at Culloden) had previously been kept prisoner in
consequence of his stern loyalty to the British Crown in the Revolutionary
War of 1776, so that this family had their fair share of sufferings and
hardships.
On the conclusion of the War,
and the consequent disbandment of the various Regiments, many of the men
entitled to land were settled by the Government on the waste lands of the
Crown throughout the Province, and especially in the neighbourhood of Perth,
and Mr. Macdonell was appointed Superintendent of the settlement.
The officers of the
Department for Settlers in Upper Canada were as follows :—
Superintendent—Alexander
Macdonell. Esquire.
Deputy Superintendent—D. McGregor Rogers.
Secretary- and Store-keeper—Daniel Duverne.
Officers in charge—Captain
Richard Bullock, senior ; Lieutenant Angus Macdonell,1 Lieutenant Mclver.
Surgeon—John Caldwell.
Subsequently in 1816 he was
appointed Assistant Secretary of the Indian Department, on accepting which,
it being an Imperial appointment, he forfeited his half-pay which he had
received since the disbandment of Butler's Rangers.
The Honourable Alexander
Macdonell was subsequently for many years a member of the Legislative
Council of Upper Canada, and died in Toronto on 14th March, 1842, full of
years and the esteem of all good men.
The people of Glengarry can
thus point with some degree of pride to the services rendered to, and the
sacrifices made for the country by this gentleman, whom their fathers
deservedly entrusted with the representation of their franchises when
representative government was in its infancy in this Province.
Of his brothers, Angus
Macdonell, also of course a Highland Loyalist, was the first Clerk of the
Legislative Assembly in 1792, and was one of the earliest barristers of
Upper Canada, and Treasurer of the Law Society of Upper Canada from 1801 to
1804. He was Member for Durham, Simcoe and the East Riding of York in the
Legislature. He was drowned, with Judge Cochrane, the Solicitor-General,
Robert Isaac Dey Gray and all other passengers on the vessel "Speedy," on
October 7th, 1804.
The youngest brother, James
Macdonell, was a Captain in the Forty-Third Light Infantry, who died while
on service in the West Indies. He, with others of the Highland Loyalist
officers, was honoured with the patronage of the Duke of Kent. Writing to
his brother, from Montreal, 5th May, 1795, he states: "I am now just readie
to quit this place for Quebec, on my way to the regiment. The number of
people His Royal Highness has lately provided for, and his kind expressions
to myself, leave me no room to doubt but he will continue his goodness to
me." |
