The Scotsman in Canada

The Scotsman in Canada

Works by the same Author

Collected Toems

Mordred, a Tragedy

Hildebrand, a Tragedy

Morning, a Tragedy

Daulac, a Tragedy

Sagas of Vaster Britain

Lake Lyrics

Ian of the Orcades, a Scottish Historical Novel

A Beautiful Rebel, a Canadian Historical Novel 0/1812

Canada, a Description of the People and the Country

The Canadian Lake Region

Richard Frizell, a Canadian Historicat Novel of 1837

be?

The Scotsman in \
Canada

—

Eastern Canada, including Nova
Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New
'Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario

Wilfred Campbell, LL.D.

(Hut.) of jiterdttn Untvtraty j F.S.S.C.

In Two Volumes. Volume I

The Musson 'Book Company, Limited
Toronto Canada London England

»*•-«•»

F

5

TO
HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF ARGYLL, K.T.

A DISTINGUISHED SCOTSMAN,
THE CHIEF OF A FAMOUS SCOTTISH CLAN,

AND
A DEVOTED EMPIRE BUILDER,

THIS VOLUME

IS DEDICATED, WITH AFFECTION AND ESTEEM,
BY THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE

TN the making of this volume my chief object
A has been to produce a work which will be of
use to those desiring a knowledge of the origin of
the early Scottish settlements or community -cent res
of Canada.

Keeping this idea steadily in view, I have in this
volume, which covers all Eastern Canada, dealt,
first of all, with the many settlements which were
essentially Scottish, and have laid stress on the
other chief centres of Scottish life and influence in
some of the leading cities, commencing with Nova
Scotia and concluding with the later but scarcely
less important immigration into Huron and Bruce
in the Upper Lake region of Ontario. I have
also in this connection given, where I was able
to do so, lists of the founders and pioneers of such
settlements, hoping that they might be of value
to students in future individual research.

Following this, I have endeavoured to deal with
the Scottish influence in religion, education,
politics, and other important questions connected

7

Preface

with the national life. If I have paid a good deal
of attention to the part played by the Scotsman
in our higher education, it is because I am con-
vinced that in this direction, more than in any
other, he has performed his greatest work toward
the development of the Canadian nationality as a
part of the Empire.

— Throughout this work I have laid stress upon
the Ulster Scotsman and the importance of his
place in the Canadian community ; and have
pointed out that the movement into Ulster was the
first great emigration of the Scottish people in
their attempt at settlement outside of their own
borders.

In dealing with Scotsmen as individuals in
Eastern Canada, it would be utterly impossible to
include all persons deserving of mention in the
necessarily limited confines of such a work as this
is. Those only are referred to who represent, or
were connected with, the different movements in
the many communities or colonies out of which the
dominion has gradually grown.

In sending this volume out to the public, I feel
that it is but an imperfect result of the ideal
which prompted its making. There is much more
that I would like to have included in the presenta-
tion of this important subject. Such, however, as
it is, I send it forth, hoping that it may have its
8

Preface

share in giving to the student of the history of the
Scottish race some slight idea of the great part
which has been played by that illustrious stock
during the last three hundred years, in the found-
ing, peopling, and upbuilding of Britain's Western
Empire.

It might be added, in conclusion, that in
addressing the readers of Scottish extraction, one
is appealing to a vast constituency ; / as in
Canada alone, outside of purely French Quebec,
there are few families which are without a strain
of the old Scottish blood in their veins. /
OTTAWA.

PREFACE

THE WORLD-MOTHER (SCOTLAND)

CHAPTER I
THE SCOTTISH ,DEAL IN SCOTLAND

AND IN CANADA

CHAPTER II
THE SCOTSMAN IN SCOTLAND

PAGE

7

THE ULSTER SCOTSMAN

CHAPTER HI
ULSTER AND IN CANADA

CHAPTER IV

OR

BARONETS

THE

55

CHAPTER V
THE PICTOU SETTLEMENTS

II

\

Contents

CHAPTER VI

PACK
OTHER NOVA SCOTIA SETTLEMENTS, AND EARLY INDI-

VIDUAL SCOTSMEN . . . . , . .

110

CHAPTER VII
THE SCOTSMAN IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND . . . 115

CHAPTER VIII
THE SCOTSMAN IN NEW BRUNSWICK . . . .123

CHAPTER IX
THE SCOTSMAN IN QUEBEC . . . . .134

CHAPTER X
THE GLENGARRY SETTLEMENTS. THE COMING OF THE

SCOTTISH LOYALISTS . . . . .152

CHAPTER XI
THE GLENGARRY SETTLEMENTS. THE COMING OF THE

FENCIBLE REGIMENT FROM SCOTLAND . . .164

CHAPTER XII
THE PERTH SETTLEMENT . . . . . IJ2

CHAPTER XIII
THE LANARK SETTLEMENT ... jgj

CHAPTER XIV

THE MACNAB SETTLEMENT ... IQQ

12

Contents

CHAPTER XV

PAOX

GALT'S SETTLEMENT AT GUELPH . 201

CHAPTER XVI

THE TALBOT AND MIDDLESEX SETTLEMENTS . . .207

CHAPTER XVII
THE ZORRA SETTLEMENT AND THE MACKAYS . . . 222

CHAPTER XVHI
THE HURON AND BRUCE SETTLEMENTS . . .231

CHAPTER XIX

THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL OP SCOTTISH EXTRACTION CON
NECTED WITH CANADA

CHAPTER XX

THE SCOTSMAN AND EDUCATIO . 266

CHAPTER XXI
THE SCOTSMAN AND EDUCATION (continued) . .288

CHAPTER XXII
THE SCOTSMAN IN THE CHURCHES . . . -30$

CHAPTER XXII

THE SCOTSMAN IN THE CHURCHES (continUtd) . . 317

13

Contents

CHAPTER XXIV

PAGE

W. LYON MACKENZIE AND BISHOP STRACHAN . . . 334

CHAPTER XXV
SCOTSMEN IN PUBLIC LIFE BETWEEN THE MACKENZIE AND

MACDONALD PERIODS AND SINCE . . . . 348

CHAPTER XXVI
SIR JOHN ALEXANDER MACDONALD . . , . 360

CHAPTER XXVII
OTHER SCOTSMEN OF THE CONFEDERATION PERIOD . . 367

CHAPTER XXVIII

SOME NOTED JURISTS, ADMINISTRATORS, PHYSICIANS, AND

FINANCIERS OF SCOTTISH EXTRACTION . . .388

CHAPTER XXIX
SCOTSMEN IN LITERATURE, JOURNALISM, AND ART • . 402 j

CHAPTER XXX
SCOTTISH SOCIETIES IN CANADA

THE WORLD-MOTHER

SCOTLAND

BY crag and lonely moor she stands,
This mother of half a world's great men,

And kens them far by sea-wracked lands,
Or Orient jungle or Western fen.

And far out 'mid the mad turmoil,

Or where the desert-places keep
Their lonely hush, her children toil,

Or wrapt in world-wide honour sleep.

By Egypt's sands or Western wave,

She kens her latest heroes rest,
With Scotland's honour o'er each grave,

And Britain's flag above each breast.

And some at home, — her mother love
Keeps crooning wind-songs o'er their graves,

Where Arthur's castle looms above,
Or Strathy storms or Solway raves.

Or Lomond unto Nevis bends
In olden love of clouds and dew;

When Trosach unto Stirling sends
Greetings that build the world anew.

Out where her miles of heather sweep,

Her dust of legend in his breast,
'Neath Aged Dryburgh's aisle and keep,

Her wizard Walter takes his rest.
VOL. I. B 17

The World-Mother

And her loved ploughman, he of Ayr,
More loved than any singer loved

By heart of man amid those rare,

High souls the world hath tried and proved ;-

Whose songs are first to heart and tongue
Wherever Scotsmen greet together,

And, far out, alien scenes among,
Go mad at the glint of a sprig of heather.

And he, her latest wayward child,

Her Louis of the magic pen ;
Who sleeps by tropic crater piled,

Far, far, alas ! from misted glen ;

Who loved her, knew her, drew her so,
Beyond all common poet's whim : —

In dreams the whaups are calling low,
In sooth her heart is woe for him.

And they, her warriors, greater none
E'er drew the blade of daring forth ;

Her Colin x under Indian sun,
Her Donald8 of the fighting North.

Or he, her greatest hero, he,

Who sleeps somewhere by Nilus' sands.
Grave Gordon, mightiest of those free,

Great Captains of her fighting bands ; —

Yea, these; and myriad, myriad more,
Who stormed the fort or ploughed the main

To free the wave or win the shore,
She calls in vain ! she calls in vain !

1 Colin Campbell (Lord Clyde), hero of Lucknow.
• Sir Donald Mackay (ist Lord Reay), whose Mackay Dutch
Regiment was famous in the Thirty Years' War.
18

The World-Mother

Brave sons of her, far severed wide

By purpling peak or reeling foam ;
From Western ridge or Orient side,

She calls them home ! she calls them home !

And far, from East to Western sea,

The answering word comes back to her ; —

"Our hands were slack, our hopes were free,
We answered to the blood astir ; —

"The life by Kelpie loch was dull,
The homeward, slothful work was done,

We followed where the world was full,
To dree the weird our fates had spun;

"We built the brigg, we reared the town,
We spanned the earth with lightning gleam;

We ploughed, we fought, 'mid smile and frown
Where all the world's four corners teem.

" But under all the surge of life,

The mad race -fight for mastery,
Though foremost in the surgent strife,

Our hearts went back, went back to thee."

For the Scotsman's speech is wise and slow,
And the Scotsman's thought it is hard to ken;

But through all the yearnings of men that go,
His heart is the heart of the northern glen ; —

His song is the song of the windy moor.

And the humming pipes of the squirling din ;
And his love is the love of the shieling door,

And the smell of the smoking peat within.

And nohap how much of the alien blood
Is crossed with the strain that holds him fast;

'Mid the world's great ill and the world's great good,
He yearns to the Mother of men at last.

19

The World-Mother

For there is something strong and something true
In the wind where the sprig of heather is blown ;

And something great in the blood so blue,
That makes him stand, like a man, alone.

Yea, give him the road and loose him free,
He sets his teeth to the fiercest blast ;

For there's never a toil in a far countrie,
But a Scotsman tackles it hard and fast.

He builds their commerce, he sings their songs,
He weaves their creeds with an iron twist;

And making of laws or righting of wrongs,
He grinds it all as the Scotsman's grist. . . .

Yea, there, by crag and moor she stands,
This mother of half a world's great men;

And out of the heart of her haunted lands
She calls her children home again.

And over the glens and the wild sea floors,
She peers so still, as she counts her cost;

With the whaups low-calling over the moors,
Woe ! woe ! for the great ones she hath lost.

20

CHAPTER I

THE SCOTTISH IDEAL IN SCOTLAND AND
IN CANADA

This mighty dream of the race I
When, O when will it die?

When the magic of being burns from the blood,
When the violet fades from the sky ;
When the mother turns from her child,
When the son his father spurns ; —
And the blood of the mightiest race on earth
To bloodless water turns.

IN this introduction to a necessarily imperfect
memoir of the exodus and wanderings of a
great northern race, it will be my chief object to
impress upon my readers the importance of the
keeping alive of the dominant historic spirit which
has inthe past made jioted our Scottish ancestors
in theiFpwn land and throughout the world. I may
sayTaFthe start, that I am not going to indulge in
any mere historical or literary retrospect. My
object is neither to flatter nor to condemn. As
regards success, the Scottish race speaks for itself
the world over ; and as for failure, the signs of this
are also apparent.

It would be easy to catalogue Scottish virtues

21

The Scotsman in Canada

and Scottish vices, and clothe the list in a flippant
dress or a false rhetoric, as has, alas ! too often
been done.

A But this should be an age of few words and
deep and serious thought, when great and vital
subjects, such as this we are considering, should
not be touched upon lightly or superficially. There
never was a period in their history when our people
needed all their sanity, all their ideals, all the aid
that the spirit of the past can give them, more
than they do to-day. We stand in great danger,
and the keenest minds are too much engrossed
in what one might call, to put it mildly, " the
financial possibilities of the purely material." So
that we, who represent, and strive to maintain, the
ethical and spiritual aspects of life, cannot afford
to make light of any influences which may keep
alive or inspire the greater imagination of our
people ; such as the splendid memories, the large
and intense drama, the classic atmosphere of the
history of Scotland.

Yet, sad to say, for so tragic and so subtle a race,
no people has feeen dealt with so often, in so
childish, so shallow, and so claptrap a manner
as has Scotland at the hands of orators and writers
innumerable throughout the world.

It is seemingly so easy to lecture on Burns or
Scott, and these names are used as stalking-horses
for all sorts of superficial efforts to acquire a
patriotic or a literary reputation ; and all the
while the real Burns and the true Scott remain
utterly unknown and unappreciated, buried beneath

22

The Scottish Ideal

the volcanic irruption of cheap democracy, false
patriotism, and pretence at religion and culture.
The phrase " a man's a man for a' that " has been
dinned into our ears, but how many who have
quoted it know its real meaning and application?
Burns was the first great founder of the true
modern democracy, and, like all great reformers,
he has been most shamefully misrepresented by
those claiming to be his friends and disciples,
who have interpreted him in a class, rather than
in a human sense. Likewise has Sir Walter Scott
been wrongly ignored by men claiming to be
scholars and writers. Instead of being, as
many would class him, merely a delightful
romancer, he is, without doubt, one of the truest
realists, and a remarkable student of humanity.
It is marvellous how much of all Scotland is
mirrored in his truly magic pages.

Indeed, men may rave of the heather, the hills,
the pibroch, and the Brig of Ayr, and all the time
the real Scotland and the true Scottish people are
a mystery to themselves and to others as they, to
a great extent, remain to this day.

As this essay is an attempt at some sort of
explanation of the Scottish people, I may, in
places, be seemingly harsh in pointing out what
without doubt appear to be degeneracies and mis-
representations of the Scottish race and character
as an historical entity.

Poetry and feeling are a boon, indeed necessary
in their place, and belong to the finest instincts
of a race. But where they degenerate into

23

The Scotsman in Canada

mere cheap sentimentality and vulgar melodrama,
nothing is so nauseous and sickening in a com-
munity,

For this reason, the greatest evil which has
inflicted Scotland of late has been the rise of the
so-called Kail Yard School of Fiction. It is
already virtually dead. But it has accomplished
in its short reign immeasurable harm. Hypocrisy
and hysterics are an abomination in religion, but
when they enter popular literature they are even
worse. Some races, like the Irish, can afford to
open their minds freely. It seems natural to that
often frank and genial race. But it does not become
the Scot. The true characteristic of the latter is
his secretiveness, his un-get-at-ableness, his control
of his inner feelings. This, in the past, made him
the strong force that he became, and rendered his
religion such a power in his personality. It
simply permeated him in the subtlest manner, and
was only recognised outwardly through his
character. What his inner feelings were he kept
to himself. But in these later, seemingly more de-
generate, days, when religion from this standpoint
had decayed, and what might be called literary
emotion took its place, there came a change over
the Scotsman's individuality which was not for
the better ; and when he began to spout cheap
sentiment to his neighbours, he became an object
of ridicule to the serious -minded. When he began
to grow enthusiastic over and self-conscious of
what he should simply have lived, namely, his
religious beliefs and character, he came down from
24

The Scottish Ideal

his unconscious dignity of centuries and became a
very commonplace buffoon in the hands of Ian
Maclaren and his ilk, who made a burlesque of
what the Scotsman might have been at his worst.
It may be difficult to realise this, but to the student
who knows his Scott and Burns, and is in close
touch with the real Scotland and the Scotsman of
the past, it is very apparent.

The present-day habit of trading in the Scottish
dialect and idiosyncrasy is not only harmful to the
race, but it is virtually bearing false witness
against the people before the world.

Of the Scotsman of to-day the least said the
better. He is being weighed in the balance. But
with regard to the Scotsman of the past, if he
was a force, it was not because of his angularity,
his dialect, his red hair, his so-called meanness,
his poverty, his narrow " pig-headedness," as some
have called his determination, and for all of which
virtues or defects he has had to stand in literature
and journalism. But it was because, in spite of
all these, he was, for some occult reason, a man,
and as an individual became a power at home and
wherever he adventured throughout the world.

It was not one of his special qualities to enjoy
life and to give others pleasure, but it is through
his ability for struggling with existence and over-
coming obstacles that he has become famous. In
short, the Scottish have been in the past a race
of individual builders, a strenuous, adventurous,
striving, ambitious folk.

They are not a people who can afford to descend

25

The Scotsman in Canada

from this level of existence. They, are an angular,
dour, silent race, who must maintain, through all
their kindliness and humour, a stern dignity as
one of their chief virtues, or else lose their influence
and personality as a people.

Now I do not intend here merely to scratch the
surface of the Scottish idiosyncrasy, but to en-
deavour to show wherein the Scottish ideal in
Canada and in the motherland is worthy of our
serious consideration.

If we let our minds go out so as to grasp a
comprehensive view of Scottish history and the
Scottish race, we will realise that in the past,
in what might be called the golden age of the
Scottish people, they were a force in the world
because of two things, namely, their religion and
their determination to be freemen and rule them-
selves.

Now these are two very important impulses in
the life of any nation, and they mean a great deal
more than appears on the surface of this state-
ment. U* Religious consciousness," and " a deter-
mination to be freemen and self -ruling," the one
the natural result of the other, make a great com-
bination in the life of any nation. But we must not
be misled into thinking that religion, as Scotland
realised it then, was the mere formalism that the
Scotsman in Canada and the Old Land, in common
with all Christians, makes of it to-day. Religion
then meant much more than mere empty creed,
mere class prejudice, mere observance of ceremony,
mere hope of heaven or fear of hell. It was
26

The Scottish Ideal

something divine, something vital in the very life
of the people, which so affected their whole nature,
their very character as a community, that they
rose above the common and the mean, and moulded
gradually, during half a thousand years, their
national ideals ; until out of these ideals grew,
side by side with them, conceptions of life and
sacred institutions as a part of the State, the
Church, and the general fabric of society, and,
with these, a highly ethical literature. It was
essentially true of Scotland that her religion per-
meated her whole national life. It was not
crystallised into an isolated institution, but was
found in the State, the University, and the family.
The family, that most sacred of all human institu-
tions, and the oldest on earth, was especially
revered in Scotland ; and it was this, together
with the rural and out-of-door character of her
people, which was the real foundation of her
Rational greatness.

In present-day religion there seems to be a
far cry to the lives of the New Testament Apostles
as alone worthy of consideration ; whereas in old-
time Scotland their own and all history was teeming
with heroes, apostles and saints of God. I do not
say that this was so of all Scotland. No country,
no people is purely of one ideal. There was then,
as now, the indifferent and the selfish, and added
to these elements there were other conflicting
influences for ever at work in the life of the people.

Roughly speaking, there were three Scotlands
—the extreme wild, purely Celtic and Scandinavian

27

The Scotsman in Canada

west ; the great middle Scotland, stretching
from Berwick to Cape Wrath ; and the purely
Lowland folk and city dwellers. These three
elements represented three distinct ideals, which
fought for supremacy — namely, feudalism, intel-
lectual religion, and practical materialism. Of
these three, the religious and intellectual element
largely dominated, but feudalism even down to
this day has left its influence in the heredity of the
best of the Scottish people.

Against feudalism I bring no charge. It was
one of the most ideal forms of organisation of
society that was ever developed on earth, and
nowhere else did it arrive at such a perfect condi-
tion of development as in the clan system of
Scotland. It was aristocratic, but that was its
virtue, as it made every man, from the highest
to the humblest, a gentleman in blood ; and I
claim that to be the most divine condition of society
which makes every man, no matter how poor in
intellect or worldly goods, proud of his lineage
and his race. It linked the peasant and the king
on the throne in one vast common kinship in
this mutual pride in the past, and stimulated, as
no other influence has done, the whole community
to uphold the ancestral honour of the race. It was
not the sharp antagonistic division between the
rich and the poor of the present much -boasted
democratic age. In it lay the secret of the spirit
of the great Scottish fighting clan -regiments, and
to it is owing much of that strong sentiment for the
motherland which animates the Scotsman through-
28

The Scottish Ideal

out the world, even to the third and fourth
generation.

The modern vulgar mind of a mongrel people,
which has lost its race individuality, is inclined to
sneer at the Celt's pride in his lineage. The
other day a newspaper contained the following :
' The man who is no good is he who is always
bragging of his ancestors." This flippancy is as
absurd as it is false. The truth is that to-day
few men " brag " of their ancestors, for the
simple reason that few can even tell who
their grandparents were : a sad condition in a
race having such a notable part in history and
so long civilised. The influence that has brought
this about, and which inspires the flippancy just
quoted, is one not on the side of man's best
interests.

It is the trail of the serpent of a modern
money-tyranny, which would gradually degrade
and trample on and break the high spirit of {a
once great people. It is the same influence which
has destroyed faith in Deity and a sense of
responsibility, and is now attempting to throttle
true culture and the intellect. It has striven to
convince man that he is but a more capable ape,
and that all of life is rolled up in the material
possibilities of a bank cheque-book. The answer
to this superficial cavil at what was once a part
of religion, of Christianity itself, is, that for one
person who is proud of his ancestors one hundred
are ashamed of theirs, for some unholy and incon-
sistent reason ; and others there are who impu-

29

The Scotsman in Canada

dently and blasphemously boast that they made
themselves, and demand special privileges because
they have done so. " He is a self-made man " is
a common expression of praise. But, considered
seriously, is it a worthy citizen who reflects on
his own parents? Why should men vote for a man
merely because he says his parents were humble
any more than because they were lords or
millionaires ?

Is not this man also using his ancestry ,(onty
in a more contemptible manner) to his advantage?
It should be the man alone and not his environment
which should count. And this is the true applica-
tion of Burns's " A man's a man for a' that."
He is not a man merely because he is not rich,
or not titled, or not otherwise favoured, any more
than he is a man because he is all or any one of
these. It is not the title or the obscurity, the
rich apparel or the rags that make the man, but it
is the man himself. There is too much pure
flattery of and truckling to the poor to-day, and
he is not the true friend of any class of men who
flatters them for a base purpose. Every class
should be educated to a stern sense of its own
responsibilities. Therefore I would direct the
sneerer at Celtic aristocracy to the instance of the
Perfect Man, who, though in His generation said
to be the son of a carpenter, is traced back through
a line of kings to God Himself. I am not here
making a plea for what is vulgarly called snobbery.
I desire rather to carry the whole matter much
deeper, to show a strong influence in certain races,
30

The Scottish Ideal

and an influence for good, in spite of so much cant
and hypocrisy concerning the whole matter. This
side of the Scottish ideal, the feudal pride and
sense of honour, is very much needed to-day on
this continent, where society is altogether too much
dominated by what Mr. Dooley sarcastically calls
" the plain rich."

The feudal system no doubt had its weaknesses,
as all human systems have. But it never lied to
the average man. It never flattered him into a
false idea of life, as the democracy has done.
It never pronounced that monstrous absurdity that
all men are born free and equal. No ! But it
gave man high and austere ideals toward which to
climb, and it recognised and fostered genius and
all that genius has to give mankind. While it
recognised the necessary social grades, into which
all complex communities crystallise sooner or later,
it dignified the humblest lot in life, a thing which
the present-day democracy has signally failed
to do.

The next element in the Scottish community,
and closely associated with feudalism, for which
it had some affiliation, was that of religion anid
the intellect. These two influences, religion and
the intellect, dominated the race and made the
aristocrat and the cottar as brothers. A stern,
uncompromising sense of religious conviction per-
\ meated the people, and affected them more than
religion, in the deeper sense, has influenced any
other race outside of the Hebrews. I would like
to point out a strong similarity, which is plainly

3'

The Scotsman in Canada

manifest, between these two great races, a similarity
that is almost next to identity. In both peoples the
Old Testament is lived or re-lived in the life of
the people ; in both, religion is firm and unbend-
ing, and the sense of sin is sure and real ; in both
the theocratic idea in the nation is remarkably
prominent and deep-seated ; and in both the in-
tense and almost undying feud between the Church
and the State— or rather the fear of State inter-
ference on the part of the Church — is more than
remarkable. Certainly no people in modern days
has appreciated and absorbed the Jewish Scriptures
as has the Scottish people. Then, in the poetical
gift and temperament and their general nature they
are singularly like the Hebrews ; and, sad to say,
in their weaknesses, especially in their almost fatal
genius for material success, and subserviency of
all their highest ideals to the slavery of mere
gain, the Scots are almost world -brothers to the
Jew.

Here we have something more than mere coin-
cidence. We have, without doubt, a great
ethnological study, which goes back into the
remotest ages of human history. But the lesson
we learn from both peoples is that the abnormal
individual passion for gain on the part of the
Jew destroyed the national fabric and alienated
and scattered the race, and that such a disintegra-
tion likewise threatens the Scottish nation and race
to-day.

* In likening the Scottish people to the Hebrew
I am paying the highest, the very finest, compli-
32

The Scottish Ideal

ment to the race to which I belong ; because of
all peoples in the annals of extant human history
the Jewish is by far the greatest. Supposing we
were to deny all belief in Christianity. Jesus
Christ still remains without compare the ideal man,
the highest type ever produced on earth, and un-
explainable to the scientific mind ; and the Jewish
literature is the greatest, ethically and humanly,
and the one having the most tremendous and
lasting effect on earth's greatest peoples. But
if we accept the Divine idea, they are God's chosen
people ; and if they have become in any sense
inferior, it is not because of Christ, or their great
literature, their mighty prophets, poets, rulers, and
lofty ethics, but because they have allowed a,
material individualism to degrade and denationalise
them ; and — let the Scot and the average Briton, the
Canadian and American take warning and beware !
—I am to that extent a prophet. Give but another
century to our peoples — over-material, over-cosmo-
politan, over-fond of the present hour, and self-
worshipping, self-indulgent and vulgar, with
commonplace surroundings and the idea that they
are but superior apes — and he who lives will see
a spectacle beside which the Jew will appear
colossal and noble.

But it may not be realised that the Scotsman
has an affinity to another great people of the past,
namely, the Greek ; and it is the marvellous ad-
mixture of ethics and reason, of imagination and
thought, of insight and feeling, that produced the
Scottish interpretation of the Bible, and the

VOL. i. c 33

The Scotsman in Canada

Scottish quality or level of Christianity, with its
ethical and yet purely human literature, in Scott,
Burns, and Carlyle. And I would go even farther.
I claim to be something of an ethnologist, and
believe that not all Scotland is north of the Tweed,
and that the man who produced that wonderful
combination of the Greek drama and the Hebrew
conscience, " Macbeth," must have had some drop
of the Scottish blood, somewhat of the northern
heredity in his veins.

This whole subject which we are now consider-
ing, this historical and prehistorical personality
of a people so subtle, so tragic, so spiritual, so
heroic, and so intensely human as the Scottish
personality, is almost a mystery to the historian
and the ethnologist, but one which is well worth
the study of the present-day thinker and
philosopher.

The whole history of this people is a wonder — a
seeming contradiction. Historians have been too
narrow and dogmatic in classifying personality.
To the man who gets beneath the surface, Knox,
Carlyle, and James the Sixth have an affinity in
temper ; Burns and James the Fifth are brother-
poets and individualistic men. It is only the super-
ficial student, influenced by an ignorant class -
prejudice, who would separate them. The genius
for thought, for scholarship, for poetry, for piety,
the strong, intrinsic love of race, permeated all
ranks and made them one. But through it all
there ran the silver or golden thread of a fine
sense of pride, a high ideal of honour in the man,
34

The Scottish Ideal

a deep conviction that religion is in the life, that
faith and conduct cannot be separated, and that
the supreme blossom of all is character.

To-day, however, the religious element has been
largely supplanted by a cold, clear tendency of
the mind working in purely material channels, and
we now come to the third influence which has
largely usurped the place of the other two, namely,
the purely monetary and mercantile element in the
Scottish people. The genius of the Scotsman for
business is notorious the world over. He has been
in the past the principal pioneer in commerce and
mercantile pursuits. He has shown in this respect
a single-mindedness and an indomitable force of
character that has challenged the admiration of
all peoples. Now, the combination of these
three elements or influences in Scottish life,
namely, feudalism, the religious intellect, and the
genius for material advancement and acquirement,
produced a wonderfully unique, forceful, and
picturesque people. But the degeneration came
when the more commonplace and material element
crushed out the other two. The importance of the
other elements may not appear to the average man
in this age of " Does it pay?" " What is it to
me? " " It will last our time," and many other
expressions of a similar spirit or tone. But when
religious ethics and ideals depart from a people
that people is surely doomed. Some races cannot
afford to practise even what others have thrived
upon. The Saxon can safely be much more
material than the Scot. But the Celt cannot risk

35

The Scotsman in Canada

the loss of his ideals and the vast dreams of his
sensitive and subtle imagination.

It was while the Scotsman was at his best in
the influences of religion and feudalism that Jie
pushed forth into the world. It was then that he
came to Canada and founded this country for
Britain. It was he who discovered her wilds, named
her rivers, her mountains, and her lonely outposts.
It Was he who planted religion, founded institu-
tions of learning, and placed on them the seal
of his ideals of culture and piety of that day.
It was the Scot who largely peopled the wilds, and
gave a thorough, honest, careful, and conservative
character to Canadian business and financial life.
He had much to do with the framing of laws,
the fostering of legislation and education. This,
in short, is the story of the sturdy Scotsman of
the past who came to Canada and accomplished
so much in the building-up of this country.

But how does the Scotsman stand to-day? What
part does he play? Is he a force in the com-
munity— or only an absorbed unit? Have all of
the ideals which he brought with him wholly dis-
appeared? We have seen the force which he was
in the past ; but now, when things have changed,
can and will the Scot still hold his own? Can
he be successful under the new conditions? Will
he, and does he, still hold his former ideals of
creed, of the home, the family, the State, educa-
tion and culture, with a sense of honour in public
places and in commerce, and stability in business?
Does he — will he — demand that these shall all be

36

The Scottish Ideal

maintained? It is to be feared not. The signs
are that he has let go many of these ideals. But
if we seek the one great Scottish national weak-
ness, we will discover the answer to all this — and
that weakness is the over-development of the mere
individual at the expense of the community. In
short, the Scot has carried this now long-exploded
democratic idea to an extreme. He has, both here
and in the old land, perhaps fatally crystallised into
an ultra-conservative antagonism to any ideal save
what he calls the " individual good." The com-
munity to him means nothing any more ; and while
he is sometimes narrow as regards things which
do not really matter, he is often careless regarding
the interests of his religion and faith, his ethics
and his national ideals, which his fathers struggled
and died for, and continually sacrifices these in
his attempts at compromise.

* Fifty years ago the Scottish faith and ideal were
a power in this land, and its adherents were un-
compromising in their determination to perpetuate
them in the community. But to-day, what a
change ! A subtle influence has been at work
(an influence which only he who has closely and
patiently studied the life of our people can discover)
to extinguish gradually this spirit and ideal in the
interests of what has falsely been called toleration,
but in which, sad to say, the Scotsman himself has
taken a prominent part. It has been, in short, a
distinct self-effacement as a community for the
sake of personal interest and commercialism ; and
it is just the natural result — the virtual self-

37

The Scotsman in Canada

destruction of a race which has bartered its ideals
and faith, its national dreams and ancestral pride,
for the false favours of any community which
demanded the sacrifice.

At home, in the beautiful old land, the Caledonia
and Scotia of the past, the country of Bruce and
Wallace, of Knox and Argyll, of Scott and Burns,
and a thousand and one other heroes and saints,
leaders of men and martyrs, sad to say, the con-
ditions are much the same. The feudalism, Scot-
land's glory, which Bruce lived and Scott sang is
virtually dead ; and with it has largely died Scot-
land's faith, and with them both, it is to be feared,
has perished the real spirit of that once great
people. There they lie : a beautiful wreck of a
former glory and power, buried under a confusion
of infidelities and petty heresies, and all submerged
in a vulgar muck of commercialism, which is not
even true commercialism.

In Canada we seek for the old spirit, but we find
it not. The ancient Church of Scotland no more
acts as a community. To the individual pulpit
alone is left the attempt to arouse, inspire, and
anchor the people. The Church as an organisa-
tion no more stands for anything. It never dreams,
as a body, of agitating or instituting reforms for
the community. It has been gradually chained
and muzzled, chiefly in the interests of party politics,
and as it was never merely ornamental, it cannot
live for ever. The Anglican Church, likewise
leashed and manacled like the Scottish in the
interests of party politics, may linger long in the

38

The Scottish Ideal

twilight charm, the dim religious light of its
cultured ritual and its appeal to formalism and
refinement. But the Scottish Church' has none of
this outward attractiveness, and when it has lost
its stern, aggressive Calvinistic personality, with (
its historic appeal to rugged truth and national
and individual conduct, it is in danger of becoming
merely a part of that vast element of the common-
place and dreary which dominates present-day life.
The other great ethical influence of the past was
the University. But what power in national affairs
does it wield to-day in Canada or Scotland? Is
it really the same institution with the same ideals
and objects for which it was founded? Has it not
really abdicated its old place? Has it not drifted
with the selfish tide in the direction of material
success? Has not the word "success" replaced
those of " ethics " and " culture " in the scrolls
of its ideals? Has not the University, which
originally stood side by side with religion for spirit
and mind, for the soul and intellect, which demanded
a place for character and genius in society, which
really represented the middle, one time ruling,
classes, and which mothered the formerly dignified
and cultured professions of law, the Church, medi-
cine, and the higher education — has it not departed
from its old-time place in the community? Has
not this institution, this one-time tremendous force,
which represented faith, scholarship, culture, litera-
ture, legislation, and justice, which provided for
the dignity and impeccability of the courts of
justice, and from which there radiated a general

39

The Scotsman in Canada

influence of learning and refinement, been given
over to or metamorphosed into a gigantic technical
or scientific institution, run not so much in the
interests of human truth or knowledge as in that
of the mighty dollar?

In the face of all this — in the face of the fact
that in the Church and the University the only man
wanted or encouraged is he who can touch men's
pockets, and not their hearts, minds, or imagina-
tions ; that the Universities no more contain the
national prophets and thinkers ; that in the legis-
lative halls the conditions are similar and real free-
dom shackled and crushed — can you ask if it is
well with the Scotsman here and in the old land?

40

CHAPTER II

THE SCOTSMAN IN SCOTLAND

This is my creed, in face of cynic sneer,
The cavilling doubt, and pessimistic fear ;
We come from some far greatness ; and we go
Back to a greatness, spite of all our woe.

BEFORE dealing with the Scottish settlements
in Ulster and the New World, we will take
a short survey of the Old Land and its several
communities, of the Lowlands and Highlands and
their different characteristics, which have, through
a thousand years, guided the fate and evolved
the spirit of this great people whose migrations
and settlements are the subject of this work.

It has been in the past, however, a weakness
of many chroniclers of New World history to begin
their account somewhere about the period of the
Flood or the Roman Conquest of Britain, and
devote so much of their volume to this ancient
and much overdone portion of the story as to
leave little or no room for the real subject
supposed to be dealt with.

Now, no such mistaken course will mar or curtail

The Scotsman in Canada

this work, which will be solely an account, how-
ever imperfect, of the Scottish origins and settle-
ments in Canada. But it will add much to the
value of the story of these settlements if a brief
picture of the people under consideration and their
history and environment in the Old Land be given
at the outset.

The northern half of the Island of Great Britain
has been called North Britain, Scotland, and
Caledonia. The latter was the ancient name of
the country, when Scotia comprised what is now
the province of Ulster in the North of Ireland.
This

Caledonia stern and wild,

Meet nurse for a poetic child,

Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,

was the ancient home of the Caledonians who
kept the Roman cohorts at bay. But when we
go back to the kingdom of Dalriada in Northern
Ireland, South- Western Scotland, and Northern
England, we feel that the origins of these ancient
peoples, who were the ancestors of the northern
Celts, are wrapped in a mystery, out of which
looms the certainty of a tremendous civilisation
coeval with, if not anterior to, the greatest civilisa-
tion of remotest antiquity.

Without doubt, the history of the ancient Britons
would show, if all the facts were known, that
they had been one of the three or four great
kindred races reaching back to Noah and the
Deluge. The others are without doubt the
42

The Scotsman in Scotland

Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek, and Carthaginian
peoples.

Those who in a superficial spirit sneer at the
old British chroniclers, who assert this high origin,
have no single proof upon which to base their
[doubts. If a study of all the evidence is care-
fully made, there is but one conclusion to arrive
at with regard to this subject. Everything points
to the fact that the so-called Darwinian theory
of evolution is but a partial truth, and not the
complete truth. That a portion of mankind
evolved through the ape from the lower species
may be true. But there is much stronger evidence
to prove that a portion of mankind has come
down a long way in the scale of human greatness.
Indeed, the proof of the fall of man is as plainly
written in the pages of human history as is that
of the evolution from the primordial germ.
Accepting this theory, which is here proclaimed
for the first time in modern history as a solu-
tion of the mystery of the human origin, we can
easily come to a conclusion as to the strong
kinship in civilisation and ideal between the few
great races already mentioned.

Not only is the evidence of the Fall, as it is
plainly and tersely stated in the sacred Scriptures,
deeply graven in the whole history and existence
of mankind, but there is also, as all scientists
admit, abundant evidence of the fact of the Deluge
and the Garden of Eden. There is no space
here to consider this important subject. Suffi-
cient is it to assert, as a well-authenticated fact,

43

The Scotsman in Canada

the Divine origin of man, which the present writer
hopes to deal with in a future volume.

That the ancient history of Britain goes away
back coeval with that of the Jewish, and beyond,
is without doubt ; and that the four or five great
stocks — such as the Egyptian, Jewish, Norse,
Greek, Carthaginian, and British — are of a
common ancestry and descended from colonies
existing anterior to or at the time of the Deluge,
is also, beyond dispute, verified by the facts.

Much harm to the truth has been caused by
a wrong conception of what is called mythology,
which is, after all, largely decadent history. The
simpler an account, the greater proof there is that
it goes a long way back in the annals of time.

It has been said of the old British historians that
they dealt with their eras of a thousand years
with a magnificent assurance, and marshalled kings
and dynasties of kings in complete chronology and
exact succession. They carried their genealogy
so far beyond the Olympiads that, by the side of
it, Greek and Roman history seem but a thing
of yesterday. British antiquity is made to run
parallel with Egypt's ancient lore and with the
prophets and kings and judges of Israel. It stops
with the Deluge and is everything but antedi-
luvian. The old Welsh-British pedigree goes back
to Brute, who is the great-grandson of y£neas
the Trojan — who lands on the shores of Albion
in the time of the Prophets Eli and Samuel B.C.
1136.

The pedigree is as follows : Ap -Brutus, Ap-
44

The Scotsman in Scotland

Silvius, Ap-Ascanius, Ap-^neas, Ap-Anchises,
Ap-Lapsius, Ap-Anarachus, Ap-Troas, Ap-Erich-
thonias, Ap-Darden, Ap-Jupiter, Ap-Saturnus, Ap-
Ccelus, Ap-Ciprinus, Ap-Chetim, Ap-Javan, Ap-
Japheth, Ap-Noachen, Ap-Lamech, Ap-Methusa-
lem, Ap-Enos, Ap-Seth, Ap-Adda (Adam), Ap-
Duw (God).

This tree agrees with that of Genesis, which
records (chap. x. 2-5): " The sons of Japheth
were Corner and Javan, and the sons of Javan
were Elishah and Tarshish, Kittim [Chetim], and
Dodanim. By these were the isles of the Gentiles
divided in their lands ; every one after his tongue,
after their families, in their nations."

From Brute to Chetim (Kittim) the manuscript
follows and agrees with the accepted record of
(so-called) mythological history, Silvius, or, as
sometimes written, lulus, being the son of
Ascanius, the son of ^neas, the son of Anchises.
Thus it goes on through Erichthonias and Darden
to Ciprius, the father of Ccelus. Here what has
been called sacred and profane history are inter-
linked. In other words, they substantiate each
other, and prove the great historical earthly line
of the Divine race. To those old historians, to
quote the words of a modern historian, ^neas
the Trojan, from whom the Britons came, was
no more the creation of Virgil than, to us,
Richard III. is a mere fancy of Shakespeare.
Also Dardan, Jupiter, and Saturn were not re-
garded as deities, but once living men, who were
of Divine origin.

45

The Scotsman in Canada

Surely the ancient traditions of a great people,
like the British, are preferable to any mere modern
speculation based upon baseless doubt.

In the face of this pedigiree, it is clearly evident
that nowhere in the history of any people is proof
of a primal aristocracy in the race more plainly
present or hinted at in a thousand witnesses to
a great and tremendous past than in Northern
Britain.

Coming down to the more recent stages of the
Scottish and Caledonian peoples, we find a region
divided into two portions by a range of mountains
called the Grampians. This vast natural rampart
was a place where a 'great race at different periods
stood for liberty and independence. It is broken
by noted passes or glens, through which, at certain
times, the tide of invasion flowed north or south
in the stress of the force of the peoples upon
either verge. North of this line, which stretches
in a north-easterly direction diagonally across the
country, was the region of the Gaelic speech and
the wild imagination and almost lawless spirit of
the Highlands, and south of it and east was the
Lowland tongue and the more careful ways of
men and communities. The northern localities —
common to the Gaelic and the tartan — were Argyll,
Bute, the Western Isles, or Hebrides, Nairn, Inver-
ness, Ross, Cromarty, Caithness, and Sutherland,
and portions of Moray, Stirling, Banff, Perthshire,
Dunbarton, Aberdeen, and Angus. There is
throughout all this region, especially in the west
and north, a great strain of the Norse blood and
46

The Scotsman in Scotland

influence, while even in Caithness and largely
in the east the Lowland dialect is spoken by most
of the inhabitants.

There is no space here to dwell upon the many
attempts to unravel or explain the mystery of the
Celtic peoples, or to explain the personality of
the Picts and the Scots. But there is no doubt
that from the ancient kingdom of Argyll there
flowed out a civilisation that influenced the culture
and ethics of all Europe. There at some remote
period flourished the purest religion and the noblest
poetry and arts, together with a type of human
ideal towards life only dreamed of now in the
twentieth century.

With such a great past, can we wonder that
not only the people but also the very environs
of Scotland are enfolded in a garment of mystery
and lofty tradition, which have set the place and
the race among the rarest and most hallowed in
the history of the world?

It is a significant fact with regard to Scotland
that the people still dwelling there, even down
to the close of the eighteenth century, could look
back to a tradition of occupancy and race associa-
tion with the local glen and mountain through
many centuries into the mists of antiquity.

Lost in this long vista of historic perspective is the
origin of the various famous clan communities, with
their noble and, in some cases, regal feudal rulers,
whose claims to hereditary kingship went back to
remote ages . Very significant are the famous earl-
doms of Ross, Mar, Fife, Orkney, Strathearn, and

47

The Scotsman in Canada

Caithness, which were in truth ab initio, or from
the 'beginning of time. In the days of Queen
Mary the Earls of Argyll lived in regality, and
the Earls of Huntley and Orkney assumed regal
state, while the chief of the Mackays, with 5,000
men behind him in the fastnesses of Strathnaver
and Farr, forced even Queen Mary herself to make
a treaty with him. No wonder that even to this
day there is yet an atmosphere of an unconquered
pride that permeates this country and its peoples,
as it has no other land or race in modern times.

The present Castle of Inveraray, the seat of
the Duke of Argyll, is but a model on a much
smaller scale of the ancient Castle of Inverlochy,
which in very early times was the centre of a
great capital of Caledonian or Scottish civili-
sation.

Twenty-one Highland chiefs fought under Bruce
at Bannockburn. They were — Stewart, Campbell,
Macdonald, Mackay, Macintosh, Cameron, Mac-
Pherson, Sinclair, Drummond, Menzie, Sutherland,
McLean, Ross, McGregor, MacFarlane, Munro,
McKenzie, Cuming, MacNab, McGuarrie, Mac-
dougall, and Robertson. Other old families were
those of Rose of Kilravock, Bannatyne of Kames,
Buchanan of Buchanan, which were all of ancient
lineage .

In 1745 a memorial was drawn up by the Lord
President Forbes and transmitted to the Govern-
ment, showing at that time the force of every clan,
and the number of retainers the chieftains could
bring into the field.
48

The Scotsman in Scotland

It was, in brief, as follows : —

Campbells — in Gaelic, Clan O-Duine ; Chief,
the Duke of Argyll ; called in Highlands
MacCallean Mor. And his kinsmen can raise
5,000 men ; that is, Argyll, 3,000 ; Breadal-
bane, 1,000 ; and the Barons named Campbell,
Arkinglas, Auchinbreck, Lochnell, Inverair, and
others, 1,000. In addition, there is Campbell of
Calder, and others of the narrie in Dunbarton,
Stirling, and Perthshire. They are the richest and
most numerous clan in Scotland.

Maclean — in Gaelic, Clan Lein ; Chief, Sir
Hector Maclean of Dewart, lands under Argyll ;
5 oo men.

Maclachlan— Gaelic, Clan Lachlan ; Chief, the
Laird ; 300 men.

Stewart of Appin — Chief, the Laird ; 300 men.

Mcdougall of Lorn — Chief, the Laird ; 200
men.

Macdonalds of Sleat — Chieftain, Sir Alexander
Macdonald, in Skye and Uist ; 700 men.

Macdonald of Clanronald — Captain of Clan-
ronald, in Moidart and Arnaig and Uist, Benbe-
cula and Rum ; 700 men.

Macdonald of Glengarry — Chieftain, the Laird,
in Glengarry and Knoidart ; 500 men.

Macdonald of Keppoch — Chief, the Laird. He
is a tacksman ; 300 men his followers.

Macdonald of Glencoe — Chieftain, the Laird ;
150 rnen.

These five chieftains of the Macdonalds all
claim a lineal descent from Alexander Macdonald,

VOL. I. D 49

The Scotsman in Canada

Earl of Ross ; but none of them have any clear
document to vouch the same, so that that great
and aspiring family, who waged frequent wars with
our Scotch kings, and who acted as sovereigns
themselves, and obliged most of the clans to swear
fealty to them, is now utterly extinct. The last
Earl of Ross had no sons, nor any near male
relation to succeed him. (The female descent
in several lines exists to-day in a north of Scotland
family, and with it the right to the Earldom of
Ross, both through, and anterior to, the Macdonald
succession.)

Cameron — A very potent clan in Lochaber ;
Chief, the Laird of Lochiel ; has a good estate,
but most of it holds of the Duke of Argyll, and
the rest of the Duke of Gordon ; 800 men.

Macleods — Two distinct and very potent families
of old, Macleod of Lewis and Macleod of Harris,
both extinct and their lands possessed by the Mac-
kenzie ; Chief, the Laird of Macleod ; he has a
considerable estate in Glenelg and Skye ; 700
men. (The representative of the Macleods of
Lewis was living some years ago in the
village of Inchnadamph, Assynt, Sutherland. He
was in poor circumstances, but bore himself with
the dignity of a gentleman, though living as a
mere crofter. He is descended from a brother of
Neil of Assynt.)

Mackinnons — The Laird is chief ; lands in Skye
and Mull, 200 men.

There are several persons of rank, and gentle-
men who are chieftains, commanding many
50

The Scotsman in Scotland

Highlanders in Argyll, Monteith, Dunbarton, Stir-
ling, and Perthshire, such as the Duke of Montrose
(Graham), the Earl of Moray (Murray), and Bute
(Stewart) ; also the Macfarlane, McNeill of Barra,
MacNab of MacNab, and Buchanan and Colqu-
houns of Luss, Macnaughtons, Lamont of Lamont,
who can raise among them 5,000 men. There are
Border families, Kilravock (Rose), Brodie of
Brodie, Innis of Innis, Irvine of Drum, Lord Forbes
and the Earl of Airlie, all loyal except the Ogilvie.
Few or none have any followers except Lord Airlie
from his Highland estate.

Duke of Perth — Is no clan family ; the Duke
is chief of the barons and gentlemen called Drum-
mond in the Low Country ; commands 300 High-
landers in Perthshire.

Robertsons — Strowan is chief ; lands in Ran-
nock and Braes of Athole, Perthshire ; 200 men ;
500 Robertsons follow the Duke of Athole.

Menzies — Sir Robert of Weem is chief ; a
handsome estate in Rannock and Appin, Dule,
Athole ; 300 men.

Stewart of Grandtully — Lands in Strathbane
and Strathay in Athole ; 300 men.

Clan Gregor — Name called down by Act of
Parliament. Clan dispersed under name of Drum-
mond, Murray, Graham, and Campbell, living in
Perthshire, Stirlingshire, and Dunbartonshire ;
chief (none) ; 700 men.

Duke of Athole — The Murrays are no clan
family ; the Duke is chief, head of a number of
barons and gentlemen of the name in the Low-
Si

The Scotsman in Canada

lands ; 3,000 men from his estate and other
folio wings, such as, Stewarts of Athole, 1,000 ;
Robertsons, 500, Fergusons, Smalls, Spaldings,
Ratrays, Mackintoshes ,in Athole, and Maclarens
in Balquidder.

Farquharsons — The only clan family in Aber-
deenshire ; chief, Laird of Invercauld ; several
barons of same name, such as Monaltrie, Inverey,
Finzean ; 500 men.

Duke of Gordon — No clan family ; the Duke
is chief of a powerful name in the Lowlands ;
following in Strathaven and Glenlivet ; 300
men.

Grant — Chief, Laird of Grant ; ,in Strathspey,
700 men ; in Urquhart ; 150 men.

Mackintoshes — Chief, Laird of Mackintosh ; 800
men, including McQueens, McBeans, and McGilli-
vrays .

Macphersons — Chief, Laird of Cluny ; 400
men ; has lands in Badenoch from the Duke of
Gordon.

Frasers — Of Aird and Stratherrick in Inver-
ness ; chief is Lord Lovat ; 900 rrien.

Grant of Glenmoriston — A chieftain of the
Grants ; 150 men.

Chisholms — Chief, Chisholm of Strathglass ;
200 men.

Mackenzies — Next to Campbells one of the
most considerable clans ; Chief, the Earl of Sea-
forth ; in Kintail, Lochbroom, Lochcarron, and in
the Isle of Lewis, all in Ross -shire, 1,000 men ;
the Earl of Cromartie, with the Lairds of Gairloch,
52

The Scotsman in Scotland

Scatwell, Killcowie, Redcastle, Comrie, 1,500 men
more.

Monro — Sir Henry of Fowlis is chief ; 300 men.

Rosses — Chief, Lord Ross ; 500 men.

Sutherlands — Chief, Earl of Sutherland ; 2,000
men.

Mackays — Chief, Lord Reay ; 800 men. (Mac-
kay of Strathy was a leading cadet.)

Sinclairs — Chief, Earl of Caithness ; 1,000
men ; many of them are under May, Dunbeath,
Ulbster, Freswick, &c.

This was the condition of the Scottish clans
at the middle of the eighteenth century. Since
then many thousands of kilted children of strath
and glen have been dispersed to the ends of the
earth. To-day they are an important element in
many of the great colonies of the Empire, and, as
will be shown in this work, have been largely,
with the United Empire Loyalists, the founders and
makers of British Canada.

This short sketch of the Scottish race in the
Old Land is given here to show frorri what a great
stock the larger portion of our people have come,
and through what iron strife of the centuries they
have achieved their fame as a race.

With such a past, such an origin, such great
traditions and ideals, the Scottish peoples in
Canada, if they do not forget their high origin
and their race responsibilities, should yet carry
out in the New World the best ideals of the Old.
This will be so if they are loyal to the Old Land,
to the old Flag, to the Crown and the Constitution.

53

The Scotsman in Canada

This they must achieve as a community, here, as
in Scotland. May we be true to the past : —

We of the ancient people,

We of the lion line,

Will a shoulder of earth-hills hold us apart,

Or billowy leagues of brine?

The hearts of the far-swept children

To the ancient mother turn ; —

When the day breaks ! when the hour comes !

The world will waken and learn.

54

CHAPTER III

THE ULSTER SCOTSMAN IN ULSTER AND
IN CANADA

While far and wide their brethren swept,
To build up Empire fair and free ;
Or safe at home old Scotland slept,
Forgetful of old feuds and thralls ; —
These faithful warders trod the walls,
Sounding their grim old battle calls,
For freedom, truth and unity. ,

IT must always be pleasant to an historian to
write of a strong race or stock, just as it is
a pleasure to be able to describe a rugged moun-
tain or a great cliff of sea-wall, such as that which
girds the historic coasts of Antrim, Derry, and
Donegal.

Among the men of Scottish blood who have
done so much to build up Canada, none is more
important than those who came to the country by
way of the North of Ireland.

It might be said that they are the only true
Scotsmen, if one was a stickler for exact history ;
as in all the old maps of British antiquity, as far
back as maps such as we have them go, the Scot-

55

The Scotsman in Canada

land of to-day is called Caledonia, and the original
Scotia is that portion of Ireland, along its northern
end, represented to-day by the countries above
mentioned — Antrim, Derry, Donegal, and Down.

It was from this region that the Scotsmen came
and spread over the southern portion of what is
now modern Scotland. So that, if history is to be
carried out literally, the title Ulster Scot is a
redundancy, and Scot and Caledonian Scot would
be more nearly correct when speaking of the great
race dealt with in this work.

Be this as it may — and if we go back far enough
in history it is strictly true — it might also be said
with equal truth that the first great Scottish settle-
ment from modern Scotland was that of Ulster in
the North of Ireland. Ever since the days pf
Queen Elizabeth there has been a movement of
emigration from Western and Southern Scotland
into Ulster ; and so strong has been the movement
and so persistent the development as a pure stock
of northern Scottish people, in what is called the
Scottish Pale, that it might be said that for the
last four hundred years the province of Ulster has
been held by Scotland.

It is not to be denied that there is some of the
Irish stock as well as much English blood in the
north. But in every way — in blood, religion,
speech, character, and prejudice — the Scotsman has
dominated, and still dominates, the country.

For many centuries the Scotsman had ventured
forth over the Continent of Europe in search of
(adventure equal to the desire of his spirit for

56

The Ulster Scotsman in Canada

conquest. In most cases he went as a soldier
and became a professional fighter in other men's
quarrels, for there was little to do or to be had
at home.

But this, the first great colony of adventurers
who went forth from the land of the heather, was
of a mature more peaceful and positive in its results,
though, as the sequel showed, even here the
Scotsman's share of fighting had to be performed.

This migration was largely a question of over-
population in the homeland, so that Scotland
became too small to hold her children. Then in
the beginning of the seventeenth century, the
struggle with England having been settled by the
union of the Crowns, the Scotsmen, Celts,
Normans, Saxons, and Danes in their origin, like
the earlier hordes, men, women, and children,
began to go forth, and crossing the narrow seas,
from the Campbelltown, Ayrshire, and Galloway
ports, swarmed into the North of Ireland, and by
right of population possessed themselves of the
land, which they have held, more or less, ever
since. As one writer puts it : ' The numbers
which went were large. They took with them their
Scottish character and their Scottish Calvinism."
Or, as another writer says : " The foundation of
Ulster society is Scottish. It is the solid granite
on which it rests." The story of this the first
great Scottish colony should evoke a deep interest.
All Scotsmen should have a pride in its history,
the tales of its sufferings and struggles. The
men it has produced are well worthy of the parent

57

The Scotsman in Canada

stock. Perhaps more than those who stayed across
the Channel have the Ulster men been true to the
faith and ideals of the Scottish people at their
strongest period. But the great lesson that they
have shown to the world is that Ireland where
inhabited by the Scotsman is a land of the pros-
perous and the contented.

It was really King James the Sixth who planted
his people, brave and true, in this, then new, colony,
and it was the success of this one which suggested
the possibility of the second, or New Scotland,
colony in North America.

But all colonies must have their leaders or
founders, and the first Scotsmen interested in lands
in Ulster were Hugh Montgomery of Braidstone
and James Hamilton, the first Earl of Clandeboye,
ancestor of Lord Dufferin. Montgomery also
became an Irish lord, as Lord Montgomery of the
Ards of Down, and both obtained extensive land
grants in the north. This was only the beginning',
and the great houses of Ranfurly, Castlereagh,
and many others in Ulster are but branches of
the Knoxes, Stuarts, Hamiltons, Campbells, Boyds,
and other famous families and clans of Scotland.

The following quotation will give a slight con-
ception of the Scottish element in the North of
Ireland. Harrison, in his " Scot in Ulster," says :
" The Scots of the Ards of Down have scarcely
intermarried with the Irish during the three
hundred years they have been in the Island." He
further describes the people of Down and Antrim :
" It is strange for any man who is accustomed to

58

Tlie Ulster Scotsman in Canada

walk through the southern districts of Scotland
to cross into Ireland and wander through the
country roads of Down or Antrim. He cannot
feel as if he was away from his own kith and kin.
The men who are driving the carts are like the
men at home ; the women at the cottage doors
are, in build and carriage, like the mothers of
our southern highlands ; the signs of the little
shops in the villages bear well-known names-
Patterson, perhaps, or Johnstone, or Sloan ; the
boy sitting on the * dyke/ with nothing to do, is
whistling 'A man's a man for a* that.' He goes
into the village inn and is served by a six-foot,
loosely hung Scottish Borderer, worthy to have
served drams to the Shepherd and Christopher
North ; and when he leaves the little inn he sees
by the sign that his host bears the name of James
Hay, and his wonder ceases. He gets within sight
of the South Derry hills, and the actors in the
scene partly change. Some are familiar ; the
smart maid at the inn is very like the housemaid
at home, and the principal grocer of the little
village is the very image of the elder who taught
him at the Sunday School."

One of the strongest evidences of Scotland in
the North of Ireland is the great strength of the
Presbyterian Church. It is a proverb that the
really strong, old-time or " Black " Presbyterian
is only to be found in Ulster. Nowhere, as
Orangeism has shown, has Protestantism such a
stronghold ; and nowhere has it had to fight so
long and persistently for its rights and very
existence.

59

The Scotsman in Canada

The very men of Derry were, most of them,
Scotsmen. The historian of the siege was a
Graham, whose ancestor was among the defenders
of Enniskillen. The names of the Scottish clergy
in Derry during the siege were : John Rowan ;
Thos. Temple ; John Campbell ; Barth. Black ;
John Knox ; — Johnston ; Wm. Carnighan ;
Thos. Boyd ; John Rowat ; John McKenzie ; John
Hamilton ; Robt. Wilson ; David Brown ; and
Wm. Gilchrist. The commanders of sallying
parties were mostly Scottish, as : Colonel Murray ;
Captains Noble ; Dunbar ; Wilson ; Adams ;
Hamilton ; Beatty ; Sanderson ; Shaw ; Wright ;
Cunningham ; and Majors Stewart and Dunlop.
Among the names of the leading signers of the
address to William and Mary by the inhabitants
of Derry, dated July 29, 1689, were the following
of Scottish origin : Col. John Mitchelburn ;
Col. Wm. Campbell ; John McLelland ; Jos.
Graham ; Wm. Thompson ; Jas. Young ; Alex
Knox ; Patk. Moore ; — Humes ; Robt. Deniss-
toun ; Marm. Stewart ; Jas. Flemming ; Andrew
Grigson ; Christopher Jenny ; Thos. Smith ;
Barth. Black ; Col. John Campbell ; John Cun-
ningham ; H. Love ; Geo. Hamilton ; Andrew
Baily ; John Hamilton ; Robt. Boyd ; Ralph
Fulerton ; Michael Cunningham ; Jos. Johnson ;
Robt. Bailey ; Danl. McCustin ; John Bailly ;
Robt. Lindsay ; Francis Boyd ; Wm. Hamilton ;
Arthur Hamilton ; Jos. Cunningham ; And.
McCulloch ; Alex. Sanderson ; Arch. Sanderson ;
Arthur Noble ; Phil. Dunbar ; Geo. White ;
60

The Ulster Scotsman in Canada

Thos. White ; Jos. Gledstanes ; Adam Murray ;
Henry Murray ; Henry Campbell ; Alex. Stuart ;
Thos. Johnston ; Jos. Gordon ; James Hains ;
And. Hamilton ; Jas. Moore ; Nich. White ; Jas.
Hunter ; Abr. Hillhouse ; Robt. Wallace ; Richd.
F lemming ; Thos. Lowe ; Jas. Blair ; John
Buchannan ; Wm. Stewart ; Mathew McLelland ;
Robt. King; John Logan; Alex. Rankin ; Jas.
McCormick ; John Cochrane ; Thos. Adair ; John
Hamilton ; Jas. Case ; and Wm. Montgomery.
These comprise seventy out of the hundred and
thirteen names on the address.

It has wrongly been said that Scottish Ulster
has produced no men of genius. This statement
is decidedly misleading. No people in the world
has produced more noted men than have this breed
of Ulster Scotsmen. In the Anglican Church in
Britain and Ireland, some of the most distinguished
bishops, preachers, and scholars have been of
Ulster blood. Archbishop Magee, and Boyd-
Carpenter, the present distinguished Bishop of
Ripon, are two examples of many noted divines of
this race. Among soldiers, Sir Henry Torrens and
Lord Roberts have been men of Ulster descent.
In literature alone, such names as Browning, Poe,
Kipling, and the Canadian Drummond are suffi-
cient to redeem Ulster from the long silence as to
her men of genius. She has been exceedingly
prolific in great scholars, divines, poets, soldiers,
scientists, jurists, business men, and statesmen.

A great many of the Ulster Scotsmen, during
the eighteenth century, removed to the United

61

The Scotsman in Canada

States ; and such prominent men as McKinley,
Roosevelt, Hanna, and James Stewart, the late
merchant prince, are a few among the thousands
of prominent Americans who have been proud of
having the Ulster Scottish blood in their veins.

Canada is one of the countries which owes much
to the Ulster Scotsman, who has been a prominent
factor in her progress and development. There
is scarcely a part of the country where Ulster
Scotsmen have not settled. There are many in
the Maritime Provinces, in Prince Edward Island,
Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, whose ancestors
came out in solid settlements, or are mingled with
the other Scottish elements in the cities, towns,
and country places.

The county of Truro, Nova Scotia, was jfirst
settled by Ulster Scotsmen. In 1761, fifty-three
families, comprising in all one hundred and twenty
souls, who had emigrated from Ulster to New
Hampshire, then a colony of Britain, became dis-
satisfied and removed to Truro. They came under
the guidance of Colonel McNutt, himself an Ulster
Scotsman, who for years had been an active agent
in the settlement of the Maritime Provinces.

These emigrants were no poor crofters or out-
driven fisher-folk. But they were a good inde-
pendent stock of the Scottish race. They brought
with them from New Hampshire household
utensils, farming implements, seed-corn, and
potatoes, besides over one hundred head of cattle.
It jwas in the pleasant month of May when they
arrived at their destination and got their first view
62

The Ulster Scotsman in Canada

of the land that was to be theirs and their
children's for generations to come. They were,
for the most part, of the stern Presbyterian stock,
and the names of many of these first settlers and
grantees of lands are strong evidence of their
Scottish blood and general character for meeting
the obstacles and privations of pioneer life in the
New World.

The list of Scottish names on the original grants
are in this order : James Yuill ; James Yuill,
jun. ; Alex. Nelson ; James Faulkner ; Andrew
Gamble ; John Gamble ; Jemet Long ; Wm.
Corbitt ; W. Corbitt, jun. ; Mathew Fowler
Wm. Gillmour ; Wm. Nesbitt ; Charles Proctor
Thos. Gourlie ; Jas. Gourlie ; John Gourlie
Samson Moore ; James Moore ; James Johnson
Jas. Johnson, jun. ; Adam Johnson ; James Dun-
lop ; Thos. Dunlop ; Ely Bell ; John Crawford
Adam Boyd ; John Morrison ; James Whidden
Alex. Miller ; Thos. Archibald ; John Rains
Robt. Hunter ; Wm. Kennedy ; John McKeen
John McKeen, jun. ; Wm. McKeen ; John Fulton
Wm. Logan ; Samuel Archibald ; Mathew Archi-
bald ; John Archibald, jun.; David Archibald;
Charles McKay ; Alex. McNutt.

From these settlers have descended some of the
most noted men and families in the province, in-
cluding the Dickies and Archibalds ; and they
have been represented especially by Senator Dickie,
one of the Fathers of Confederation ; his noted
son, the late Honourable Arthur Rupert Dickie,
Minister of Justice for Canada ; the Honourable

63

The Scotsman in Canada

Adams Archibald, Lieut .-Governor of the Province ;
and Senator McKeen.

Quebec has also many Ulster Scotsmen among
her most progressive inhabitants in the cities and
towns and among her farming population.

Ontario has a large admixture of this element,
as is evinced in her strong Orange population.
Many of the rural classes are of Ulster Scottish
descent. There is hardly a county in the province
that has not a large number among its well-to-do
farmers and townsmen. The counties of Grey
and Bruce have whole townships of Ulster men,
who have made loyal and respected citizens and
subjects of the Empire. They are to be found in
all walks of life. The Anglican, Presbyterian,
and Methodist Churches have contained many able
clergy of this noted stock. Many of Canada's
leading divines, legislators, jurists, financiers,
scholars, and writers have been of the Ulster Scot-
tish stock, whose families, through a period of
residence in the North of Ireland, trace their blood
and heredity back through a thousand years of
Scottish history. It is therefore plain that no
proper chronicle of the Scotsman in Canada can
be complete without an account of this great and
important portion of the Scottish race.

All through the pages of this work mention will
be made of the Ulster Scotsmen as they appear
on the stage of the country's development.

64

CHAPTER IV

NEW SCOTLAND, OR NOVA SCOTIA, AND
THE ORDER OF BARONETS

Over the hazy distance,
Beyond the sunset's rim,
Forever and forever
These voices called to him.
Westward! Westward! Westward!
The sea sang in his head; —
At morn in the busy harbour,
At nightfall on his bed —
Westward! Westward! Westward!
Over the line of breakers,
Out of the distance dim,
Forever the foam-white fingers
Beckoning, beckoning him.

ONE of the most remarkable and interesting
chapters in Canadian history is that dealing
with the Scottish dependencies in the New World.
Much has been written of New England, New
France, and New Amsterdam. But few even among
scholars know the real history of this page in our
British colonial annals, and the story of New Scot-
land in North America is almost unknown to the
average reader of works on early America. This
is the more to be deplored, considering that Scots -
VOL. i. E 65

The Scotsman in Canada

men have had so much to do with the subsequent
development of our country, and form such a large
and important portion of the population.

Like many attempts at early colonisation, this
project, so far as its immediate objects were
concerned, was destined to failure. But the
attempt was far-reaching in its consequences.
Its story reads more like a romance of the
days of chivalry or a fairy tale than a plain
chapter of our annals. But in all matters
which have to do with Scotland and her
history this element seems inevitable. Then, as
has ever been the case in connection with the
Scottish settlement and development of Canada, we
have here to do with a strong, masterful and am-
bitious personality, that of Sir William Alexander,
Earl of Stirling and Viscount Canada, the first great
Scotsman to couple his name and fame with our
country.

The story which leads up to the founding of New
Scotland may be related briefly.

In 1497 John Cabot and his son Sir Sebastian,
those adventurous spirits, discovered Cape Breton,
and set up the flag of Britain on its shores. Thus
the territory became a part of the dominion of the
British monarch, Henry the Seventh. Within a
century afterwards, over three hundred fishing
vessels were found upon the coasts in the vicinity
of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. They were of the
leading sea-going nationalities, British, French, and
Spanish. But the harbours of the vicinity were
held by the British.
66

Nova Scotia

A marvellous but not exaggerated account, as
subsequent history has proved, was given in the
Old World as to the vast riches of the New. The
early explorers spoke of the mines of gold and
silver, the forests rich in furs, the seas, rivers, and
lakes, teeming with fishes, and there were even
stories told of precious stones in the far interior
to the north, and those stories are believed to this
day. These tales of a vast, wealthy continent
created a keen rivalry between the leading
European Governments regarding the exploration
of this dazzling treasure-house of the Far West..

In 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert took possession
of Newfoundland in the name of Britain ; mean-
while the King of France, Henry the Fourth, had
sent explorers to colonise Acadia.

In 1608, Champlain's ship was steered up the
St. Lawrence by the Scottish pilot — Abraham
Martin. So it was a Scotsman who had to do with
the founding of Quebec, and gave his name to the
famous heights.

It was not until 1613 that Captain Argall, whose
name suggests the Scottish one of Argyll or
Ergadia, a brave Briton who had already made a
name in the Western world by carrying* off the
famous Indian Princess Pocahontas, captured, with
a single ship of one hundred and thirty guns, the
whole vast territory of Acadia, and took possession
in the name of King James the Sixth of Scotland
and First of England.

This great and diligent Scottish monarch, the
first of the later line of Stuart kings, was both a

67

The Scotsman in Canada

statesman and a scholar, and moreover a man of
wide knowledge of the world as it then existed ;
and he at once realised the great possibilities of
his new possessions in the Far West. He also saw
that here was a chance to form a rich colony in
close connection with the great northern kingdom
of his forefathers, and out of this grew the scheme
for founding a New Scotland in North America.
King James was a man of practical brain, and he
saw that something would need to be done to per-
suade his northern subjects to take a part in this
royal project. But though kings can plan, they
need men of affairs to carry out their schemes, and
he found the man to his hand in his friend, favourite,
and brilliant courtier, Sir William Alexander, a poet
like himself, and, like all large Scotsmen, a
strange mixture of the man of affairs and the
dreamer.

That was a great age, like the Elizabethan which
preceded it, when all from the monarch down were
poets, scholars, and thinkers, and Alexander, the
head of the first Scottish-Canadian community,
could not escape the inspiration for verse -making
which then prevailed. It was said sneer ingly of
him and his royal master, that James was a king
who dared to be a poet, and that Alexander was
a poet who would found a kingdom. This last
dream was indeed realised when, two hundred and
sixty years later, his great fellow-clansman, Sir
John Alexander Macdonald, proposed the union or
federation of the British North American provinces
under the title of the Kingdom of Canada.
68

Nova Scotia

The biography of Sir William Alexander Mac-
donald, for such was his true name, is one of the
most romantic and tragic in Scottish history. It
not only carries the reader back to the peculiar
relationship which formerly existed between the
two great clans of Campbell and Macdonald, but
also introduces us to the Earl of Stirling's first
patron and friend, Archibald, seventh Earl of
Argyll, to whom he became tutor and travelling
companion.

Sir William Alexander, afterward Earl of Stir-
ling, was of distinguished Scottish ancestry. He
was descended from a collateral branch of the
great family of whom the famed Somerled was
the noted progenitor. His ancestor was Alexander
Macdonald, and a branch of this family was that
of the Macalisters of Loup, which like the
Alexanders became residents in Argyllshire, and
possessed of lands under the lordship of the Earls
of Argyll.

Sir William was the only son of Alexander
Alexander of Menstrie, which place was the family
seat for many generations, and he was born in
the manor-house of that place. There is some
dispute as to the exact date of his birth, but the
best authorities place it at about 1567. Owing
to the early death of his father, he was brought
up by his paternal grand-uncle, a burgess of the
historic old city of Stirling, and he was probably
educated at the grammar school of that city under
Thomas Buchanan, nephew of the famous George
Buchanan, historian and tutor of James the Sixth.

The Scotsman in Canada

Having gained some reputation as a scholar,
Alexander became travelling companion to Archi-
bald, seventh Earl of Argyll, with whom he visited
many European countries, including Italy, France,
and Spain. This Earl became his friend and patron,
and introduced him at the court of James the Sixth,
where he became tutor to the young Prince Henry.
Alexander's literary ability and general qualities
appealed to James, and at the King's accession to
the English throne, the Scottish poet and adven-
turer became one of the thirty-two gentlemen
attendants of the Prince of Wales.

He had, ere leaving Scotland, already made a
reputation as a poet. " The Tragedy of Darius,"
printed in 1603, was his first contribution to
Scottish poetry, and was dedicated to the King.
He wrote several other meritorious works. But
it is rather of his work as a founder of Canada that
we must speak here.

In 1609 he is described as a knight, and soon
became interested, though without profit, in some
of the King's schemes to develop the gold and
silver mines of Scotland. He at this period carried
on a literary correspondence with the distinguished
Scottish poet, Drummond of Hawthornden. In
1614 he became Master of Requests, and in 1620
the King sought his advice regarding his new
acquired lands of Acadia, and Sir William wrote
regarding this adventure : " My countrymen would
never adventure in such an enterprise, unless it
were, as there was, a New France, a New Spaine,
and a New England, that they might likewise have
a New Scotland."
70

Nova Scotia

This great and promising undertaking at once
appealed to the poet's daring and active spirit,
and he determined not to rest until there should
be a newer Scotland, a " Nova Scotia," in the
far continent beyond the Hesperides.

Firmly fixed in this purpose, he obtained from
the King that the new territory should be called
New Scotlan'd, and immediately acquired a vast
territory, which now includes all the Maritime
Provinces, the peninsula of Gaspe in Quebec, and
all the islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, west
and south of Newfoundland. This area included
Anticosti, Cape Breton, and all other adjacent
islands as far as Newfoundland. The bounds set by
the King himself were : on the north the river St.
Lawrence, on the east the Gulf of St. Lawrence, on
the south the Atlantic Ocean, and on the west
the river St. Croix to its head, and a line thence
to run north to the first station for ships, or river
falling into the great River of Canadra, and thence
northward by that river.

The royal letter, dated August 5, 1621, com-
municating the King's purpose to the Privy Council,
is, in part, as follows : —

Having ever been ready to embrace anie good occasion
whereby the honour or proffete of our kingdome might be
advanced ; and considering that no kynd of conquest can be
more easie and innocent than that which doth proceede from
Plantations, especially in a countrey commodious for men to live
in.yetremayneing altogether desert, or at least only inhabited by
Infidels, the conversion of whom to the Christian fayth (intended
by this means) might tend much to the glory of God ; since

71

The Scotsman in Canada

sundry other kingdoms, as likewise this our kingdome of late,
vertuously adventring in this kynd, have renued their lands
considering (praysed be God) how populous that our Kingdome
is at this present, and what necessity there is of some good means
whereby Ydle people might be employed preventing worse
5 courses. Wee think there are manie that might be spared who
i may be fitt for such a forraine Plantation, being of myned as
' resolute and bodyes as able to encounter the difficulties that such
adventurers must at first encounter with as anie other Nation
whatsoever, and such an enterprise is the more fitt for that our
Kingdome it doth crave the transportation of nothing from thence,
but only men, women cattle and victualls, and not of money, and
maie give a good return of other commodityes, affording the
means of a new trade at this tyme when traffique is so much
decayed. For the cause above specifcit, Wee have the more
willingly harkened to a motion made unto us by Our trusty and
wellbeloved Counsellour Sir William Alexander, Knight; who
hath a purpose to procure a forraine Plantation, haveing made
j choice of lands lying betweene our Colonies of New England
aud- Newfoundland, both the Governors whereof have encouraged
i him thereunto.

Our pleasure is, that after due consideration, if you find this
course, as wee have conceeded it to be, for the good of that our
Kingdome, that you grant unto the said Sir William, his heirs
and assignes or to any other that will joyne with him in the whole
or in anie part thereof, a Signatour under our Create Seale of the
sayd lands lying between New England and Newfoundland as
he shall design them particularly unto yow, to be holden of us
from our Kingdome of Scotland as a part thereof.

The Privy Council having consented, a Royal
Warrant for the Charter was issued on September
10, 1621, and the Charter passed the Great Seal
on the 2 Qth of the same month, appointing Sir
William hereditary Lieutenant of the new colony.
The patent was embellished with portraits of James
and his lieutenant.
72 .

Nova Scotia

But the first attempt to carry out the work proved
a failure. Alexander obtained a royal Charter of
the Cape Breton portion of New Scotland for his
friend Sir Robert Gordon of Lochinvar, under the
title of New Galloway, and dated November 8,
1621.

In 1622, Alexander sent forth his first colonising
ship to New Scotland. Early in the spring
she sailed from London to Scotland, where,
at Kirkcudbright, on Sir Robert Gordon's lands,
emigrants were to be recruited. But though
many inducements were offered, only a black-
smith and a Presbyterian minister were in-
duced to make the venture. The rest were
agricultural labourers. The ship sailed from
Old Scotland in June, but was delayed at the
Isle of Man until August, and Newfoundland was
not reached until the middle of September, where
she was held by a storm. Sir William Alexander
gives an account of the many difficulties encountered
in his famous work, " Encouragement to Colonies."

But the failure of the first vessel to arrive at
New Scotland did not discourage its ardent Gover-
nor. A second ship, the St. Luke, sailed in March,
1623, and arrived at St. John's on June 5th. Im-
peded by fogs and adverse gales, the emigrants
finally arrived at Port de Mputon ; but the expedi-
tion was, like the other, a failure, though by both
Alexander sustained serious loss to his fortune.

But he steadily persevered. In 1624 he pub-
lished his work, " Encouragement to Colonies,"
which is, without doubt, the earliest serious emigra-

73

The Scotsman in Canada

tion literature published in connection with Canada.
It is a great pity that the British people have not,
since that date, done more in this way, especially
during the last century, to direct British emigra-
tion to the colonies, instead of allowing it to
scatter over the globe.

In his work referred to, Alexander included a
map of New Scotland, and he traced the history of
colonial enterprise from the days of the sons of
Noah through the Phoenicians, Greeks, and
Romans to his century. He praised the Spanish
energy in establishing transatlantic colonies. He
spoke of the success of Virginia, and proclaimed
the discovery of America as the call of Providence
to Britain to occupy the New World. We, in this
later day, realising what has since happened,
should appreciate the efforts, foresight, wisdom,
and ardour of this, the first great colonist of
British North America. He also hoped that the
dignity of the royal sceptre would be further in-
creased by the plantation of New Scotland, which
would carry into unexplored tracts the influence of
British culture and of the Christian faith. He
described the richness of the country awaitirg its
inhabitants, and pointed out that each year, like
to a beehive, Scotland sent forth swarms of her
people to expend their energies in foreign wars.
This was only too true at that time and for long
after, when we remember the famous Scottish
Brigades, whose activities in different countries of
Europe are a part of history. But Alexander;
invited his fellow-countrymen to settle in a country
74

Nova Scotia

where the arts of peace might have full sway,
where commerce and agriculture might develop,
and the missionary have a vast field of work.
He-
Saw visions in the future, round the west
Of Europe's fading sunsets ; held a hope
Of some new Paradise for poor men's cure
From despotisms of old dynasties
And cruel iron creeds of warped despairs.

This stirring appeal fell, however, upon stony
ground. The period was evidently too early a
one for such attempts to have any real effect.
And the Governor of New Scotland was forced to
resort to another method, which had already been
aHonc ( in settling the Northern Pale of Ulster, or
that inli Ireland. This was by means of the
Castle, *hment of the now famous order of Baronets
of the,vra Scotia, or New Scotland. The Ulster
grants of Baronets suggested to Alexander the idea
the fi£ Scottish Baronets, whereby Scottish land-
June /rs and younger sons of the nobility might

An a new noble order and also thereby benefit
.ormtern colonisation.

enkgain, on his recommendation, a royal letter
was issued from the Court of Roystown to the
Privy Council of Scotland informing the Council
that Royalty had determined that the colonisation
of New Scotland shouJi succeed, and that the
King himself was, in thi^ connection, about to
establish a new order of Baronets.

To this the Council, under the guidance of

75

The Scotsman in Canada

Alexander, agreed, and in its reply, dated Novem-
ber 23, 1824, asked that the honour be kept select,
and given only to those of station, birth, and
fortune ; and it also suggested that the scheme
of colonisation might relieve Scotland of many of
her surplus population. There were twelve signa-
tures to the Council's answer, among them those
of the Earls of Mar, Morton, and Lauderdale.
The whole text of the royal letter, the reply, and
the subsequent royal proclamation, are given in
the Register of Royal Letters. TLe proclamation
recapitulated the substance of the Council's reply,
and invited the leading Scottish gentlemen to con-
tribute to the colonisation fund and become
members of the order of Baronets of New Scotland,
and to repair for enrolment, either by pe>P^^-or
agent, to the Lords of the Council. isdom,

Even this apparent reward of hono\ist of
aspirants did not have the desired effect, a** the
William renewed his appeals in the form of a-r in-
mandate dated March 23, 1624-5, inviting c^hich
dates to apply to him personally or to his a*e of
Sir John Scott, Knight ; and the fee He
3,000 merks was reduced to 2,000, to itsa
applied strictly to colonial purposes. rikf

But the whole scheme was again retarded'' by
a grave event, the death of the King on Sunday,
March 27, 1625, just four days after the date
of the royal missive referred to.

However, on May 28th, the first three Baronets
of Nova Scotia were made in the persons of the
famous Sir Robert v Gordon, Knight, younger son
76

Nova Scotia

of the Earl of Sutherland, who thus became premier
baronet of Nova Scotia ; William Keith, Earl
Marischal ; and Alexander Strachan of Strachan.
The next day five more were added : Sir Duncan
Campbell of Glenorquie, Knight ; Robert Innis of
Innis ; Sir John Wemyss of Wemyss, ancestor to
the Earl Wemyss ; David Livingston of Dunipace ;
and Sir Robert Douglas of Glenbervie. On
July ist Charles the First granted to Sir William
Alexander a charter of Novodamus, with a re-
grant of all lands, powers, and privileges cited
in the former charter, and additional clauses
respecting the order of Baronets. By the new
arrangement, Sir William resigned all his lands
in New Scotland to the King, who re-granted them
to the different baronets. It was also provided
that infeftment should take place at Edinburgh
Castle, as New Scotland was already made a part
of the kingdom of Scotland. The whole of the
grants were afterwards ratified and confirmed in
the first Parliament of Scotland at Edinburgh on
June 28, 1633, the King himself being present.

An additional clause also promised that the
former grant would be confirmed by Parlia-
ment.

Under the charter the baronets were to be
barons of large territories in New Scotland, which
was parcelled out among them. The first created
received, each, estates six miles in length by three
in breadth.

The second proclamation, that under Charles the
First, was issued on August 31, 1625, giving the

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The Scotsman in Canada

rank, powers, and responsibilities of the under-
takers who became baronets.

The King took a deep interest in the new order.
He even wrote strong letters of rebuke to the
Earl of Stair and others who were opposed to
the making of the new baronets. Among the
others was the Laird of Wemyss, who received a
sharp summons to take advantage of the oppor-
tunity of acquiring the offered rank, which he
accepted, together with the promise that it would
lead to higher promotion.

There are some facts not generally known to
the average student in connection with the Nova
Scotia baronetcies. One of these is, that by right
the titles are connected with New Scotland, rather
than with the Old Land. For instance, the Camp-
bell Baronetcies of Ardnamurchan and Auckin-
breck, so-called, are rather New Ardnamurchan
and New Auckinbreck in the Gaspe portion of
New Scotland. Likewise the Laird of Wemyss
became Sir John Wemyss, Baronet of New
Wemyss. Thus it is seen that the whole under-
taking was indeed the creation of a great Canadian
aristocracy, whereby a long list of noted Scottish
families became the nobility, though now in title
only, of a great part of Maritime Canada and
Southern Quebec. This significant historical fact
should be of deep interest to all Canadians of
Scottish extraction.

The first Baronet of Nova Scotia, Sir Robert
Gordon, was so created May 28, 1625, and the
last to be created was Craigie of Gairsay in 1707
78

Nova Scotia

The descendants of these Baronets of Canada
have, many of them, been since connected with
the history of Canada, as governors, soldiers,
colonists, statesmen, clergy, and in other important
walks of life. Some of these families have become
extinct and others lost to history, the titles becom-
ing dormant through the loss of the rightful heir.
It is known that some cadets of these families
have drifted to the colonies, and have there lost
sight of their connection with this old historic
order of lesser nobility.

The scheme of colonisation went steadily on.
Sir William had been made Secretary for Scot-
land, as well as Lieutenant of New Scotland.

A small fleet was then announced as being in
preparation to proceed to the new colony. The
royal letter containing this pronouncement is
dated: " Why thall," January 17, 1627. Money
was also furnished from the royal Treasury to the
amount of six thousand pounds . The ships, bearing
the suggestive names of the Eagle and Morning
Star, finally got under way. A Captain David
Kirk, a colonist of Scottish descent, whose people
had settled in France, was appointed Deputy-
Admiral under Sir William. With a small force,
he defeated the French squadron bound for Quebec
and Port Royal, and captured eighteen transports.
This gave prestige to Sir William's scheme, and
fourteen patents of baronetcy were added between
October, 1627, and February, 1628.

Alexander now chartered new vessels, and his
son and heir, Sir William, who was made Knight

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The Scotsman in Canada

Admiral of New Scotland, sailed with four ships
in May, 1628, carrying seventy colonists, who were
safely landed at Port Royal, now Annapolis. Some
English adventurers now attempted to procure the
right of trafficking with the new colony, but were
frustrated, and a royal patent was granted to Sir
William Alexander the younger and others, as
" sole traders " in the Gulf and River of Canada,
and they were empowered to settle a plantation
" within all parts of the gulf and river above those
parts which are over against Kebeck [Quebec]
on the south side, or above twelve leagues below
Todowsack [Tadousac] on the north side."

They were also, on February 4, 1629, em-
powered " to make a voyage into the Gulf and
River of Canada and the parts adjacent for the
sole trade of beaver, wools, beaver skins, furs,
hides, and skins of wild beasts."

Sir William, the elder, was now made Keeper
of the Signet for Scotland, with a deputy at Edin-
burgh ; and, to further his colony, he established
in 1627 a shipping port at Largs at the mouth of
the Clyde, and secured a charter to build a free
port and haven at that place " for advancing trade
and commerce between the Old World and the
New." This was the first beginning of what after-
wards developed into the world-wide shipping and
vast trade of Glasgow and the Clyde.

Sir William and the King intended that Nova
Scotia should be, in the New World, the same com-
plement of Scotland as the sister Province of New
England was to the mother country from which
80

Nova Scotia

it derived its name. It must not be forgotten,
however, that Nova Scotia was a royal colony.
Much injustice has been done to the memory of
James the Sixth of Scotland and First of England.
He was in many respects a man far in advance
of his times. His colonial policy may have been
paternal, but it was not any the worse because
of that. It was certainly eminently practical and
far-seeing, and decidedly commercial in its object.
But the difficulty was to get men to leave their
homes and adventure over an unknown sea into
a far country, unless they were compelled thereto
by persecution, a strong unrest, or a dissatisfac-
tion with their own surroundings. It was in that
age a difficult matter to move any people to
emigrate, and hence the failure in interesting the
people of Scotland in the new colony.

That the scheme was strong in the mind of
James is evident, as on his death -bed he referred
to it plaintively but earnestly as "a good work,
a royal work, and one beneficent to the kingdom
in general," and he left it as an heritage of duty
to his royal son to carry out. His object had
been, no doubt, to found on the American conti-
nent a country which should be a part of his
kingdom of Scotland, and joined to it by bonds
of sentiment and mutual commerce. It is a great
pity that this great scheme, as originally intended
by the King and Sir William Alexander, was not
carried out in its entirety. The founding of the
order of Baronets and Barons of the new commu-
nity was for the sole purpose of interesting the

VOL. I. F 8 1

The Scotsman in Canada

well-to-do people in this important scheme. Those
writers who have sneered at or ignored this impor-
tant undertaking have certainly missed the real
significance of the adventure. If it had been made
successful, what a blessing it would have been
to the New World1.

The premier baronet of New Scotland, Sir
Robert Gordon, was created by Charles the First
on May 28, 1625, and received a grant of
16,000 acres of land in New Scotland. By
July 1 9th nine other baronets with similar grants
were added, and by 1630, fully fifty in all were
created; and between 1663 and 1707, when the
union of Scotland and England occurred, one
hundred and twenty had been created.

In the year 1845 tne memorandum1 on the Nova
Scotia question stated that there were in Great
Britain one hundred and sixty baronets of this
order, of whom forty were peers of the realm.

The following is the correct roll of the baronets
of Scotland and New Scotland, with date of
creation and designations.

1625 May 28. Gordon of Gordon (Sir Robert),

Premier Bt Nova Scotia

Strachan of Strachan New Brunswick

Keith, Earl Marischal t)

May 29. Campbell of Glenurchy (Mar-
quess of Breadalbane) ... Anticosti
Innis of New Innis (Duke of

Roxburgh) ... „

Wemyss of New Wemyss (Earl

of Wemyss) „

May 30. Livingston of Dunipace ... New Brunswick
82

Nova Scotia

1625 May 30. Douglas of Douglas New Brunswick

July 14. Macdonald of Macdonald (Lord

Macdonald) „

July 19. Murray of Cockpool (Earl

Mansfield) „

Aug. 30. Colquhoun of Colquhoun ... Nova Scotia
Aug. 31. Gordon of New Cluny

(Marquess of Huntly) ... New Brunswick

Sept. i. Lesly of Lesly „

Sept. 2. Gordon of New Lesmure ... „

Sept. 3. Ramsay of Ramsay „

Nov. 17. Forester of Corstorphine (Earl

Verulam) Nova Scotia

Dec. 28. Erskine of Erskine Anticosti

Graham of Braco „

Hume of Palworth „

1626 Mar. 30. Forbes of Forbes New Brunswick

Mar. 31. Johnston of Johnston „

Apr. 21. Burnett of Leys Burnett ... „

Apr. 22. Moncrieff of Moncrieff ... „

Apr. 24. Ogilvie of New Carnnosie
May i. Gordon of Lochinvar (Viscount

Kenmore) „

June i. Murray of Murray „

July 18. Blackadder of Blackadder ... Anticosti

Sept. 29. Ogilvy of Ogilvy, Innerquharity New Brunswick

1627 Mar. 18. Mackayof Reay (Lord Reay)... Anticosti

Mar. 28. Maxwell of Mauldslie New Brunswick

Stewart of Bute (Marquess of

Bute)

Apr. 1 8. Stewart of Corswall (Earl of

Galloway) „

May 2. Napier of Napier (Lord Napier) „

June 25. Livingston of Kennaird (Earl

of Newburgh) Anticosti

July 4. Cunningham of Cunningham... „

July 17. Carmichael of Carmichael ... Nova Scotia

July 19. McGill of McGill Anticosti

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The Scotsman in Canada

1627 July 20. Ogilvy of Banff (Lord Banff)... New Brunswick
Oct. 1 8. Johnston of New Elphinstone „

Nov. 21. Cockburn of Cockburn ... „

Dec. 13. Campbell of Lundie-Campbell Anticosti
Campbell of Aberuchill ... „

1628 Jan. i. Acheson of Monteagle (Earl

Gosford) ... „

Jan. 10. Sandilands- of Sandilands (Lord

Torpichen) „

Montgomery of New Skilmorly

(Earl of Eglinton)

Jan. 12. Haliburton of Pitcur „

Campbell of New Auckinbreck „

Innis of Balveny Nova Scotia

Jan. 14. Campbell of New Ardnamur-

chan Anticosti

Feb. 19. Hope of Craighall „

Feb. 22. Skene of Curriehill New Brunswick

Preston of Preston Airdrie ... „

Gibson of Durie Anticosti

May 14. Crawford of Kilbirnie „

Riddell of New Riddell

May 15. Murray of Blackbarony ... „
May 16. Murray of Elibank Murray(Lord

Elibank)

May 21. Cadell of Cadell

Mackenzie of Tarbat (Earl of

Cromarty)

June 20. Elphinstone of New Glasgow New Brunswick
Sept, 29. Forbes of Castle-Forbes (Earl

Granard) Nova Scotia

Hamilton of Killach (Down)

(Marquess of Abercorn)
Oct. 2. Stewart of Ochiltree (Earl of

Castle-Stewart)

Barrett, Lord Newburgh ... New" Brunswick
1629 June 26. Bruce of Stenhouse

Nicholson of Lasswade . Anticosti

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Nova Scotia

1629 June 26. Arnot of Arnot

June 28. Oliphant of Oliphant

Agnew of Agnew

Keith of Ludquhairn

Nov. 30. St. Estienne of La Tour

1630 Mar. 31. Hannay of Mochrum

Apr. 20. Forbes of New Craigievar ...
Apr. 24. Stewart (Lord Ochiltree)

Crosbie

Crosbie of Crosbie Park Wick-
land

May 12. St. Estienne of St. Denniscourt
July 24. Sibbald of Rankeillor Sibbald
Oct. 2. Murray of New Dunearn
Nov. 13. Richardson of Pencaithland ...
Nov. 25. Maxwell of Pollock

Cunningham of New Robert-
land

1631 Mar. 5. Wardlaw of Wardlaw

June 2. Sinclair of Canisby (Earl of

Caithness)

June 18. Gordon of New Embo

Sept. 3. McLean of Movaren

1633 Dec. 22. Balfour of Denmiln

Dec. 25. Cunningham of Auchinharvie

1634 June 7. Vernat of Carington (York-

shire)

Bingham of Castle bar (Mayo)

(Earl of Lucan)

Munro of Foulis

Foulis of Colinton

1635 Jan. 6. Hamilton of Hamilton (Lord

Belhaven)

June 8. Gascoine of Barnbow (York-
shire)

June 1 8. Norton of Chestone (Suffolk)...

June 29. Pilkington of Stainlie (York-
shire)

Anticosti

y>
Nova Scotia

»

M

New Brunswick

Nova Scotia

Anticosti

New Brunswick

n

Nova Scotia

Anticosti

Cape Breton

The Scotsman in Canada

1635 Sept 26. Widdrington of Cairntington

(Northumberland) Cape Breton

Dec. 10. Hay of Smithfield „

Dec. 19. Bolles of Cudworth (Notts) ... „

Raney of Rutain (Kent) ... „

1636 Feb. 17. Fortesque of Salden (Bucks) ... „
Feb. 20. Thomson of Duddington ... „
June 17. Browne of Neale (Mayo) (Lord

Kilmaine) „

June 1 8. More of Longford (Notts) ... „

Abercombie of Birkenbog ... „

Sinclair of Stevenson „

Curzon-Keddlestone (Derbysh.)

(Lord Scarsdale) „

Nov. 21. Bailie of Lochead „

1637 Jan. 16. Nicholson of Carnock „

Mar. 13. Preston of Valley field „

July 3 1. Kcr of Greenhead „

The baronets created from 1638 to 1707 were :
1638, Pollock of Jordanhill ; Musgrave of Hayton
Castle ; 1639, Turing1 of Foveran ; 1642, Gordon
of Haddo (Earl of Aberdeen) ; 1646, Hamilton
of Silverton Hill; 1648, Seton of Abercorn ;
.1651, Primrose of Chester (Earl of Rosebery) ;
1663, Carnegy of Southesk ; Hay of Park ; 1664,
Murray of Stanhope ; Dalrymple of Stair (Viscount
Stair) ; Sinclair of Longformacus ; 1665, Purves
(Hume Campbell) of Purves ; Malcolm of Bal-
beadie; 1666, Menzies of that Ilk; Dalzell of
Glencoe (Earl of Carnwath) ; Erskine of Alva
;(Earl of Rosstyn) ; Erskine of Cambo (Earl of
Mar and Kellie) ; Wood of Boyentown ; Elliot
of Stobs ; Ramsay of Banff ; 1667, Shaw-Stewart
of Greenock ; Don of Newton ; Douglas of Kel-
86

Nova Scotia

head (Marquess of Queensberry) ; 1668, Barclay
of Pierston ; 1669, Wallace of Craigie ; Cun-
yngham of Caprington (now Dick-Cunyngham,
Baronet of Preston Field) ; 1671, Halkett of Pit-
firrave ; Cockburn of that Ilk ; Home of Black-
adder ; Scott of Ancrum ; 1672, Cunningham of
Corsehill ; Ross of Balnagowan ; Jardine of
Applegirth ; 1673, Murray of Ochertyre ; Mac-
kenzie of Coul ; 1675, Hamilton of Preston ; 1679,
Clerk of Penicuik ; Cochrane of Ochiltree (Earl
of Dundbnald) ; 1680, Baird of Saughton Hall ;
Dundonald ; 1680, Baird of Saughton Hall;
Maitland of Hatton (Earl of Lauderdale) ; 1681,
Maxwell of Montreath ; 1682, Maxwell of Pol-
lock ; Kennedy of Culzean (Marquess of Ailsa) ;
Bannerman of Elsick ; i68j, Stewart of Grand-
tully ; Pringle of Stitchel ; Maxwell of Sprinkell ;
Seton of Pitmedden ; 1685, Grierson of Lag ; Kil-
patrick of Closeburn ; Laurie of Maxwelton ;
Dalzell of Brims ; Montcrieff of that Ilk ; 1686,
Broun of Colstoun ; Kinlock of Gilmerton ;
Nicholson of Tillicoultry ; Gordon of Park ;
1687, Calder of Muirton ; Stuart of Allanbank ;
Hall of Dunglas ; Thriepland of Fingask ; 1688,
Dick-Lauder of Fountainhall ; Grant of Dalvey ;
1693, Stewart of Coltness ; Dunbar of Burn;
1698, Dalrymple of North Berwick ; Dalrymple
of Cousland (Viscount Stair) ; 1700, Mackenzie
of Gairloch ; Forbes of Foveran ; Livingstone of
\Vestquarter ; Johnstone of Westerhall ; Elliot of
Minto .(Earl of Minto); Dunbar of Northfield ;
1702, Cunninghame of Milncraig ; Grant -suttie of

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The Scotsman in Canada

Balgone ; 1703, Mackenzie of Scatwell ; Cathcart
of Carleton ; Ferguson of Kilkerran ; Reid of
Barra ; Hay of Alderston ; 1704, Murray of
Melgun (Count Murray) ; Wemyss of Bogie ;
Grant of Grant (Earl of Seafield) ; Sinclair of
Dunbeath ; Wedderburn of Blackness; 1705,
Grant of Monymusk ; Holbourne of Kirshie ;
1706, Gordon of Earlston ; Naesmith of Posso ;
Dunbar of Hempriggs (Lord Duffus) ; 1707, Dick
of Preston Field (also Baronet of Capington) ;
Stewart of Tillicoultry ; Cragie of Gairsay.

It is interesting to trace the representatives or
scions of these old houses who have since then been
connected with Canada. There are descendants
of Sir Robert Gordon's elder sister, Lady Jane
Gordon, living in Canada to-day. The great
Bishop Strachan represented well his family or
clan, as the first Bishop of Nova Scotia repre-
sented the Inglis family. A Douglas was one
of the founders of British Columbia, and the
Macdonalds have been notable. A Ramsay, Lord
Dalhousie, was a noted Governor. Mackay of
Reay has descendants in Canada. The noted
Bishop Stewart of Quebec was a younger son of
the Earl of Galloway. Several of the Campbell
families, such as Arkinglas, Auchinbreck have
representatives, and the distinguished chief of the
clan was a Governor. No clan on the list but
has had some one of its name playing an im-
portant part in the subsequent life of the whole
country from Cape Breton to Vancouver.

The map of New Scotland, issued by Sir William
88

Nova Scotia

Alexander in 1630, is exceedingly interesting. It
shows New France on the north bank of the St.
Lawrence, with Kebec (Quebec) and the river
Saguenay and Tadousac ; and New England
parcelled out among the many English adven-
turers. The St. Croix, which to-day is the
boundary, is there called the Tweed, which, as
that river separated England and Scotland, so the
Tweed of the New World separated New England
on the south-west from New Scotland on the north-
east. The St. John River, in what is now New
Brunswick, was called the Clyde, and the Bay of
Funday was called Argal Bay, and the Sound
west of Prince Edward Island, which had no name,
was called the " Forthe " ; the St. Lawrence was
called " the great river of Canada," and the gulf
" Golfe of Canada." One of the large rivers
running north into the St. Lawrence was called
the " Sulway," and all the land south of the St.
Lawrence belonged to New England and New
Scotland. The latter was divided into two pro-
vinces. All, now New Brunswick, and all Quebec
from the Sulway down south of the St. Lawrence
with Anticosti, was the Province of Alexandria ;
while what is now Nova Scotia, with Cape Breton
and Prince Edward Island, was the Province of
New Caledonia. In this map the southern part
of Newfoundland is called Alexandria.

Sir William Alexander, in his " Encouragement
to Colonies," gives an insight into his own
personality, his scholarship, and original thought.
The student reading this important work by this

89

The Scotsman in Canada

remarkable man, in the light of subsequent history
and research, cannot but realise that his insight
into the history of the human race was far beyond
the common, and that his knowledge of the earth's
surface and the emigration of the races, even those
of the remote East and West, was that of no
ordinary person.

History will yet acknowledge that this, the first
Scottish coloniser of America, was one of the great
men of history, and, like Sir Walter Raleigh, £
lofty soul, whose imagination and aspiration for
his race went far beyond his native borders and
his own day and generation. Faults he, no doubt,
had, as had Columbus, Chantplain, and Cabot.
But his signal virtues of insight, vast courage,
and imagination, his great knowledge of the New
and Old Worlds both East and West, his deep
scholarship, his indomitable energy, all directed
toward the opening up of new worlds in the
West, place him high up in the ranks of that
immortal band of the world's adventurers—" The
Discoverers " — who —

Feared no unknown, saw no horizon dark,
Counted no danger, dreamed all seas their road
To possible futures; struck no craven sail
For sloth or indolent cowardice ; steered their keels
O'er crests of heaving ocean, leagues of brine,
While Hope, firm, kept the tiller ; Faith, in dreams,
Saw coasts of gleaming continents looming large
Beyond the ultimate of the sea's far rim. . . .
Souls too great for sloth
And impotent ease, goaded by inward pain
Of some divine, great yearning restlessness,
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Nova Scotia

Which would not sit at home on servile shores
And take the good their fathers wrought in days
Long ancient time- ward, — reap what others sowed;
But, nobler, sought to win a world their own,
Not conquered by others, but a virgin shore,
Where men might build the future, rear new realms,
Of human effort ; forgetful of the past
And all its ill and failure ; raising anew
The godlike dreams of genius, knowing only
Immortal possibility of man
To grow to larger vastness, holier dreams.

We know their story, read the truth, where they

Knew only in man's hope and loftier soul,

Which strove and dared and greatly overcame,

Conquering scorn of man and veils of doubt,

Wresting from Nature half her secret, cruel,

Wherewith she darkens down in glooms apart

The mystery of this planet. . . .

We marvel at that stern defiance, where

A single man in a degenerate age

Would throw the gauntlet down against a world.

We are a part of that great dream they dreamed,

We are the witnesses that they were right,

And all the small and common minds were wrong,

The scorners of their faith, the laughers-down

Of their sublime enthusiasms ; like as all

Dim ages of this world have heard and seen ; —

Yea, we are witnesses that they who hoped,

And greatly planned, and greatly dreamed and dared,

Were greater and more godlike, truer souls

And wiser in their day than those who sat

With shaking head and shallow platitudes,

Made foolish, vulgar prophecy of defeat.

We are the dream which they did dream ; but we
If we are great as they were, likewise know

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The Scotsman in Canada

That man is ever onward, outward bound
To some far port of his own soul's desire ;
And life is ever the same in East or West,
And human nature lost in its own toils
Of earthly strivings, loses that gold thread
Of life's sincerity, repeating o'er again
The grim despotic tyrannies of old. —
All lands alike to tyrants are a spoil,
From ills of race no continent is immune,
We bear with us the despot in our blood.

And we, who have no continents new to find,
No shadowed planet darkening back our dream,
We, too, as they, are earth's discoverers
Dreaming far peaks of greatness on ahead,
If we but strive and beat our weakness down,
Setting our sails, invincible, for those ports,
Beyond the common, sheltered shoals of self ;
Cleaving with daring keel those open seas
Of larger life, those heaving floors of hope;
Marking our course by those fixed stars, alone
Forever steadfast, witnesses of God ;
Pointing to continents vast of holier dream.

92

CHAPTER V

THE PICTOU SETTLEMENTS

Iron-welded, O my people! Saxon, Celt,
Victorious Northmen ; strenuous, masterful ! —
Not to be strangled in time's ocean flood,
Sucked dawn in vortex of old ruin dire ;
But to remain, contend, depose and rule.

I

THE SAILING OF THE HOPE

O valiarft venturers on the deep !
Whence bound ? Where steering ? —
Toward life and hope beyond the sweep
Of old dead daring !

^T^HE history of the most noted of the Scottish
A communities of Nova Scotia and the Mari-
time Provinces, that of Pictou, is an important
chapter in the annals of the Scottish race in
Canada.

It has two distinct periods. First, that dating
from the earliest British settlement in 1765 to
the arrival of the Hector in 1773 > and the second,
that of the direct Scottish settlements commencing

93

The Scotsman in Canada

with the arrival of that ship, and continuing until
late in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Among the early pioneers of the province, and
especially in this locality, were rriany persons of
Scottish and Ulster-Scottish stock, who had much
to do with the early settlement and development
of the province. In the early half of the
eighteenth century several persons had already
secured and taken up large tracts of land.
Among these ambitious landowners was the
subsequently prominent American revolutionist,
Benjamin Franklin, who was in truth one of the
greatest and most covetous landgrabbers and
absentee landlords that our continent has ever
known.

In a letter from the Lieutenant -Governor to
the Lord-Commissioner of Trades and Plantations,
under date April 30, 1765, it is shown that
several persons had arrived from Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, and other colonies with the object
of settlement. Prominent among these was
Alexander McNutt, who with his associates applied
for very extensive grants. He is described by
Haliburton as an enthusiastic adventurer from the
north of Ireland, and had already helped to settle
Truro, Onslow, and Londonderry. Two of McNutt's
associates were William and Richard Caldwell,
also north of Ireland Scotsmen. The amount of
their grants reached hundreds of thousands of
acres .

This grant was called the Irish (more properly
the Ulster-Scottish) grant, or that given to Scots
94

The Pictou Settlements

from Ayrshire and the other parts of Scotland
who had settled in Ulster before removing to
America.

The other important gtant of lands was called
the Philadelphia grant. It is dated October 31,
1765, and is granted to several persons, among
them the Reverend James Lyon, Thomas Harris,
and Robert Harris ; the whole grant was for
180,000 acres. In connection with this grant,
which is of special interest as being closely con-
nected with the early history of Pictou, the real
promoters were Lyon and the two Harrises, with
Dr. John Harris. The Rev. James Lyon, as his
name shows, was a Scotsman from Ulster. The
Harrises, Mathew and John, says the chronicle,
were of the Scotch-Irish race, their ancestors,
Edward Harris and Flora Douglas, having left
Ayrshire in Scotland in the reign of Charles the
Second, losing a fine estate for their attachment
to Presbyterian worship. They settled near
Raphoe, in the county of Donegal, Ireland,
where so many other Scotsmen had settled since
the Scottish plantation in 1608. Thomas, grand-
son of Edward, and father of Mathew and John,
and an elder son Robert, were members of the
Philadelphia Company. Thomas was then of
Maryland, and his son John a physician in Phila-
delphia. John, the younger son, had most to do
with the Pictou settlement. He was born on
July 1 6, 1739. He acted as attorney for the Com-
pany, recorded all the deeds in the vicinity, was
the first magistrate, being appointed in 1769, and

95
\

The Scotsman in Canada

first registrar of deeds. He at first lived near
Browns Point, but about 1778 removed to
Onslow, became Clerk of the Peace, a Member
of the Assembly for Truro, 1779 to 1785, and died
in Truro April 9, 1802. His descendants are
numerous in Colchester, Pictou County. His son
John was Sheriff of Pictou. Mathew Harris was
born in 1731 or 1735. His son Thomas was a
surveyor of much land in Colchester, and Sheriff
of Pictou. He had many children. One daughter
married John Patterson and was ancestor of the
Rev. George Patterson, the historian of Pictou
County.

The immediate result of this grant was the
arrival of a small brig*, the Hope, from Phila-
delphia, bringing the first little colony, consist-
ing of only six families, intluding the Harrises,
already described. Dr. Harris, being1 the agent,
was of the number, and the night after they reached
the harbour Mrs. Harris gave birth to a son on
shipboard, Thomas Harris, afterwards Clerk of the
Peace, who died in 1809, and was the first British
settler born in Pictou. Among the others on the
Hope was John Rogers, with a wife and four
children. He was a native of Glasgow, Scotland,
as was his wife, a Miss Ric'hie. He emigrated
to Maryland, and thence to Pictou. He left many
descendants. He took up land and gave his name
to Roger's Hill, and some of the apple-trees grown
from seed he brought from Maryland were still
standing in 1876. He helped to blaze the road
to Truro, and also gave his name to Roger's
96

The Pictou Settlements

Settlement. Another pioneer on the Hope was
Robert Patterson, who came as the surveyor for
the Company ; he brought his wife and five
children — the eldest nine years, the youngest three
months old. He has been called the father of
Pictou. He was a native of Renfrew, in Scotland,
but had emigrated to Maryland, and had been
a pedlar and sutler to the army previous to 1763.
He was for many years a surveyor and a leading
man in Pictou, and was made magistrate in 1774.
He built the first frame house in the place, on land
conveyed to him by Governor Patterson. He died
in 1808. He was long an elder in the Presby-
terian Church, and left many descendants, among
them a daughter Margaret, afterwards wife of
Capt. Pagan of the Hector, and the Rev. George
Patterson, the county historian, already mentioned.

The Hope reached Pictou Harbour on June loth.
But a party from Truro, having come over to
receive them, built a fire on the shore to guide
them, which made those on the Hope think them
savages. But the next day the ship stood in for
the shore, where those on board saw the wild, un-
broken forest and virgin country yet to be con-
quered, the famous white pines looming up con-
spicuously to the height of 150 or 200 feet " like
masts of some huge admiral."

It -was, indeed, a brave and indomitable stock
which could, without misgivings regarding the
future, become the pioneers in such a wilderness.
But what of the wives of the settlers? Mrs.
Patterson afterwards said that when they finally
VOL. I. G 97

The Scotsman in Canada

landed she leaned against one of those great trees
and thought that if there was a broken-hearted
creature on the face of the earth she was one.
Indeed, so desolate did the place look, with the
horror of savages in the minds of the newcomers,
that the captain of the vessel, after landing their
supplies, slipped out of the harbour in the night
and left them to their fate.

Of the five or six young men who had set out
from the sister settlement of Truro to welcome
and aid the immigrants we will now speak. They
aided in building huts and in laying a rude road
to Truro. The leader was Thomas Archibald, of
Scottish descent.

The Rev. James Lyon was already in Nova
Scotia when the Hope arrived. He appears as one
of the Philadelphia Company, being sent as their
minister, but did not continue with the settlement.
He was ordained in New Jersey and arrived in
Nova Scotia late in 1764 or early in 1765, and was
the first Presbyterian minister in the province of
whom there is any account. He was residing in
Pictou with his Ifamily since 1769, and gave his
name to Lyon's Brook.

Of the other early settlers in Pictou, many had
arrived by 1769. A return of inhabitants taken
in this year shows a decided increase, and most
of them of Scottish or Ulster-Scottish origin.

Of these were Thomas Skead, born in Scotland ;
William Aiken, of Scottish descent ; James Fulton,
an Ulster Scot ; Robert Stewart and William
Kennedy, Ulster Scots. Kennedy erected the first

'

The Pictou Settlements

sawmill in the country. Barnabas McGee was born
in the north of Ireland. In this connection it may
be interesting to state that the McGees are a sept
who came from the Rhinns of Isla, and settled
at Island McGee, in Antrim. They are a sept
or branch of the great Scottish clan of Macdonald,
who settled and owned Antrim for centuries.

James Davidson was another early settler of
Pictou. He was born in Edinburgh, where he
married, and where the first of his family was born.
He came out with the Rev. Dr. Cook, of Truro,
and was the first schoolmaster of Pictou.

Such was the stock of the first settlement of
Pictou down to the coming of the good ship Hector
in 1773-

II
THE ARRIVAL OF THE HECTOR, 1773

Unhappy Greenock,
Thou port of wailing !
Thou far-famed Burg !
From thee outsailing,
Hath Scotland poured
Her restless horde
Of master-men I
On every tide
Of ocean wide,
From mountain-side
And misty glen,
Her brood out-hurled,
Hath won the world.

99

The Scotsman in Canada

The sailing of the Hector, with her Highland
emigrants, from the Port of Greenock, was an
event of significant importance in the history of
Western emigration, and especially in that of the
settlement of the Maritime Provinces and of all
Canada.

With the arrival of her passengers there began
( the really effective settlement, not only of Pictou,
but of the whole province. She was the first
emigrant ship from Scotland to Nova Scotia or
New Brunswick since the days of Sir William
Alexander. With her voyage began that vast but
steady stream of Scottish immigration which, as
the years went on, flowed into, and over, not only
the county of Pictou alone, but over much of the
eastern portion of the province, into Cape Breton,
Prince Edward Island, and portions of New Bruns-
wick, and even into what was afterwards Upper
and Lower Canalda.

It might be spid that all the subsequent Scot-
tish settlements originated in the coming of this
one ship, because those who then came out wrote
back to their relatives and friends in Scotland.
These pioneers, after enduring great hardships and
sufferings, not only achieved a position of inde-
pendence, but also acquired an appreciation of
the real value of the country and gave a good
report of the land ; so that those at home likewise
ventured their all and followed, to greater or less
success, according to their ability and fortune.

There is no one element in the population of
Canada upon which its social, moral, and religious

100 i:

The Pictou Settlements

development has depended more than upon its
Scottish inhabitants ; and of this great element
for good to the whole Dominion, the members of
that little band in the Hector were the pioneers
and vanguard. d What the arrival of the Don de
Dieu was to French Canada, that of the Hector
might be said to represent to the Scottish element
of our country. History records that this was her
last voyage ; that on her return to Scotland she
was condemned as unseaworthy and went to sea
no more. It is a pity that there is nowhere
preserved, so far as is known, a picture of this
historic ship, which, in her last sailing, made so
remarkable and epoch-making a voyage.

The Scot in America has ever seemed to have
had to endure special hardships ; and it is said
that no Nova Scotia settlement had such obstacles
to encounter as that of Pictou. They came out,
uibonused by any Government grant, and unpro-
v.ded for, to a country covered with heavy forest ;
arid were, from the first, thrown altogether on their
own resources. One cannot but admire the
heroism which faced such odds in winning a foot-
hold in the New World.

So far, the few settlers had struggled against
great difficulties, until in 1773 the ship Hector
Arrived with her Highland emigrants ; and a new
era in the history of the settlement began.

John Pagan was a merchant of the town of
Sreenock, who purchased several shares of the
tock of the Philadelphia Company. He had been
engaged in the undertaking to settle the colonies

101

The Scotsman in Canada

of the South — and this was not the first voyage of
the Hector, which was owned by Pagan, in carry-
ing emigrants to American shores. Pagan's
partner was a Dr. Witherspoon, presumably of
Philadelphia, who also had an interest in the
Company.

Their Scottish agent was one John Ross, who
was an earlier example of our present-day emigrant
agent in the Highlands. He pictured in glowing
colours the New World and its advantages as
over the Old, and hundreds of poor souls, who
knew nothing of the other side of the shield, and
attracted by the prospect of owning a farm, with-
out payment, accepted his terms, and, gathering
together their all, prepared to seek their fortune
across the ocean. The Hector (John Spear,
master ; James Orr, first mate ; and John Ander-
son, second mate) was the vessel fated to bear
these pioneers to their destination.

She sailed from Greenock, where three families
and five young men embarked, and went north tfO
Lochbroom, Ross -shire, where 33 families and 2^
unmarried jnen were added to her quota of pasf
sengers. One account gives 189, and another
179, as being the number of souls on her list..
Legge, the Governor, in his dispatch, refers t<j)
them as 200 on their arrival. (

She sailed from Lochbroom early in July (prob-
ably the ist), and was eleven weeks making the
passage across the Atlantic.

On her departure a piper went on board, and
was ordered ashore ; but the emigrants interceded,
102

The Pictou Settlements

and he was allowed to sail. They were all new to
the wide ocean, even the ship's officers — only one
sailor having crossed before — and hope beat in
every bosom, in spite of the fact that their native
hills soon faded from view.

But the Atlantic soon had them in its rolling
trough, and their merriment was changed to tears
and sea-sickness ; and home-sickness seized their
dismayed bodies and souls. The ship was an old
Dutch hulk, and a slow, lubberly sailor ; so that
she made but a poor headway against contrary
winds that smote and buffeted her dingy rotten
hull and veered her sails ; and ere many days
many an eye was scanning anxiously the grey
sweep of desolate waters and skyline for the
longed-for glimpse of solid land.

But the brave Scottish hearts bore up with the
lion -souls within, and the leaders encouraged the
weak and the young by all sorts of amusements
to overcome the tedious hours and days of waiting.
At last, when they arrived off Newfoundland, a:
severe storm beat them once more out into the
bleak ocean. All this time the accommodations,
never good, were becoming unendurable ; and
their food, not over-well-provided, began to fail.
Had it not been for the fantastic thrift of one of
the emigrants, Hugh McLeod, who had gathered
in a bag all the food cast away by the others,
they would have starved to death at the last. Then
smallpox and dysentery broke out, so that most of
the poor children that had embarked died, cooped
up in that rotten hulk ; and many a poor mother

103

The Scotsman in Canada

must have landed mournful and sad on the shores
of the New World, who had left the Old hopeful,
with her all in her infant shawled in her arms.

Such is the tragic side of the making of new
lands. Many must suffer tr^at in after-days others
may reap the glory.

However, nothing lasts for ever, not even
sorrow ; and on September i 5th this pioneer ship-
load of Scottish immigrants dropped anchor in the
harbour of Pictou.

In spite of their sad voyage, the Highlanders
adorned themselves in their kilts and plaids for
the disembarking ; and the Indians, who had
threatened to be troublesome, on hearing the weird
sound of the pipes, and seeing what they thought to
be the dreaded petticoated soldiers who had cap-
tured Quebec, fled in terror to the forest, and from
that day ceased to be a menace to the pioneers.

But the poor travellers were fated yet to endure
hardship ,and suffering. Though the sick were
cared for, several died, and only landed in the New
World to be borne to their graves. So that it
might ^be said that the first city established was
that of the dead. Disease and death had lowered
their spirits, and a sight of the bleak, unbroken
forest and lonesome, desolate coast -line added to
their despondency. But worse was yet to come.

A free farm and plenty in the New World they
had been promised, but the reality was ja rulde
a'wakening from their dream of the Far West.
Landing without provisions or shelter, the lateness
of the season made their situation even more
104

r

The Pietou Settlements

desperate, as no planting could be done until the
land was cleared during the following year. They
also found that they would have to go inland for
their farms, all these facing the shore being pre-
empted. Many of them were fishermen, and had
counted on the sea for a portion of their substance.
The result was hunger, hardship, and misery ; with
much heartburnings, even open rebellion, when
some of the leaders of the party in desperation
raided the Company's stores and took what they
needed for the requirements of the suffering. That
first winter was one of hardship and misery never
to be forgotten. Many moved to Truro and
Londonderry, some even to Halifax, Windsor, and
Cornwallis, and hired themselves out, men, women,
and children. The majority returned afterwards,
but none forgot that dread winter, with its deep
snow and its want of food and clothing, where
a little flour and a few potatoes, often frozen, were
all that, sometimes carried miles on a man's back,
kept life in the community.

Patterson, in his History, gives numerous inci-
dents which illustrate the great privations endured
not only that winter, but in some instances after-
wards. But they struggled on with the Scottish
pertinacity and belief in the future ; and, in spite
of all, made themselves successful, and the land,
if a land not of great plenty, a place of dignified
and frugal comfort in which to cradle a God-
fqaring and ambitious race.

There is a list given in Patterson's History,
which was drawn up about 1837, by William

105

The Scotsman in Canada

McKenzie of Lochbroom, containing the names
of the passengers in the Hector, with short accounts
of their personal and family history arid of the
record of their places of settlement.

As one of the objects of this work is to give as
much information as possible regarding the real
people themselves, the rank and file of the Scots
who have made our country, I quote this important
list in full as it is given, though omitting many
notes and remarks, which will be found by the
student in Patterson's " History of Pictou."

1. Those shipped at Glasgow.

Mr. Scott and family, history unknown. George Morrison and
family from Banff ; settled west side of Barney's River ; gave his
name to Morrison's Island, left one daughter — Mrs. David
Ballantyne of Cape George. John Patterson, mentioned in
Patterson's " Pictou." George McConnell, settled at East River ;
descendants numerous. Andrew Man and family, of Dunfermline,
settled at Noel ; descendants. Andrew Wesley, history unknown.
Charles Eraser, a Highlander, settled at Cornwallis. Fisher
Grant, married, has descendants. John Stewart, history un-
known.

2. Those from Inverness-shire.

William Mackay and family, afterward Squire Mackay, settled
at East River ; died in 1828, aged ninety-seven, a leading man,
left three sons — Donald, Alexander, and James ; had a daughter
Sarah, married Wm. Eraser. Roderick McKay and family of
Beauly, Inverness-shire ; came with three brothers, William,
Colin, and Donald, to Pictou, was a blacksmith ; a man of great
character ; placed the chain across Halifax Harbour to prevent
the entrance of hostile vessels during the Revolutionary war.
He died at East River. One daughter married Dr. McGregor.
Another was mother of J. D. B. Eraser, Esq., and one son was
Robert McKay, Esq. Colin McKay and family, in Eraser High-
landers at Quebec and Louisburg ; settled at East River. McKay
1 06

The Pictou Settlements

Bros., of Liverpool, England, were his grandsons. Hugh Eraser
and family ; was a weaver of Kiltarlity, Scotland ; had three
children in the Hector— Donald, Jane, (Mrs. Cameron), and Mary
(Mrs. John Eraser) ; another son was John. The Rev. Wm.
Eraser, Bondhead, Ont, was a grandson. Donald Cameron and
family — the only Roman Catholic on the Hector; served at
Quebec, settled at East River, drowned ; family removed to
Antigonish. Donald McDonald and family, settled at Middle
River ; his daughter Marion married Alex. Eraser ; his niece,
Mary Forbes, married Wm. McLeod. Colin Douglas and family,
settled at Middle River ; his daughter married Peter Eraser.
Hugh Eraser and family, settled at West River ; descendants
numerous. Alexander Eraser and family, settled at Middle River ;
descendants numerous ; said to be connected with Lord Lovat.
His family involved in the " forty-fives." Had three brothers
fighting for the Pretender at Culloden, two killed ; was witness,
though too young to fight, of the scene of the day ; married
Marion Campbell, youngest daughter of Laird of Skriegh in
Inverness, also a Jacobite at Culloden. Eraser had six children
in the Hector — Alexander, Simon, Catherine (married Alex. Ross,
afterward to John Eraser), Isabella (married David McLean, Esq.,
of East River, Hugh at Middle River), Donald and Hugh
James Grant and family, went to King's County ; sons, Alexander,
Robert ; grandfather of Dr. W. R. Grant of Pennsylvania Med.
Coll. Family afterwards claimed connection with President Grant.
Donald Munro, went to Halifax ; one son, Henry ; descendants
numerous. Donald Me — , name illegible and history unknown.

3. Those from Lochbroom.

John Ross, agent, history unknown. Alex. Cameron and
family, was seventeen years old in 1745. His brother followed
the Prince ; was a herder ; gave the name of Lochbroom, his
native parish, to the place where he settled. Children, several,
among them Alexander and Christiana, born in the Hector; the
latter married Alex. McKay of New Glasgow, died 1831, aged
104. Alex. Ross and family, advanced in life, parents of Alex.
Ross and family ; settled at Middle River. The children went to
Ohio ; Alexander, had daughters married to Arch. Chisholm and
— Blair. Colin McKenzie and family, settled as East River, said

107

The Scotsman in Canada

to have died aged 104 ; one son, Duncan, died 1871, in his looth
year. John Munro and family, history unknown. Kenneth
McRitchie and family, probably on lists as Kenneth McClutchcon.
William McKenzie, engaged as schoolmaster of the party, settled
at Lochbroom ; descendants there. John McGregor, history
unknown. John McLellan, settled at New Glasgow, gave his
name to McLellan's Mount. William McLellan, relative of John,
settled at West River ; descendants there. Alexander McLean,
settled at East River, one son; descendants there. Alexander
Falconer, settled near Hopewell. Donald McKay, brother of
Roderick, settled at East River ; a grandson, Duncan, living there.
His brother Hugh died without a family. Archibald Chisholm, in
84th Regt, said to have settled at East River. Charles Matheson,
history unknown. Robert Sim, settled at Pictou, then went to
New Brunswick, never married. Alexander McKenzie, history
unknown. Thomas Fraser, history unknown.

4. Those from Sutherlandshire.

Kenneth Fraser and family, settled at Londonderry, then
Middle River; Pictou descendants numerous. William Fraser
and family, history unknown. James Murray and family, at
Londonderry ; descendants there. Walter Murray and family, in
Mengounish ; descendants there. David Urquhart and family, at
Londonderry ; one daughter, Mrs. Thos. Davidson. James McLeod
and family, at North River ; had no children ; his farm descended
to his relative, Geo. McLeod. Hugh McLeod and family, at
Middle River; one son, David, three daughters — one Mrs. Donald
Ross, another Mrs. Shiels. Alexander McLeod and family ; three
sons, one Donald of West River ; left descendants. John McKay
and family, history unknown. Philip McLeod and family,
uncertain. Donald McKenzie and family, probably at Schuben-
acadie. Alex McKenzie and family, history unknown. John
Sutherland and family, history unknown. William Matheson
and family, at Londonderry, afterwards at Roger's Hill, where his
descendant, John S., resided in 1876. Donald Grant, history
unknown. Donald Graham, history unknown. John McKay,
piper, history unknown. William McKay, went to work with
McCabe and took the latter's name ; descendants still known as
McCabe. John Sutherland, went to Windsor, then settled at
108

The Picton Settlements

Sutherland River. Angus McKenzie, sixteen years old on the
Hector, finally settled at Green Hill ; descendants there.

This is, in brief, the history of the Pictou Scot-
tish settlements, which also included many Ulster
Scotsmen. These were the pioneer settlements for
the Dominion. From here many families at a
later date removed into Upper Canada, and helped
to form Scottish communities in what is now
Ontario.

109

CHAPTER VI

OTHER NOYA SCOTIA SETTLEMENTS, AND
EARLY INDIVIDUAL SCOTSMEN

Stern tide of time, roll back thy crest!

Re-surge from history's, memory's shore ! —
Give back the names of those who rest,

Who once were all; — but now no more!

FROM the earliest days of the British colo-
nisation, Nova Scotia was, in keeping
with its name, extremely Scottish. In 1843
statistics from authentic sources gave one -third
of the whole population as Scottish or of Scottish
descent.

Many of the early settlers, before the United
Empire Loyalists, were from Scotland or were
Ulster Scotsmen, as is shown in the Pictou settle-
ments. Among the United Empire Loyalists there
were also many Scotsmen, and wherever their
people settled Scottish surnames were plentiful.

There were many descendants of the famous
Fraser Highlanders, such as John Fraser, who died
at Shelburne in 1840, aged eighty -eight. This
clan was one of the most noted in connection
with the history of Canada. As soldiers, dis-
110

Other Nova Scotia Settlements

coverers, statesmen, and divines, many representa-
tives of the name Eraser are famous in our annals.

At Pugwash Harbour there were important
Highland settlements. They were men from the
Hebrides, and were hardy and industrious. Fort
Wallace was another successful settlement.

In 1774 a number of Lowlanders from Dum-
friesshire were brought from Prince Edward Island
to Pictou. In 1783 the 82nd or Hamilton Regi-
ment was disbanded at Halifax, and the men
received grants in Pictou.

Early in the nineteenth century the Erasers
made a settlement at Millbrook, and from there
certain Macdonalds, Rosses, and Gordons went to
Middle River. The Mount Thorn settlement was
Protestant. The settlers were McLeans, McLeods,
Macdonalds, Chisholms, Camerons, Thompsons,
Grants, and Browns.

During the years 1790, 1791, and 1792 many
Roman Catholic Highlanders came to the Mari-
time Provinces, and their numbers were added to
year by year up to 1828. Those in Nova Scotia
settled chiefly in Antigonish County, Pictou, and
Cape Breton. They were principally Chisholms,
Macdonalds, Camerons, and Erasers. It is said
that the chief of the Chisholms evicted many of
his tenants to establish sheep-walks on his estate
of Strathglas. A great many left there in 1801,
and another party in 1803.

The first Highland Catholics settled the
parish of Arisaig in Antigonish County. Bishop
Macdonald, in a dedication sermon, said : "In

in

The Scotsman in Canada

1787 the first Catholic Highlander, the pioneer
of the faith, took up his solitary abode in the
* forest primeval/ which then wound in unbroken
grandeur on these shores."

For years there was a steady stream of immi-
gration into Nova Scotia of people from Suther-
land and Lewis. All Antigonish was purely Scot-
tish. Fox Harbour in Cumberland County was
settled by Highlanders, and New Edinburgh in
Annapolis and Grenville Township were settled
by Scotsmen. From the opening of the nineteenth
century the Scottish Highlanders flowed steadily
into Cape Breton. The late Edward Fraser aided
much in the movement. At Grand Anse there
was a Scottish colony. Along the Straits of Canso
the majority of the inhabitants were descendants
of Scottish Highlanders.

The principal immigration into the province in
the earlier days was from Inverness, Ross, and
Sutherland, and in later years from Argyllshire,
Perth, and Caithness. These were chiefly Mac-
donalds, Macdonells, Frasers, McKenzies, Mackays,
Camerons, McLeods, Campbells, Grants, Robert-
sons, Stewarts, Mclntoshes, Malcolms, Mclntyres,
McNeills, MacNabs, Munros, McLeans, McDougals,
Chisholms, McPhersons, Sutherlands, McKinnons,
and McQueens.

By the returns in 1887 there were in the pro-
vince 48,000 Presbyterians, and 47,000 Catholics,
upwards of one -half of which were Scotsmen by
descent. In the 50,000 inhabitants of Cape Breton
of that date, nearly half were Presbyterians, and

112

Other Nova Scotia Settlements

a large proportion of the remainder Scottish
Catholics.

The county of Pictou in 1843 had a population
of 25,000, principally Scottish and Presbyterian,
from Inverness, Ross, Argyll, and Sutherland.

The shores of the Gulf were lined with High-
land settlements such as Wallace, Tadmagouche,
and other places.

Boulardie Island, St. Anne's Harbour, Bedeque
Inlet, and the Straits of Barra were all settled by
Highlanders.

The city of Halifax, long a great military depot
as well as a great seaport and commercial centre,
has had from the first a large Scottish element
in its population.

Probably the best picture of Scottish Halifax
is given in the history of the Halifax North
British Association, the strongest and oldest Scot-
tish organisation in Canada. We get in its
published transactions a long list of Scotsmen of
all walks of life — soldiers, merchants, divines, pro-
fessional men, and statesmen ; some with world-
wide reputation and others obscure ; but all
representing the great clans and families of Scot-
land. In Halifax were stationed some famous
Scottish regiments. Here His Royal Highness
the Duke of Kent, of the Royal Scottish line
of Stuart, spent some years as a military com-
mander. Here, like the Allans at Montreal, the
Cunards, another noted Scottish family of ship-
owners, founded the greatest Atlantic line of
steamships. Here lived the great Scottish families
of Haliburton, Archibald, Inglis, and Young ; and

VOL. I. H 113

The Scotsman in Canada

here to-day, as half a century ago, the names of
Scotsmen are prominent and powerful, as is but
fitting in this famous capital of New Scotland.

Among the leading Scotsmen of the city of
Halifax and Nova Scotia have been distinguished
and noted men, like Lord Dalhousie ; Sir Colin
Campbell ; Hon. Wm. Annand ; Hon. Alexander
Brymer ; Hon. John H. Duncan, R.N. ; Hon.
Jas. Fraser ; Hon. Wm. Garvie ; Lieut. -Col.
Charles Gordon ; Principal Grant ; Sir Brenton
Haliburton ; Thomas Haliburton ; Hon. John
Haliburton ; Col. Irving ; Hon. Alex. Keith ;
Chief Justice Macdonald ; Col. Macdonald ; Prof.
Macdonald ; Col. McGregor, 93rd Regiment ;
Prof. A. Murray ; Gen. Ogilvie ; Hon. James
Stewart ; Hon. Alex. Stewart, C.B. ; Hon. Judge
Sedgewick ; Chief Justice Strange ; Hon. Wm.
Wallace ; Hon. John Young ; Chief Justice
Young ; Hon. Wm. Young ; Hon. Senator Dickie ;
and Hon. Arthur Rupert Dickie, Minister of
Justice for Canada. At the present day, there is
the able Premier of the province, the Hon. W. H.
Murray ; and the late Lieut -Governor, one of the
most eloquent and enthusiastic Highlanders in
Canada ; His Honour the Hon. D. C. Fraser,
who has just passed away. He was a noted
politician and later a justice of the Provincial High
Court, which position he resigned to become
Lieut. -Governor.

Nova Scotia has given to the Dominion some of
her most distinguished men, and it is safe to say
that at least the majority of these were of Scottish
extraction.
114

CHAPTER VII

THE SCOTSMAN IN PRINCE EDWARD
ISLAND

O Uttle Isle down by the blue,
Where glad seas wander in between
Your balmy hills of pleasant green ;
Kind to the lonely folk were you,
The dour, lone folk from Inverie : —
They laid aside the targe and glaive,
They left the mountain and the glen
To climb the ever-mounting wave —
And show the world that Scots were men.

IN 1758, Lord Rollo, a Scottish Peer, and a
trusted colonel under Wolfe, captured Prince
Edward Island, and as early as the year 1767 the
island was parcelled out among a number of
landed proprietors from the Old Land. Three of
these, who were prominent as having established
fisheries and having made other extensive improve-
ments on the island, bore Scottish names, such as
Spence, Muir, and Cathcart. Capt. Walker Patter-
son, another son of Southern Caledonia, and who
was one of these proprietors, was appointed
Governor, and arrived at the island in 1770.

In the following year Mr. John Stuart was

The Scotsman in Canada

appointed agent for the island in London by the
House of Assembly. Another proprietor was
Capt. Macdonald, who had much to do with the
early affairs of the colony. At that period there
were trouble and strife among the colonists con-
cern jng the lands, which continued for some years.
In 1803 the successors to Stuart in London were
William and Thomas Knox, two Scotsmen, and at
the same time Messrs. McGowan, Stuart, and
Macdonald were made members of a committee of
five to draw up a new Bill for the province ;
showing that Scotsmen were the leading spirits
in the affairs of the colony.

A Scottish chief who was prominently asso-
ciated with the island was John Macdonald of
Glenaladale, who purchased an extensive tract of
land there, and conceived the idea of emigration
of Highlanders on a large scale. He sent ihis
brother, with an overseer and labourers, provided
with all the requirements for farming for several
hundred settlers, whom he shipped out soon after-
\wards. It is said that Macdonald's real object
I was to relieve the wants of his distressed clans-
men and other Highlanders, whom the late Jacobite
jwars and other causes had impoverished. His
Emigrants were gathered from his own estates and
from those of his cousin and chief, Clanronald,
in Moydart ; with others from the Island of Uist.
From this large immigration many descendants
remain to this day. In 1843 there was estimated
to be fully 24,000 people of Scottish descent in
the island, and of these not less than 4,500 bore the
116

In Prince Edward Island

name of Macdonald. Capt. Macdonald of Glenal-
adale took a leading part in the life of the
province. He refused the position of Governor, but,
at the head of a portion of the 84th Regiment of
Highland emigrants, he performed good service for
the Crown. During the war of the Revolution an
American man-of-war landed part of her crew on
the Nova Scotian coast near where Glenaladale
was stationed with a portion of his regiment. Capt.
Macdonald, with a few men, captured this vessel
and sailed her to Halifax, then returned with more
men and captured the surprised crew of Ameri-
cans and French. He died in 1811. Though a
good Catholic, he was of a broad, tolerant nature,
and made no difference because of the religion
of his settlers or acquaintances. He left behind
him a good record as a fine type of the old-time
Highland military gentleman.

In 1803 another great Scottish immigration
came to Prince Edward Island, when Lord Selkirk
brought out about eight hundred Highlanders to
occupy his lands. These people were located in
the vicinity of Point Prim, and many of them
made very successful inhabitants.

The earliest historian of the island colony was
the Rev. John McGregor, who was a Scotsman
by descent, but a native of the island. He gives a
faithful description of its settlement and growth.

In 1813 Charles Douglas Smith became Gover-
nor, and the Receiver-General was John Edward
Carmichael. At this period, says the historian,
King's County, the most thickly populated district

117

The Scotsman in Canada

on the island, was inhabited by Highlanders, whjo
spoke no other language than their native Gaelic.
" They were men," he says, " who would have
faced open fire in the field with the courage
characteristic of the Celtic race, and had a pro-
found respect for law."

During that period we find John McGregor,
afterwards Member of Parliament for Glasgow,
High Sheriff of the island.

In 1827 the membership of the House of
Assembly included the following names of Scots-
men — Cameron, McAuley, Campbell, McNeill,
Montgomery, and a Stuart was Speaker.

In 1830 Cobbett wrote thus flippantly of this
colony as a home for emigrants. " From Glas-
gow," he says, " the sensible Scots are pouring
out amain. Those that are poor and cannot pay
their passage, or can rake together only a trifle,
are going to a rascally heap of sand, rock, and
swamp, called Prince Edward Island." Such were
the views of this much over-rated man. But he
knew even less of the island than he did of the
Scotsmen who went there and made for them-
selves happy and comfortable homes in this verit-
able garden of the Canadian Gulf.

The late Col. Fraser also did much toward the
colonisation of Prince Edward Island. Indeed,
it can be seen that the greater part of its settle-
ment was brought about by Scotsmen from
Highlands and Lowlands. The result of all this
was, that in 1841 the statistical returns showed
natives of Scotland, 5,682 ; adherents to Church
118

In Prince Edward Island

of Scotland, 10,000 persons, and Presbyterians,
5,089, and nearly 20,429 Highland Roman
Catholics.

So much for the Scottish settlements, and we
may glance at some of the leading personages
connected with Prince Edward Island who were
of Scottish birth and extraction.

In 1834 there died John Stuart of Mount Stuart,
aged seventy-six. He came to the island in 1778,
and was Speaker of the Assembly for many years.
This worthy old pioneer was a good friend to the
inhabitants, and a dignified official. He took an
interest in the early struggles of the people, and
wrote a valuable book dealing with the island and
its colonisation.

Another prominent personality was John
McNeill, who did much for education. In 1837
he was appointed official visitor of schools, being
the first appointment, and in his return he shows
the number of schools to be 51, and the total of
pupils, 1,533. He instituted important reforms in
education, and, when he retired ten years later,
there were over 120 schools and 5,000 scholars.

Walter Johnston, writing in 1824, says that the
agriculture of the island was largely improved
through the influence of the Lowland Scots from
Perthshire and Dumfriesshire.

The Scotsman was also prominent in politics.
In 1847, at the elections in the Belfast district
for the Assembly, there were four candidates, all
Scotsmen, as their names, Dowe, McLean, Little,
and McDougal, will show.

119

The Scotsman in Canada

About this date, Sir Donald Campbell, of Dun-
staffnage in Argyllshire, was sent out as Governor,
and as a noted member of a distinguished High-
land family, he received an enthusiastic welcome.
He possessed all the qualities of a good Governor,
but unfortunately died within a year of his appoint-
ment. The next Governor was Sir A. Bannerman,
and later, in 1857, George Dundas, Esq., M.P. for
Linlithgowshire, filled the position.

In 1859, there died at St. Dunstan's College, the
Right Rev. Bernard Donald Macdonald, the Roman
Catholic bishop. He had for years been a hard-
working and faithful missionary among his people,
and a worthy member of his famous clan. Another
noted figure in the Roman communion was the
Venerable Bishop McEachern, who came to the
island in 1790, and was long a prominent person-
ality in his own Church, and as a public man. One
of his duties was that of Road Commissioner, and
he had an earnest co-adjutor in the Rev. William
Douglas, another worthy Scotsman of the Presby-
terian fold. These two divines not only pointed
the road to heaven, though by different theological
paths, but also worked loyally together to promote
good roads and highways on earth, in so far as
Prince Edward Island was concerned. It seems
that much evil has been done of late in thrusting
the clergy out of public affairs and into mere
ecclesiastical functions. This has had as one result
to separate the Churches and deteriorate them as
organisations for the community's good. What
greater aid to religious union can there be than
1 20

In Prince Edward Island

where the leading divines of different communions
work together on committees for the common good?
They not only learn to know and respect each
other, but it broadens and humanises their outlook,
and gradually teaches them and their respective
followers that in the best interests of all that per-
tains to the weal of the community, all religions
are, or should be, one.

The Rev. Donald Macdonald, who died bewailed
in 1867, was another venerable Scotsman, who as
a Protestant missionary was known and beloved
all over the island. He was a remarkable preacher
and a fine scholar, and his funeral was said to have
been the largest ever witnessed in the colony. The
Rev. D. Kerr, who succeeded Dr. McCullough, be-
came the leading representative of the Presbyterian
Church. He, like many of his confreres of his
day, was noted for his strong moral fibre and his
great influence as a personality throughout the
whole community.

That was the day of strong men in religion.
They were scholars, statesmen, and rulers in their
way. Since they have been driven out of public
affairs, not only have the divines deteriorated, but
the public men as a class have sadly declined and
degenerated, and public spirit and opinion are
almost dead.

Prince Edward Island has given its share of
strong, useful, and brilliant men to the life of the
Dominion. Among them are many of Scottish
descent.

The most distinguished islander now living is

121

The Scotsman in Canada

Sir William Macdonald, the noted philanthropist
and merchant prince of Montreal, whose career
will be dealt with in another place, and who is a
descendant and the representative of Macdonald of
Glenaladale, one of the leading colonisers of the
island. Another noted son of the island province
is Dr. Falconer, President of Toronto University.

That the colony was, in its early foundation,
largely Scottish, will be shown by a return of the
inhabitants in 1798. Out of a list of 750 heads of
families, 350 bore Scottish names, many of them
being Highlanders. Thus it will be seen that the
beautiful little island-province of the Gulf owes
much to the daring and courage of Scottish navi-
gators and colonisers from Sir William Alexander
down, and that the character of its people is
founded on the energy and high moral qualities of
its Scottish settlers, who have done so much to
give it the place it holds among the provinces of
the Dominion.

Thus might the early islanders, the pioneer emi-
grants from the great British Island, have sung
with the Poet Marvell —

What should we do but sing His praise,
Who led us through the watery maze
Unto an Isle so long unknown,
And yet far kinder than our own,
Where He the huge sea monsters wracks,
That lift the deep upon their backs ? . . .
He lands us on a grassy stage,
Safe from the storms' and prelates' rage,
And on these rocks for us did frame
A temple where to sound His name.
122

CHAPTER VIII

THE SCOTSMAN IN NEW BRUNSWICK

They were a simple rugged folk,

A lonely people by the sea : —

But round their coasts old ocean broke,

One vast shore-sounding harmony : —

And from the old unrest awoke

A spirit surging to be free.

WHILE there are not as many people of Scottish
descent in New Brunswick as in the sister
province of Nova Scotia, there are a large number
of the population who are proud of having in their
veins the blood of the race of Albion.

In the year 1761, Fort Frederick in St. John
Harbour was garrisoned by a Highland regiment,
and during the same year the harbour was for the
first time regularly surveyed by a Scotsman, Captain
Bruce, of the Royal Engineers, and a map then
made is still extant.

In the following year, an exploring party, con-
sisting of about twenty persons, came to St. John
from Newburyport in New England, and journeyed
up the river as far as Fredericton and beyond.
They found at the mouth of the Nashwack River

123

The Scotsman in Canada

the remains of a very old fortress. The single
Frenchman whom they encountered told them that
it was originally built by a party of settlers from
Scotland, who were without doubt those sent out
by Sir William Alexander, under Claude de la Tour.

In 1764, William Davidson, a native of the north
of Scotland, most probably Caithness, came and
settled at Miramichi, and received extensive grants
of lands. With him was associated a Mr. Cort of
Aberdeen. Four years before, in 1760, a prominent
trader named Walker, who also hailed from Scot-
land, founded a trading post on Alston Point.
These were a few of the very early, hardy pioneers
who settled on those coasts and who were of Scottish
birth.

As already shown, a large portion of the United
Empire Loyalists and Treasury or Military Loyalists
were of Scottish birth or extraction. They were
for the most part soldiers. In McGregor's
" British America " it is shown that of the
thousands of Loyalists who poured into the pro-
vince, many were of Scottish descent. They settled
principally on the St. John and St. Croix rivers,
and the list, which is still extant, shows their origin
and place of settlement.

It would be impossible in a work of this limited
nature to include the names of all the United Empire
Loyalists of Scottish origin who settled in Canada
or the Maritime Provinces.

A few of the leaders in New Brunswick will,
however, be referred to. A prominent Scotsman
was Captain Archibald McLean, who settled in St.
124

TJie Scotsman in New Brunswick

John in 1783. Another founder of that city was
Charles McPherson. Hugh Mackay and two
others of his clan were early settlers at this
time, and the military Loyalists furnished eleven
Macdonalds.

The county of Restigouche was a leading Scottish
settlement, as the place-names of Dunlee, Glenlivet,
Glenelg, Campbelltown, and Dalhousie show. The
settlers here were direct from the Old Land. Many
were fisher -folk, and not really by experience fitted
to till the soil. But they were a sturdy folk in
the main, and managed to make their way.

A great many of the Scotsmen entered the lumber
trade on the different rivers in the province, and
many acquired large fortunes. The great draw-
backs to the settlements for nearly a century were
the terrible fires that swept the country, partly
owing to* the great areas of pine lands.

One of the Governors, Sir Howard Douglas, who
was a Scotsman, took a deep interest in education
and the general improvement of the people. He
did much to foster the foundation of colleges and
schools, and, being of that Church, he encouraged
Presbyterianism.

John Fraser, father of the Hon. John James
Fraser, Provincial Secretary, was an early settler.
He came from Inverness-shire in 1803, and settled
at Miramichi. Alexander Wedderburn of Aber-
deen was an author and a public officer in the
province. His son was the Hon. William Wedder-
burn, Speaker of the Assembly. Urbain Johnston,
Member of Parliament for Kent County, was the

125

The Scotsman in Canada

representative of a Scottish family which inter-
married with the Acadians.

In connection with the history of the Scotsmen
in New Brunswick, there is no more interesting
chapter than that dealing with the Queen's Rangers,
Simcoe's famous regiment, as there was a large
element of Scotsmen among its soldiers. It was
the most noted of all Royalist colonial battalions,
chiefly because Simcoe was its commander. In
official documents it was sometimes called " The
King's First American Regiment." It was founded
in 1776, in the colonies of Connecticut and New
York, and soon mustered fully four hundred men
who were at first all American Loyalists. But as
time went on, the composition of the regiment
changed, and it became more European than
American. According to the muster rolls, dated
August 24, 1780, out of the forty commissioned
officers attached to the regiment, nineteen were of
Scottish birth. This was during the period when
Colonel Rogers held the command and before
Colonel French succeeded him. French had as his
successor a Scotsman, Major Wemyss, under whose
command the regiment on September u, 1777,
at the victorious battle of Brandy wine, covered
itself with glory. The worst of the battle fell
upon the Rangers, then about four hundred strong,
and a detachment from the 7ist Regiment under
another Scotsman, Major Ferguson. After this
period the regiment consisted of eleven companies,
one of which was purely Highland, with kilts and
a piper.
126

The Scotsman in New Brunswick

The regiment, on its disbanding, settled mainly
in New Brunswick, and there are many descendants
of the officers and men in the province.

The muster roll of 1781 includes the
following list of Scotsmen, who were officers
and privates :— Major Richd. Armstrong ; Rev.
John Agnew ; Quartermaster Alex. Matheson ;
Surgeon's Mate James Macaulay ; Capt. John
Mackay ; Ensign John Ross ; Sergeants, Donald
Macdonald, John Macdonald, and George Suther-
land ; Corporals, Geo. Walker, James Gunn ;
Drummer Win. Mackay. Privates, John Craigie,
Alex. McKinnon, Alex. McLean, R. McDougal,
Angus McDonald, Hugh McKinlay, Murdoch
McLeod, Alex. McDonald, Lachlan McKinnon,
Alex. McClure, Alex. Curry, Wm. Smyth, John
McLachlan.

Capt. Stephenson's Company : Capt. Francis
Stephenson ; Lieut. Alex. Matheson ; Corporals,
Michael Burns, George Miller ; Privates, Carbray
Burras, Wm. Chisholm, Thos. Lowe, David Oliver,
John White, N. Ayres, Jos.Dawson, Jas. Sparks.

Capt. McCrea's Company : Capt. R. McCrea ;
Lieut. Chas. Dunlop and Lieut. Patterson ; Ser-
geant W. Burnett ; Privates, Digory Sparks, Wm.
Davidson, Michael Mclntyre, James Smith, Michael
McDonald, Peter Wood, John Brown, Thos.
Robertson.

Capt. Murray's Company : Capt. Jas. Murray ;
Ensign Edward Murray ; Sergeants, Jas. McConell
and Samuel Burnett, ; Privates, N. Huston, J.
McEwen, John Burns, Wm. Kirk, Alex. Ross, Jas.
Gremer, J. B. Miller.

127

The Scotsman in Canada

Capt. Kerr's Company : Capt. Jas. Kerr ;
Ensign Creighton McCrea ; Privates, Jas. Cochrane,
Patrick Read, Wm. Armstrong.

Capt. Agnew's Company : Capt. Stair Agnew ;
Lieut. Hugh McKay ; Ensign S. Armstrong.

Capt. McGill's Company : Lieut. Adam Allan,
Robert Richey ; Privates, Patrick Allan, T. Coyne,
J. Brown, Wm. Scoby.

Capt. Smith's Company : Ensign Andrew Arm-
strong ; Sergeant S. Stevens ; Privates, Wm.
Burns, John Thomson, Wm. Graham, Alex.
Johnson.

Capt. Whitlock's Company : Capt. John Whit-
lock ; Sergeant John King ; Drummer Daniel
McKay ; Privates, Henry Adam, Chas. Boyd, Chas.
McKinley.

Capt. Shaw's Company : Capt. ^Eneas Shaw ;
Lieut. Andrew McCan ; Ensign Jos. Matheson ;
Drummer Black Prince ; Privates, Hugh Morris,
Jno. Scriver, John Smith, Jas. McFarland, Geo.
Murdock, Thos. Patterson, Thos. Crawford, Jno.
Hamilton.

Capt. Wallop's Company : Lieut. St. John
Dunlop.

Cavalry Hussar Troop : Lieut. Allan MacNab
(father of Sir Allan MacNab) ; Quartermaster John
McGill ; Privates, Robt. Ferguson, John McConnel,
Saml. Lindsay, David Lindsay, Andrew Shields, H.
Cochrane, David Mitchell, John Stephens, Jas.
Campbell, Geo. Killan, Duncan Campbell, Jno.
Munro.

Capt. Shanks' Troop : Lieut. Geo. Spencer ;
128

The Scotsman in New Brunswick

Privates, Angus Mclntyre, N. Gladstone, John
Houston, Jas. Johnston, Jos. Mitchell, F. Miller,
Archd. McKinley, Jno .Clark.

Capt. Saunders' Troop : Corporal John Haney ;
Privates, R. Brown, Jas. Campbell, J. Inglis, J.
Sparks, J. Blair.

Capt. Sutherland's Troop : Cornet B. Thomp-
son ; Quartermaster Wm. McLachlin.

At the settlement of the regiment in Nova
Scotia at the peace in 1783, the return of the
Rangers totalled 575. They were disbanded at St.
John on October 13, 1783, and settled largely in
York County, the parish of Queensbury being
named after the regiment, and formed the
largest body of military Loyalists that settled in
the Maritime Provinces.

Of the officers, Major James Wemyss was after-
wards Lieut. -Col. of the 63rd Regiment. In 1819
he petitioned the Prince Regent from New York
for assistance. He was then in his old age, and
said he had hopes to end his life in Scotland, his
native land. But he suffered a loss of property, and
at the time of the petition was in indigent circum-
stances. He was of the noted Scottish family of
whom the Earl of Wemyss is the head. Capt.
Arthur Ross was killed in the West Indies. Capt.
Michael Armstrong saw a great deal of service.
Simcoe recommended him. He went with the
regiment to New Brunswick, where he received
a large grant of land at the mouth of the Nacawick.
He became a magistrate, and was afterwards Lieut. -
Colonel of the Militia, but finally rose to be Lieut. -

VOL. I. i 129

The Scotsman in Canada

General in the British Army. He died at Frederic -
ton in 1817. The Rev. John Agnew was of an old
family in Wigtonshire, of which shire he was a
native. He became Rector of Suffolk, Virginia.
He settled in New Brunswick, and became a mem-
ber of the House of Assembly. He died in 1812,
aged eighty-five. Capt. James Kerr was born in
Dumfries, was in New York at the time of the
Revolution. He raised a part of a company of the
Rangers. He returned to Scotland, but later settled
in Nova Scotia at Parrsboro. He died at Amherst
on June 6, 1830, in his seventy-sixth year. He
was a Colonel of the Militia, and had several sons :
Thomas, an ensign in the Royal Newfoundland
Regiment, was killed at the battle of Frenchtown ;
James died in the Navy on board the Royal
William; another son, John, became a wealthy
merchant of St. John, New Brunswick ; and
another, Joseph, an extensive mill -owner at Wallace,
Nova Scotia.

Capt. John McGill was a native of Scotland. He
went to St. John at the peace, and had lands there ;
but he moved to Upper Canada, and became a
member of the Legislative Council.

Capt. Stair Agnew, son of the chaplain, followed
the war, and being captured, was imprisoned at
St. Malo, in France, until the peace. He settled
in York County, New Brunswick ; was a member
of the House of Assembly for thirty years, and a
judge of the Court of Common Pleas for York
County. Capt. Jas. Murray drew land in Parrsboro,
Nova Scotia, close to Capt. Kerr, but did not

The Scotsman in New Brunswick

remain there. Capt. John Whitlock settled in
Queen's County, was colonel of Militia and a
Justice of the Peace. Capt. John Mackay, a native
of Scotland, settled in York County, where he died
in 1822. Lieut. Allan MacNab settled in Upper
Canada. Ensign Hugh Mackay, settled at St.
George, New Brunswick, and was elected a mem-
ber of the Assembly during thirty years. He was
a colonel of Militia and Senior Judge of Common
Pleas for Charlotte County. He died in 1843,
aged ninety -seven. Adam Allan settled in New
Brunswick in York County, and became lieutenant
in the King's New Brunswick Regiment.

From many sources there was a continual influx
of Scottish peoples, until in the year 1843 tne
census showed about 30,000 persons of that descent
in the province. Many of them were, as is shown,
of United Empire Loyalist or military ancestry.
Many soldiers of the famous Black Watch
Regiment, or 42nd Highlanders, settled on the
St. John close to Fredericton. The towns of
Bathurst and Dalhousie on the Bay of Chaleurs
were also largely of Scottish origin.

The following list of Scottish Presbyterian
families in New Brunswick in the year 1843
may be of interest in this connection : St. John
City, 300 to 400 families ; Kingston, 100 families ;
Parish of St. James, Charlotte County, 150
families; St. Andrews, Charlotte County, 150
families ; Digdequash, 100 families ; Magaguave-
dick, 100 families ; Sudbury County, 150 families.

There were also many settlers of Scottish origin

TJie Scotsman in Canada

at Nashwack, in York County, at Fredericton, New-
castle, Chatham, Richibucto, Restigouche, Dorches-
ter, Norton, and Woodstock. It must not be for-
gotten that many of these Scotsmen were of Ulster
Scottish origin — as a large number of Ulster Scots-
men came into the country. A noted Ulster Scots-
man was the late Senator Wark, of New Brunswick,
who was sitting as a Senator of the Dominion at
Ottawa only a few years ago, in his one hundred
and first year — and still having all his faculties.
He died a year later aged one hundred and two.
There is a fine portrait of the old Senator, aged
one hundred and one, painted by a leading
Canadian artist, which is now hanging in the gallery
of the Senate at Ottawa. It may be interesting to
know that the portraits of almost all of the
Speakers of the Senate or Upper House at Ottawa
that are not Frenchmen are those of Scotsmen.
The names are : Ross, Miller, McPherson, MacNa;b,
Allan, Sir William Campbell, and Sir Alexander
Campbell.

Some notable Scotsmen in early New Brunswick
are well worth chronicling. Many of the clans
and families were represented. Daniel Grant, who
settled at the purely Scottish colony of St.
Andrews, was from Golspie in Sutherlandshire,
where Dunrobin Castle stands. He died in 1834,
aged eighty-two. The family of Gray, Scottish
United Empire Loyalists, numbered thirteen,
children of Joseph Gray, who settled at Halifax.
A brother William became a magistrate in King's
County, New Brunswick, and died in 1824, aged
132

The Scotsman in New Brunswick

ninety-six. The Scottish settlements in New Bruns-
wick date from the very earliest period, that of Sir
William Alexander's settlement on the St. John
River. While the present population is not as
distinctly Scottish as that of Nova Scotia, there
are many people of that and Ulster Scottish blood
in the province, and no chronicle of this province
can be perfect without reference to the influence
and personality of the Scotsman.

Further mention of Scotsmen in New Bruns-
wick will be found in the chapter on Scottish
societies.

133

CHAPTER IX

THE SCOTSMAN IN QUEBEC

Whose heart was loyal to his word,
Whose hand was faithful to his sword,
Who won a hero's world-renown,
In every quarrel save his own.

IT is not generally known that from the very
earliest period of the history of the Province
of Quebec the Scottish race have been in some
manner connected with its settlement and develop-
ment .

Every Canadian of Scottish extraction should
be proud of the fact that the very vessel which
sailed up the St. Lawrence, and from the arrival
of which was to date the foundation of French
Canada, was steered by a Scotsman, the now noted
Abraham Martin, dit ecossais, whose Christian
name is immortalised in connection with the famous
heights along with the rriemories of Wolfe and
Montcalm.

The fact that the Scottish sailor was the pilot
of the Don de Dieu is merely one more instance
of the worldwide genius of the Scotsman as a
134

The Scotsman in Quebec

master-man in all ages and among all lands and
peoples.

That he received the lands where the battle
was afterward fought as a reward for his skill
and labour is also evidence of the Scotsman's gift
in acquisition the world over.

The sons of the land of the heather had to pene-
trate everywhere in their restless adventuring, and
even French Canada could not escape the almost
universal experience. In truth it has seemed that,
the world over, wherever practical skill, sagacity,
and hard work were needed, a Scotsman has ever
been found in the forefront, ready to essay the
difficult task, and to achieve the seemingly
impossible undertaking.

It is, however, a strange picture to contemplate,
this -presence of the Scotsman, Abraham Martin,
on this pioneer vessel of New France. This
adventure to Canada was the undertaking of a
French people ; a great French discoverer was
the leader of the expedition ; the Don de Dieu
was a French ship sailing from a French port to
found a French province in the wilds of the New
World, under the mandate and prestig'e of a .French
monarch ; and yet as the brave little vessel forged
her way past the gloomy and forbidding entrance
and sailed up that vast lonely gulf into the great,
silent, eld-haunted river it was the hand of that
lonely, self-contained, dour Scotsman who guided
the wheel ; and it was his indomitable will that
would not be defeated, and his unerring brain that
marked the latitude and longitude, and guided,

135

The Scotsman in Canada

by the compass or the stars of heaven, the first
Canadian vessel into her virgin port.

How true a prophecy was this of the future
of the vast region which lay beyond that narrow
river gateway, wherein many notable Scotsmen,
chief among whom were Macdonald and Strath -
cona, were to control, during a remarkable century
of our own history, the direction and development
of its great destinies. Indeed, this picture of the
pilot Abraham Martin is but one of many
examples in Canadian history of the energy,
endurance, and daring of that remarkable people the
iron-souled children of famous Northern Britain,
who had then, and have had ever since, their hands
on the wheel-spokes of all great ventures of the
modern world.

Sir James McPherson Lemoine, the noted
Quebec historian and essayist, himself a Scotsman
in descent, makes, in his " Scot in New France,'*
a suggestive remark to the effect that Master
Abraham, the Scotsman, may have experienced but
a mild regret at seeing a new Governor of Scottish
descent, Louis Kirke, the Calvinist, hoist his
standard on the bastion of Fort St. Louis, which
had just been evacuated by Cham'plain.

Another significant picture is given by Lemoine ;
he writes : " The first British Governor of Quebec,
a Scotsman, General James Murray, as it were,
took loyally and bravely the keys of the city gates
from the last French Commandant of the place,
Major de Ramezay, a Ramsay of Scottish
ancestry."

136

The Scotsman in Quebec

He also hints, as others have done, that some
of Cartier's sailors were Scotsmen, and he suggests
that Michel Herue was no other than a Scotsman,
Michael Harvey.

A ^ very interesting and remarkable work is
that of the French savant, Francisque Michel,
entitled " The Scot in France."

It shows that for centuries there was a close
connection between Scotland and France, and that
since the year 1400, when Scotsmen landed by
thousands in France to fight the English, many
of that nation have continually settled in the
country, and he cites many names of noted families
showing plainly a Scottish origin, such as Siche-
lant (Sutherland), Coninglant (Cunningham), Dro-
mont (Drummond). For centuries the Scottish
Ramsays had settled in France ; De Ramezay's
father was for twenty years Governor of Montreal.
Later, under British rule, another Ramsay, the Earl
of Dalhousie, was to represent his monarch at the
Castle of St. Louis.

In 1745, when the Scottish Highlanders had
made a vain and last attempt to restore the
Jacobite Prince to the British throne, France was
indifferent ; and it is significant that many of the
Fraser Highlanders who stormed and took Quebec
under Wolfe so shortly afterwards had been strong
Jacobites and followed Prince Charles in 1745.
It has been suggested that the kilted sealers of
the Heights of Abraham, were only too eager to
avenge on her chief colony what they considered
as France's bad faith with the Jacobite cause.

137

The Scotsman in Canada

Those hardy mountaineers, who thought nothing
of exposure to frost and cold, whose diet and dress
and manner of life inured them to all hardships,
became ideal soldiers and afterwards splendid
settlers, when once they had become accus-
tomed to the necessities and habits of a pioneer
colony.

The Highland garb they wore by choice in
their regiments and out of them ; and even an
Act of Parliament failed to do away with this
most picturesque of all costumes civil or mili-
tary.

In 1780, it will be remembered, the soldiers of
the 42nd and 7ist Highlanders mutinied when
ordered to wear the Lowland military dress, and
in the end they recovered their rights to wear
their ancient dress ; so that to-day among the
finest British regiments, both Regular and Militia,
are the kilted corps of the Highlanders.

History shows that as soon after Culloden as
1759, it was Eraser's kilted Highlanders who
stormed and captured Quebec, and planted the
British flag on the ramparts.

The Master of Lovat had been a Jacobite, and
his father, the noted Lord Lovat, was one of the
two last Scottish lords beheaded at the Tower
in London, paying the penalty of treason in the
Jacobite cause. The young Master, who, but for
his father's attainder, would have been Lord Lovat,
commenced early to evince his loyalty to the House
of Brunswick in gratitude for the pardon granted
to him ; and seeing, as so many soon did, the rank
138

The Scotsman in Quebec

folly of the late rising and the great injury which
it had caused to the flower of Scotland's clans, he
turned his attention to the purpose of using the
siplendid fighting stock of the Highlands in the
cause of Britain rather than against her. His
estate had been lost, his wealth gone, and he a
suspected man ; all he had left was the hereditary
attachment of his clan to their chief. In spite
of all this, he went to work to raise a Highland
regiment, and in the space of a few weeks had
recruited fully 800 men, who were ready to fight
anywhere under his leadership.

The Cadet gentlemen of his clan and other
officers and neighbouring gentlemen added 700
more ; and the result was the famous Fraser
Highlanders. They wore the full Highland dress,
with musket and broadsword, dirk and pouch.

The list of the officers of the Fraser Highlanders,
whose commissions are dated January 5, 1759,
were : —

Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant : Hon. Simon
Fraser.

Majors : James Clophane ; John Campbell, of
Dunoon, afterwards commanding the Campbell
Highlanders in Germany.

Captains : John McPherson, brother of Clunie ;
John Campbell, of Ballrmore ; Simbn Fraser, of
Invsrlochy, killed on the Heights of Abraham,
1 7£5 ; Donald Macdonald, brother of Clanronald,
killed at Sillery, 1760 ; John Macdonald, of Loch-
garry, afterwards Colonel of the 76th or Mac-
donald's Regt. ; Alexander Cameron, of Dun-

139

The Scotsman in Canada

gallon ; Thomas Ross, of Culrossie ; Alexander
Fraser, of Culduthel ; Sir Henry Seton, of Aber-
corn, Bart. ; James Fraser, of Belladrum ; Simon
Fraser. Capt. Lunn died a general in 1812.

Lieutenants : Alex McLeod ; Hugh Cameron ;
Ronald Macdonald, of Keppoch ; Charles Mac-
donald, of Glengarry, killed at St. John ;
Roderick McNeill, of Barra, killed on the Heights
of Abraham ; Wm. Macdonald ; Archibald Camp-
bell, son of Glenlyon ; John Fraser, of Balnain ;
Hector Macdonald, brother of Boisdale, killed

1759 '•> Allan Stewart, son of Innernaheil ; John
Fraser ; Alexander Macdonald, son of Boisdale,
killed on the Heights of Abraham ; Alexander
Fraser, killed at Louisburg ; Alexander Campbell,
of Aross ; John Douglas ; John Nairn ; Arthur
Rose, of the family of Kilravock ; Alexander
Fraser ; John Macdonald, of Leeks, died at
Berwick, 1818 ; Cosmo Gordon, killed at Sillery,

1760 ; David Baillie, killed at Louisburg ; Charles
Stewart, son of Col. John Roy Stewart ; Ewen
Cameron, of the family of Glenevis ; Allan
Cameron ; John Cuthbert, killed at Louisburg ;
Simon Fraser ; Archibald McAlister, of the family
of Loup ; James Murray, killed at Louisburg ;
Donald Cameron, son of Fassifern, died on half-
pay, 1817.

Ensigns : John Chisholm ; Malcolm Fraser, of
Errogie ; Simon Fraser ; James Mackay ; Malcolm
Fraser, afterwards Capt. of the 84th Regt. Royal
Emigrants ; Donald McNeill ; Henry Munro ;
Hugh Fraser, afterwards Capt. 84th Regt. ;
140

The Scotsman in Quebec

Alexander Gregorson, Ardtornish ; James Hender-
son ; Robert Menzies ; John Campbell.

Chaplain : The Reverend Robert Macpherson.

Adjutant : Hugh Fraser.

Quartermaster : John Fraser.

Surgeon : John McLean.

The Fraser Regiment comprised thirteen com-
panies, numbering in all 1,460 men, who upheld
the military honour and reputation of the Scottish
race.

A host of men of ,the Fraser name throughout
Quebec and other parts of Canada trace their
descent back to this famous regiment. Likewise
do numerous Macdonalds, Campbells, Rosses,
Stewarts, Murrays, McPhersons, Camerons, Mc-
Kenzies, and Munroes, who are now Canadians of
several generations.

The regiment was disbanded in 1764. But in
1775, when the call to arms to defend the country
for the King went forth, none were more eager
to respond than the Fraser Highlanders who were
settled in Canada ; and out of them, and other
loyal Highlanders from the St. Lawrence to
Newfoundland, was raised the 84th or Royal
Emigrants, spoken of elsewhere in this work.
These became the garrison of Quebec during that
awful winter of siege when they held Canada for
the Empire.

The following extracts are from the manuscript
journal of Col. Malcolm Fraser, then lieutenant
of the 78th Regiment of Eraser's Highlanders,
relating to the operations before Quebec in 1759.

141 "

The Scotsman in Canada

Colonel Fraser died in 1815 at the age of eighty-
two : —

8th May 1759.— Set sail from Sandy Hook, under convoy of
the Nightingale, Captain Campbell, having Colonel Eraser's
Regiment on board. . . . Captain Campbell was of Colonel
Eraser's Regiment.

Sunday, ist July. — I was ordered with Ensign McKenzie to the
colours.

1 8^ July. — Kennedy's Grenadiers were on board the Diana.

2oth July. — A man of Capt. Simon Eraser's Company (63rd)
killed.

2 ist July. — Lieutenant Charles McDonald of our Grenadiers
wounded in the thigh. . . . About fourteen privates, all High-
landers, wounded.

24/7* July. — Col. Fraser with 350 men of his Regt. marched
down river to take prisoners.

26th July. — Lieut. Alex. Fraser, junior, returned to camp. . . .
In evening the Colonel came to camp, wounded, with Capt.
McPherson wounded by the same shot.

3 ist July. — Col. Eraser's Regt. embarked in boats to cross the
river at Point Levy.

ist August. — This day General Wolfe in his orders had the
following paragraph : " Amherst's and the Highland Regiments
alone, by the soldier-like, cool manner they were formed in,
would undoubtedly beat back the whole Canadian Army if they
had returned to attack them."

15^ August. — Capt. John Macdonald, seven subalterns (of
whom I was one), eight sergeants, &c., crossed over from Point
Levy to the Island of Orleans.

2$rd August. — We were reinforced by a company of Rangers
under Capt. Montgomery of Kennedy's or 43rd Regt. . . . Joined
by Capt. Ross, with his company. . . . Capt. Ross joined
Colonel Murray. . . . Brigadier Murray has returned to his
detachment.

$rd Sept. — This day died, my worthy Captain, Alexander
Cameron of Dungallon, universally regretted by all those who
knew him as a fine gentleman and a good soldier.
142

The Scotsman in Quebec

4/& Sept. — Arrived Captain Alexander Eraser of Culduthel with
a i4th Company to our Regt. Capt. Cameron was interred in
front of our colours.

i$th Sept. — In a short time the whole army was landed at a
place called Le Foulon (now Wolfe's Cove. . . . Our regiments
were then ordered by Brigadier-General Murray to draw their
swords and pursue them (the enemy who were now fleeing). . . .
Our Regiment, the Highlanders, . . . behaved extremely well. . . .
At this time the rest of the army came up. . . . General Murray
having put himself at the head of our Regiment, ordered
them to march through the bush of wood. . . . We had a few
men killed and officers wounded. . . . The enemy . . . began
firing on us from the bush and from the bank . . . they killed
and wounded a great many of our men, and killed two officers,
Lieutenant Roderick, McNeill of Barra, and Alexander Mac-
donald, and John MacDonald, and John McPherson, volunteer,
with many of our men were killed before we were re-inforced :
and Captain Ross ... of the third Regt. . . . was mortally
wounded in the body by a cannon-ball from the hulks
in the River St. Charles. . . . We had of our Regiment, three
officers killed and ten wounded, one of whom, Capt. Simon Eraser,
afterwards died. Lieutenant Archibald Campbell, thought to be
mortally wounded, recovered. Capt. John McDonald through
ooth thighs ; Lieut. Ronald McDonald through the knee ; Lieut.
Alex. Campbell through the leg ; Lieut. Douglas through the arm.
who died of the wound ; . . . Ensign Gregorson, Ensign
McKenzie, and Lieut. Alex. Eraser, all slightly ; I received a
slight contusion in the right shoulder or rather breast, which pains
me a good deal. . . . Thus (he says) ended the battle of Quebec,
the first regular engagement that was fought in North America,
which has made the King of Great Britain master of the Capital
of Canada, and, it is hoped, ere long will be the means of subject-
ing the whole country to the British Dominion ; and if so, this
has been a greater acquisition to the British Empire than all that
England has acquired by conquest since it was a nation, if I may
except the conquest of Ireland in the reign of Henry the Second.

Thus writes this gallant Scottish officer in his

The Scotsman in Canada

journal, and how true were his words as to the
importance of this battle our history has since
shown. The most significant fact, however, for
the purposes of this work, was that this history-
making battle was fought and won, as this journal
shows and as all history acknowledges, largely by
Scotsmen.

But though the day was won, the French, a
gallant foe, were not ye*t conquered ; and we learn
more of what happened in Col. Eraser's journal.
He continues : —

We lay on our arms all the night of the i3th of September.

ijth Sept. — Monsieur de Ramsay (Fraser gives it the Scottish
spelling), Governor of Quebec, sent out a flag of truce. . . . Article
of Capitulation signed on the i8th.

— Oct. — Admiral Sanders sailed for England. On the

General Moncton sailed, having appointed Brigadier Murray (a
Scotsman) Governor of Quebec.

Col. Fraser does not bear out Lemoine regard-
ing the kilts and the severe climate. He says : —

is/ Dec. — The winter is now very severe.

2oth Dec. — The winter is now almost unsupportably cold. .
The garrison in general are .but indifferently clothed, but our
regiment in particular is in a pitiful situation, having no breeches,
and the Philibeg is not at all calculated for this terrible climate.
Col. Fraser is doing all in his power to provide trowsers for them,
and we hope soon to be on a footing with other regiments in that
respect.

i$th Feb., 1760. — Detachments sent over to drive the French
from Point Levy (they crossed on the ice), Lieut. McNeill of
our Regt. and some men wounded.

2$th Feb.— The General went to attack him (M. St. Martin) with
the 1 5th, 28th, and Col. Fraser's Regts.
144

The Scotsman in Quebec

2nd March. — Capt. Cameron of our Regt. was pitched on by
the General as a proper person to command at Lorette, as he
spoke French.

ijth March.— Capt. Donald McDonald of Col. Eraser's Regt.
with the Light Infantry, &c., attacked the French Post — took
eighty persons . . . returned . . . having suffered very much by
the excessive cold of the preceding night ; several having lost
the use of their fingers and toes. The scurvy, occasioned by
salt provisions and cold, has begun to make fierce havock in the
garrison.

26//* Apr. — Information that Levis with 12,000 men, regulars
Canadians and savages coming.

27/A Apr. — Governor marched out with Grenadiers, &c. . . .
Vanguard of the French army appeared. . . . Sent orders the
28th, 47th and 58th and Col. Fraser's Regt. to march to St.
Foy and cover his (the Governor's) retreat. . . . The company of
volunteers of the garrison, commanded by Capt. Donald
McDonald of our Regt. . . . having been almost destroyed . . .
Colonel Fraser's Regt. being in danger of being surrounded. . . .
We had about sixty killed and forty wounded, and of thirty-nine
officers, Capt. Donald McDonald and Lieut. Cosmo Gordon,
both killed ; Lieut. Hector McDonald and Ensign Malcolm
Fraser died of their wounds. . . . Twenty-three officers wounded,
of this number Col. Fraser . . . Capt. Alex. Fraser wounded.

ist May. — Capt. Cameron, dangerously burnt and bruised. . . .
Lieut. McGregor, left on the field wounded, narrowly escaped
being killed . . . said he saw the savages murdering the
wounded.

These extracts afford some idea of the pro-
minence of Scotsmen in the memorable battle and
siege.

Another vivid picture is possible fifteen years
later, when the 84th or Highland Emigrant
Regiment defended Quebec from the Americans.

During all that terrible time, in the face of
fearful odds, Col. McLean, the head of the

VOL. i. K 145

The Scotsman in Canada

regiment, proved himself to be a fine type of
Scottish commander. With traitors, disease, and
famine to contend with, and the whole province
outside of the walls of Quebec in the hands of
the American Army, the Governor, Guy Carleton,
with his brave officers, McLean, McKenzie, and
Hamilton, and others equally brave, withstood the
foe and kept the province for Britain.

For these important services the officers and
men received grants of land in the province.
Major Nairn received the seigniory of Murray's
Bay and Lieut. Malcolm that of Mount Murray.
The men of their companies settled about them,
and one of the noted Scottish colonies in Quebec
Province was formed.

In that locality the names of McLean, McNeill,
and other clan names connected with the famous
78th Regiment are to be found. But the mass
of this noted fighting stock has been so absorbed
in the French population that it is doubtful how
much of Scottish stock is not now animating
the present-day French Canadian. They settled
all over the province ; and in the year 1880 the
then known descendants numbered fully three
thousand.

But there are other Scottish settlements in
Quebec, besides the great scattered stock, which
has come in from time to time during the
nineteenth century. Among these, Metis was
founded in the year 1823 by Mr. McNider, of
Quebec : and there are many Scotsmen of good
standing and means settled in the Baie des
Chaleurs district.
146

The Scotsman in Quebec

These are neither of United Empire Loyalist
origin nor descended from the Fraser Highlanders.

Of these, Lemoine mentions William McPherson,
who was for years Mayor of Port Daniel. Lemoine
himself was grandson of another McPherson, a
noted United Empire Loyalist, who was born in
Inverness, Scotland, in 1752. With this family
there had settled, about the year 1790, a numerous
colony of Kennedys, Arnetts, Morrisons, and other
Scottish and United Empire Loyalist families. In
addition to these settlements, all through the
province will be found intermarriages, with the
best French families, of Scottish officers of the
different regiments, as is instanced by such families
as those of Stuart, Fraser, McPherson, and Camp-
bell. The present Baron de Longuiel is in the
male line of the great clan of Grant.

It will be impossible to deal with all the Scots-
men in the province since its foundation. But
the Scottish element in the cities of Quebec and
Montreal will be of interest to readers of this
work, and much of this will be referred to in
other chapters later on. 'In this connection, how-
ever, the religious element in the life of the
province, which will be examined later, is im-
portant, as the Scotsman is nothing if not religious.
In the year 1802 a memorial to King George the
Third was signed at Quebec city by leading Scots-
men asking for a site for a Presbyterian church.
It is dated October 5th. The list of names which
follows is representative of the business and pro-
fessional men of the day : Alexander Sparks

The Scotsman in Canada

{Minister) ; Jas. Thompson, jun. ; Fred Stuart ;
Jno. Greenshields ; Chas. G. Stewart ; Jas.
Sinclair ; Jno. Urquhart ; Wm. Morrim;
Jno. Eifland,; Jno. Barlie ; Geo. McGregor ;
iWm. Holmes ; James Ward ; Jno. Purssi;
J. Brydon ; Jno. Fraser ; James Somerville-;
J. A. Thompson ; Wm. Hall ; W/m. Thompson,
fun.-; D. Monro ; J. Blackwood ; M. Lym-
burner ; W. Roseburg ; Jno. McCord*; J. G.
Hanna ; J. McNider ; Adam Lymburner*; Jno.
Lynd ; Peter Stuart ; Wm. Grant*; J. A.
Todd ; Jno. Mure ; Jno. McLeod ; Hugh Munro ;
Geo. Geddes ; Archd. Donaldson ; Sandford
Hoyt ; Robt. Haddon, sen. ; Robt. Haddon,
jun. ; Alexander Hadden ; Wm. Brown ; Geo.
Morrison ; Jno. Goudie ; G. Sinclair,*; Walter Car-
ruthers ; Wjn. Petrie ; Jno. Ross ; Wm. McKenzie ;
Thos. Saul ; J. Ross, jun. ; Jas. Mitchell j
Geo. King ; Alex. Thompson ; Jas. Orkney ; J.
Neilson ; Danl. Fraser ; A. Ferguson*; Robt.
Eglison ; Robt. Cairns ; Wm. A. Thompson ;
Wm. McWhirter ; John McDonald ; Jno. Auld ;
Jno. Shaw ; Charles Hunter ; Wm. Anderson*;
Hugh McQuarters, jun.

That the influence of the Scotsman in the intel-
lectual life of the province was not wanting is
shown by the royal charter granted to the Quebec
Literary and Historical Society by William the
Fourth on October 5, 1831. In the list of charter
members appear the names of many prominent
men of Scottish birth — such as George Earl of
Dalhousie ; John Caldwell ; Hugh Caldwell ;
148

The Scotsman in Quebec

Archibald Campbell ; Charles Campbell ; John
Saxton Campbell ; John P. Cockburn ; Andrew Wi.
Cochrane ; John Davidson ; Wm. Findley ; Jas. B.
Forsyth ; John Fraser ; John Malcolm Fraser ;
James Hamilton ; Wm. Henderson ; Wm. Lyons ;
Fredk. Maitland ; John McNider ; Wm. McKee*;
Wm. King McCord ; Rodk. McKenzie ; John I.
Mills ; Wm. Rose ; James Smillie ; Hon. and
Rt. Rev. Chas. James Stewart, Lord Bishop of
Quebec ; James Stuart ; David Stuart ; Andrew
Stuart ; Robt. Symes ; Rev. Daniel Wilkie. In
1835 the corresponding secretary was George Okill
Stuart.

Robert Sellar, in his history of Huntington,
Chateauquay, and Beauharnois down to the year
1838, gives us a glimpse of the Scottish Settlement
in that part of Quebec.

The first Scotsman whom' he mentions, as in
the settlements, is a Scottish United Empire
Loyalist, John Fisher, who was a native of Killin,
in Perthshire, Scotland. Fisher moved into
Hemingford in 1800. A little earlier, in 1798,
Rach Gordon, a Scottish Loyalist, at Sorel, settled
on one of the first three lots in Havelock. In
1 80 1 Andrew Gentle, of Stirlingshire, a brewer,
arrived with certificates of his good character frorri
the minister of Dunblane. He came by way of
the States and brought an American wife. He
settled in Hemingford. Near him settled James
Gilfillan, a Highlander. About 1808 Archibald
Muir, another Scotsman, was manager of the first
great mill on the English River. In Franklin,

149

The Scotsman in Canada

Dewar, a Scottish blacksmith, established his trade
in 1 8 1 1 .

As has been seen, Hemingford's infant settle-
ment had her Scotsmen. Likewise the young
settlement on the Chateaugtiay had its representa-
tive of this indomitable race. In 1800 a Mr.
toudy came to the settlement. He was the fore-
runner of the great body of Scotsmen who were
afterwards to settle the community. He sold his
farm to a relative, William Ogilvie, who left
Scotland in 1802. About 1810 John Milne, from
Aberdeen, was the agent for making out deeds
of the Seigniory. In 1800 John Simpson, a
Scottish millwright, built a mill at Beauharnois.
Opposite St. Martine there settled William Reed.
Each year saw the coming in of more Scottish
settlers. Alexander Hassock, from Cromarty, came
in 1 80 1, and settled in North Georgetown. He
was followed by his nephew -in -law, James Wilkin-
son, and John Raleston, from Ayrshire, who
claimed to have known Robert Burns.

At English River in 1807 settled James Wright,
a shoemaker, of Cupar. Other Scottish settlers were
Somerville, a miller, Andrews, Williamson, Alex.
Logan, from Ross-shire, John Hervie, Neil
Morrison, from Lochgilphead, Argyllshire, John
Stewart, Thompson, James McClatchie, from Ayr-
shire ; Renshaw, a schoolmaster.

In 1802 the Nephton arrived at Quebec with

seven hundred Highlanders on board. They were

chiefly from Glenelg, in Ross-shire. Many of them

at first settled on Sir John Johnson's property in

150

The Scotsman in Quebec

Chambly, but finding much of the land too swampy
three of their number, John Roy McLennan, John
Finlayson, and Finlay McCauig, in 1812, found
lands for many of them in Beauharnois. The rest
went to Glengarry in Upper Canada.

Many of the officers of the Scottish regiments
settled in the city of Montreal, and some of them,
with other adventurous Scottish spirits, founded
the North-West Trading Company, so noted in
the fur trade. Others became prominent business
men and financiers. These were augmented by
many other Scottish emigrants, who, as time went
on, made themselves masters of Canada's trade
and finance. Wherever her vast wilds were, by
her lakes and rivers, in the lone North-West, there
Montreal Scottish traders adventured or sent their
agents, until they became the builders of financial
and trading Canada. Many of the most noted of
these progressive and persistent Scotsmen will be
mentioned in other parts of this book. But there
are to-day many distinguished representatives of
the Scottish colony in Montreal. The names of
a few, like the late Honourable Sir George Drum-
mond ; the Honourable A. B. Angus ; Sir
Montague Allen ; Sir Hugh Graham ; the
Honourable Robert Mackay ; the Honourable Jas.
Meighen ; and Sir William Macdonald, are among
a long list of present-day Scotsmen who dominate
the financial and commercial world of Canada.

CHAPTER X

THE GLENGARRY SETTLEMENTS

THE COMING OF THE SCOTTISH LOYALISTS

True to Empire and to King,

They deemed all loss of wealth and lands

As little, as a petty thing

Weighed in the scales. Heroic bands,

Devoted, patriot, wandered forth

To build new Empire in the North.

" The Loyalists."

UNLIKE that of Pictou, the Glengarry settle-
ment in Upper Canada was a great military
Community. It had its origin in the disbanded
Scottish regiments composed largely of members
of the great clan Macdonald or Macdonell, a name,
as history shows, famous in Canadian as well as in
British annals.

Claiming a common descent from the stock of
the Lords of the Isles, the several branches of
the clan spell the name differently. The Mac-
donells of Antrim and those of Glengarry are of
the same stock as Lord Macdonald of Slate in
Antrim and the late Sir John A. Macdonald.
152

The Glengarry Settlements

The history of the Glengarry settlement is, in"
a sense, a history of the Highland regiments and
of the great Jacobite wars. These Macdonells .
were of an undaunted stock of fighting men, who
strove to the last for the Stuart cause. But since
then they have been as steadfastly true to the
House of Hanover, which now represents the Royal
House of Stuart.

When Pitt, in 1757, started out to raise the
Highland regiments, as one writer says, " this call
to arms was responded to by the clans ; and
battalion on battalion was raised in the remotest
parts of the Highlands among those who, a few
years before, were devoted to, and too long had
followed, the race of Stuart. Frasers, Macdonalds,
Camerons, McLeans, McPhersons, and others of
disaffected names and clans were enrolled."

All the world knows how they soon, at Quebec
and Aboukir, added fame to Britain. Lord
Chatham, in his famous eulogy of their regiments,
said : "I sought for merit wherever it could be
found. It is my boast that I was the first Minister
who looked for it and found it in the mountains
of the North. I called it forth and drew into your
service a hardy and intrepid race of men — men
who, left by your jealousy, became a prey to the
artifices of your enemies, and had gone nigh to
have overturned the State in the war before last.
These men in the last war were brought to combat
on your side ; they served with fidelity, as they
fought with valour, and conquered for you in every
part of the world." Of these, this account has to

153

The Scotsman in Canada

do with those who emigrated to the Crown colonies
in America, and who proved their worth and loyalty
on this continent, as their brother Scots had done
in other parts of the Empire and the world.

Since then the name of Macdonald has continued
famous in Canada and elsewhere. One has only to
mention Sir John A. Macdonald, Sir William Mac-
donald, John Sandfield Macdonald, Bishop Mac-
donell, and a host of others of this clan, in the
State, the Church, the Bench, and many other
walks in life in Canada, to show how one at least
of the great Highland clans has made its name
synonymous with the best life of this country.

The history of the Glengarry settlement is
similar to that of Pictou, in that it has to be dealt
with under several heads, those of the first and
second and third immigrations. The first im-
migration was the United Loyalist one, under Sir
John Johnson, from Tryon County, New York.
It was on a small scale, but the second and third
were great movements, the third being the coming
of a whole regiment of Highland soldiers in 1802.

One of the most important of all the United
Empire Loyalist settlements was that of Glengarry,
which contributed during the wars more fighting
men in proportion to its population than any other
portion pf the province.

But Jo explain its settlement we must go back
to the Old Land and the old days, as no people or
generation lives merely in the present. We are
a part and parcel of the past, and are much what
our forefathers made us ere we were born. To
154

TJie Glengarry Settlements

understand and explain the Scotsman in Canada
we must know of the Scotsman in the Old World.
And as he was inspired there, so his children and
children's children will be led here.

Among the leading Jacobites were the sept of
the Macdonald clan, the Macdonells of Glengarry.
They had followed Montrose and Claverhouse. In
1715 they joined the Earl of Mar, and in 1745
were staunch adherents of Prince Charles Edward.
They met defeat, and paid the penalty like men.

And yielded, indignant, their necks to the blow,
Their homes to the flame, and their lands to the foe.

After the disarming Acts and the abolition of
the feudal system, thousands of Highlanders were '
forced to emigrate.

Among these were several gentlemen of the clan^
Macdonell of the Glengarry branch — Aberchalder,
Leek, Collachie, and Scothouse, so designated from
their several estates. These, collecting a number -
of their people together, emigrated to America, "
and settled on tracts of land in what was then
called Tryon County, in the beautiful valley of
the Mohawk in the Province of New York.

They had hoped, in crossing the ocean, to live
in peace and make up for the disasters of fortune
which the Jacobite wars had helped to cause in
the Old World.

But their fate was destined to be otherwise ;
and it was not long ere they had to take up arms
for George the Third, as they had for the Stuart
cause. And once more for an ideal — the monarchy

'55

The Scotsman in Canada

— they forsook all, and went forth into the northern
Canadian wilderness to establish the foundation
of a new Empire on this continent.

The man who was to lead them was Sir John

Johnson, son of the famous Sir William Johnson,

.- the friend and ally of the Redman. Sir William

s was from Ireland, and descended from a branch

of the famous Lowland Scottish family of Johnson

"""of the borders.

When the rebellion broke out in 1775 Sir John
armed his retainers for the King, and his Scottish
allies, who were Roman Catholics, took the side
of their monarch against the rebels. It was not
long before the Highlanders were denounced by
v the Continentals as Tories, and were commanded to
„ deliver up their arms. This they appeared to do,
but an attempt was made to seize Sir John Johnson
and his friends and allies, the Highlanders. But,
being warned in time, he escaped and made his
way, after a hard march, to Canada, accompanied
by many of his friends and associates, chief among
whom were the Macdonnells and other Highland
gentlemen and their clansmen who had followed
his fortunes and had stood for the Empire.

On their arrival, Sir Guy Carleton issued a com-
mission to Johnson to raise a fencible regiment
from among the two hundred followers who had
accompanied him from New York. This regiment
was called " The King's Royal Regiment of New
York." Among others the Highland gentlemen
from Tryon County received commissions, and
their men enlisted. The following is a list of the
156

The Glengarry Settlements

Scottish officers in this regiment, in Butler's
Rangers, and in the 84th or Royal Highland
Emigrant Regiment : —

King's Royal Regiment, N.Y.—ist Battalion.

Ca.pt. Alexander Macdonell (Aberchalder). ^

Capt. Angus Macdonell (Ensign 6oth Regt.).

Capt. John Macdonell (Scotas).

Capt. Archibald Macdonell (Leek).

Capt. Allan Macdonell (Leek).

Lieut. Hugh Macdonell (Aberchalder).

Ensign Miles Macdonell (Scotas).

King's Royal Regiment, N.Y.—2nd Battalion.
Capt. James Macdonell.
Lieut. Ronald Macdonell (Leek).

Butler's Rangers.

Captain John Macdonell (Aberchalder), Lieut, in 84th Regt.
ist Lieut. Alexander Macdonell (Collachie).
2nd Lieut. Chichester Macdonell (Aberchalder).

Seventy-first Regiment.

Lieut. Angus Macdonell.

Other Scottish gentlemen who held commissions
in the King's Royal Regiment of New York were : —

Major James Gray. ,
Major John Ross.
Capt. S. Anderson.
Capt. John Munroe.
Capt. William Morrison.
Capt. Redford Crawford.
Lieut. Malcolm McMartin.
Lieut. Joseph Anderson.
Lieut. Jacob Farrand.
Lieut. Walter Sutherland.
Lieut. Hugh Munro.

Lieut. William Mackay.
Lieut. William Eraser.
Ensign Duncan Cameron.
Ensign John Mann.
Ensign Ebenezer Anderson.
Ensign Alexander McKenzie.
Ensign Samuel Mckay.
Ensign John Mackay.
Chaplains, the Rev. John Doty

and the Rev. John Stewart.
James Stewart, Surgeon's Mate,

157

The Scotsman in Canada

As will be seen by these lists, the Macdonells,
who are in a list by themselves, are in the great
majority.

The Royal Highland Emigrant Regiment, or the
old 84th, was raised from the Highland emigrants
then arriving in Canada, and Lieut. -Col. Allan
McLean, of the io4th Regiment, was Commandant
of the First Battalion, and Captain John Small was
Commandant of the Second Battalion, raised from
the discharged soldiers settled in Nova Scotia, who
afterwards re -settled there.

A large proportion of the King's Royal Regi-
ment of New York and the Royal Emigrants were
of the Scottish stock.

The First Battalion of the Royal Emigrants
settled in Canada. The following is a list of its
officers in 1778 :—

Lieut.-Col. Allan MacLean ; Major Donald McDonald.

Captains : Wm. Dunbar, John Nairne, Alexander Eraser,
George McDougall, Malcolm Eraser, Daniel Robertson, George
Lewis.

Lieutenants : Neil McLean, John McLean, Lachlan McLean,
David Cairns, Donald McKinnon, Ronald McDonald, John
McDonell, Alexander Stratton, Hector McLean.

Ensigns : Ronald McDonald, Archibald Grant, David Smith,
Archibald McDonald, John Pringle, Hector McLean.

Rev. John Bethune, Chaplain ; Ronald McDonald, Adjutant ;
Lachlan McLean, Quartermaster ; James Davidson, Surgeon ;
James Walker, Surgeon's Mate.

In 1778 this regiment was numbered as the
84th.

Though many of the United Empire Loyalists
158

The Glengarry Settlements

were of Scottish stock, yet Glengarry must be^
considered as the great centre of the Scottish •'
Loyalists. The Empire Lists, which are only par- *
tially complete, show that the name Macdonell, *
or Macdonald, outranks in the numbers of its *
representatives any other United Empire name in C
the Province of Upper Canada. There were on *
the Lists the representatives of almost every High-
land clan and Scottish name. Then there were
many of . the Highlanders who never registered
their names. Bishop Macdonell, who came to •""
Canada more than twenty years after the Loyalists, •
wrote that he had not been long in the province
before he discovered that few or none among the
earliest settlers had legal tenure of their proper-
ties, and it took him months' of hard labour to t
secure for the Highland emigrants of Stormont l
and Glengarry proper deeds for their lands.

Lord Dorchester's original United Empire List,
which was only the nucleus of the Royalist
immigration into Upper Canada, showed nearly
six hundred Scottish names, of which 84 were
Macdonells, 35 Grants, 28 Campbells, 27 Erasers,
and 25 Camerons.

Of these Scottish Celtic settlers in early Canada,
their enemies have striven to say that they had no
mental qualifications to rank them with the early
settlers of Massachussets, Virginia, Maryland, and
Connecticut ; that long subjection to their Highland
chiefs had paralysed those nobler qualities which
make men desire freedom and progress. But their
manner of conquering nature in their new home

159

The Scotsman in Canada

during the earlier years of pioneer life, the spirit
they showed in repelling the foe in 1812 and 1837,
give the lie to such a false estimate of the Glen-
garry, Storrriont, and other Scottish settlers of
Canada.

In the grave crisis of the summer of 1812, when
the gallant Brock stood alone, when cowards and
traitors had combined to make the holding of
the young province for Britain almost impossible,
who was it who stood loyally, as Brock himself said,
but his loyal Glengarry men? And it was a Mac-
donell of the clan who died on the same field of
glory while rallying his forces at the untimely
death of his great general.

But they have evinced a host of other qualifica-
tions, mentally, morally, and physically, to show
them to be the equal, if not the superior, of the
members of any other community which ever
settled on this continent. Almost supreme as has
been the Scot in many parts of the great Republic
to the South, it seems that there is somewhat in
the very climate and austere seasons and natural
environment of Canada that brings out the Scottish
nature, as in his own dear homeland, at its very
best, and blossoms, as nowhere else outside of the
northern isle, the very flower of the Scottish per-
sonality. Where else has there developed a Lord
Strathcona, a Sir John Alexander Macdonald, a
Sandfield Macdonald, a Lyon McKenzie, an Oliver
Mowat, a Principal Grant, a Sir William Dawson,
a Bishop Strachan, a Bishop Macdonell, or a
thousand other remarkable individualities, rugged
160

The Glengarry Settlements

scions of the Scottish stock, but Canadians of the
Canadians, because this land of ours is so much
of Scotland and Scotland so much a part of us?
This individuality has been both the strength and
curse of the Scottish race, and it is alike the curse
of the Canadians, because we are too strong as
individuals in our own conceit and will not band
together for any cause — save a vulgar party one —
and therefore, though we still are Grits or Tories,
at least in name, we have ceased to be true
patriots.

The early settlement of Glengarry developed
slowly. The county of Glengarry, where the
settlement was made, is the most easterly county
of what was old Upper Canada, now Ontario,
Alexandria, the centre of the county, being about
halfway between the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence
Rivers, and about fifty miles from Ottawa city.
The neighbouring counties are Stormont, Dundas,
and Prescott, where many of the early settlers
found tiieir homes, and most of them were soldiers
and United Empire Loyalists of Scottish descent.
Cprnwall was the great early county town for
\ districts, and a famous Scottish centre in
Tpper Canada. Here Bishop Strachan, then
Tohn Strachan, taught his famous school ;
W here, at Williamstown, the Rev. John
founded the first Presbyterian Church in
anada. Here, during the early pioneer
eighteenth century wore itself out, and
nineteenth came the third great influx
with the disbanded regiment of the

L 161

The Scotsman in Canada

The second immigration into the Glengarry
community took place soon after the close of jhe
Revolution.

The Rev. Alexander Macdonell brought out
some five hundred colonists, who came chiefly from
the Knokdart portion of the Glengarry estates in
the Western Highlands. These Highlanders came
and settled on land among their fellow -clansmen
,in the county of Glengarry. They sailed for
•America in the ship McDonald, Captain Robert
Stevenson, from Greenock. She arrived in Quebec
on September 7, 1786, and her reverend colonist
and her 520 pioneers made their way up the St.
Lawrence to the land which was to be their home.

Father Alexander Macdonald was one of /the
earliest Catholic missionaries, not French, in Upper
Canada. He founded the parish of St. Raphael's,
the pioneer paris^of Upper Canada, and died at
Lachine in iSoj'j^ged about fifty-three years, after
a long and faithful pastorate.

Mr. Macdonald, of Greenfield, who emigrated in
1792, also brought out emigrants who were of his
clan. He was brother-in-law of Col. John Mac-
donald, the first Speaker of the Upper Can-
'Assembly. c

The county now became noted as a 8?
colony, and emigrants were attracted to it
parts of Scotland ; and among the^ Q
McPhersons from Badenoch and CamerDawson

Lochiel's country, who settled in Lane.

iieii or a

Lochiel. >

There is also a tradition that a Capt1!
162

The Glengarry Settlements

McLeod, of the family of Moule, in 1793 chartered
a vessel and brought from Glenelg in Scotland
forty families, principally of McLeods, Mclntoshes,
McGillivrays, and McCuaigs. They arrived in
Glengarry in 1794, and settled in the north of the
county.

These were the principal Scottish immigrations
into these settlements prior to the coming of the
regiment in 1802.

CHAPTER XI

THE GLENGARRY SETTLEMENTS

THE COMING OF THE FENCIBLE REGIMENT FROM
SCOTLAND

Hearts of Scotland who inherit,
As of old, her martial blood; —

Rouse, once more, the hero spirit
Of her ancient island brood! !

OVER one hundred and sixty years after Sir
William Alexander sent his first shipload
of Scottish colonists across the Atlantic, there
laboured on the borders of the counties of Perth
and Inverness in the Highland mountains of Scv/.
land a devoted missionary of the old Celtic blood,
whose name was Macdonell. He was of the same
race as the Earl of Stirling, those descendants of
the renowned Somerled. He was a practical man
as well as a dreamer, and was, no doubt, a poet
at heart as all his race are. But unlike Alexander
— the poet, courtier, colonist, and psalm -writer —
this man was a priest of the Roman Church, whose
*•' chief interest was the spiritual welfare of that great
v*nass of Catholic Celts who, since the decay of
164

The Glengarry Settlements

the clan system, were out of place in the High-^
lands, which were then being turned into sheep-*'
walks and agricultural experiments, on a large
scale.

Of this great man I will speak at length later.
But here his work as a successful coloniser of one
of the most important Canadian communities will
alone be dealt with. Affected by the distress of his
countrymen, who, as he said, had been driven out of
their glens to turn the latter into sheep-walks, he
was debating what to do to alleviate their con-
dition, when he heard of an emigrant ship which,
sailing from Barra, had been wrecked and had
put into Greenock, leaving her passengers in ,a
destitute and helpless condition. He at once went
to Glasgow in the spring of 1792, and by interest
with the University authorities and merchants,
strove to get the evicted farmers and shipwrecked
people into the local manufactories. For this
vocation, however, these poor people were ill -fitted
both by inclination, ability, and knowledge. They
preferred the wild life of the open, and made
splendid soldiers and deer-stalkers. Then they
spoke only the Gaelic and were Catholics in
religion, so that a double barrier separated them
from the factory people of Lowland English-
speaking Protestant Glasgow. But the College
professors and merchants appreciated his efforts,
and in spite of all the difficulties enumerated, in
two months he had procured employment for fully
six hundred Highlanders.

The faithful and energetic priest became the

165

The Scotsman in Canada

vXspiritual father of these people, and for a couple
^ of years all went well, though his followers failed
.x to learn English. But soon came the troubles

• of the French Revolution, and war between
^England and France and the subsequent decline of

•"trade and labour ; and amid the general misery
S the poor Highlanders lost their employment.

Again the ardent missionary met the crisis. He
*" conceived the daring idea of embodying his idle
^ labourers into a Catholic Corps in His Majesty's

• service, and setting to work he soon received the
s Royal assent, and by June, 1795, naol embodied

• the Glengarry Fencible Regiment, the first Catholic
*' Corps raised since the Reformation.

S Becoming chaplain of the regiment, with his
•• chief, Macdonell of Glengarry, as colonel, he got

• the regiment to offer their services where they
-' might be wanted. At first starting in Guernsey,

• they soon went to Ireland, where they, with the
S Reay Fencibles, put down the Rebellion of 1798.

Their faithful chaplain was their constant atten-
»^ dant down to the year 1802, when all the Scottish
«*-" Fencibles were disbanded.

S In 1 798 there were twenty-six Scottish regiments

x" in the British Army, and the Glengarry s were, no

y doubt, among the finest of that splendid group of

fighting men who made the British soldiers dreaded

all over the world. The following list of the

officers of the Glengarrys is found in the British

Army List of 1798 : —

Macdonald of Glengarry,
General of the Brigade.
166

Col. Donald Macdonald.
Lieut.-Col. Charles McLean.

The Glengarry Settlements

Major Alexander Macdonald.
Capt. Archibald McLachlan.
Capt. Donald Macdonald.
Capt. Ranald Macdonell.
Capt. James Macdonald.
Capt. Archibald Macdonell.
Capt. Roderick Macdonald.
Capt. Hugh Beaton.
Capt. Lieut. Alex. Macdonell.
Lieut. John Macdonald.
Lieut. Ronald Macdonald.
Lieut. Archibald McLellan.
Lieut. James Macdonell.
Lieut. James McNab.
Lieut. D. Mclntyre.

Lieut. Donald Chisholm.
Lieut. Allan McNab.
Ensign Alexander Macdonell.
Ensign John Macdonald.
Ensign Charles Macdonald.
Ensign Donald Macdonell.
Ensign Donald McLean.
Ensign Archibald Macdonell.
Ensign Alexander Macdonell.
Ensign Andrew Macdonell.
Ensign Francis Livingston.
Adjutant Donald Macdonell.
Quartermaster Alexander Mac-
donell.
Surgeon Alexander Macdonell.

Could a regiment be any more thoroughly
Scottish and Highland than this?

On the disbanding of the Fencibles, the ^
Glengarrys found themselves in as desperate •
a position as ever. But their resolute chap- '
lain conceived the idea of their emigrating ^
to Canada, and appealed to the British Govern-
ment for assistance to enable them to do so.
The Government, while regretting the great flow ^
of emigrants from Scotland, offered to bear
a colony of the regiment to Trinidad. Thanking] ^
the minister for his offer, the chaplain replied that ~
his people preferred to go to Upper Canada where ^
their friends were already settled and doing well. *•••
The result was that Mr. Addington, the Premier,
procured an order with the Sign Manual to the
Lieut. -Governor of Upper Canada to grant two
hundred acres of land to every one of the High- "
landers who should arrive in the province.

167

The Scotsman in Canada

This wholesale emigration alarmed the Scottish
landlords of the Western Highlands, and an effort
was made to induce the Highlanders to stay at
home. They were even offered the waste lands
of Cornwall.

At this juncture, however, as in the case of
Sir William Alexander, a member of the great
rival clan Campbell came to the Reverend Mr.
Macdonell's assistance in the person of Major
Archibald Campbell, who proposed a plan of
making a complete military organisation of all the
Scottish Fencible regiments which were disbanded,
and of sending them all to Upper Canada and so
prevent them going to the United States. This
was a feasible and wise scheme, could it have
been carried out, but just then Addington resigned,
Pitt returned to office, and the war was renewed
with France under Napoleon, who was just then
rising in power, so the greater part of the Fen-
cibles remained at home or drifted into other units
of the army.

At this time also strict regulations were enforced
as to vessels carrying emigrants abroad, owing to
cruelties said to be practised by owners of vessels
in that business. The result of these regulations
was that an embargo was laid on all emigrant
ships in British harbours. By good fortune the
Glengarrys had, the most of them, got away ere
this was enforced, and set sail for the New Scotland
across the water.

Curiously, at this time their chaplain, who had
stayed behind in London to complete his business,
was approached by another noted Scottish colonist
168

The Glengarry Settlements

in Canada, Lord Selkirk, whose operations will be
dealt with by Dr. Bryce in another volume of this
work. Lord Selkirk proposed to join with Mac- ••
donell in his colonisation scheme, but announced"
that his idea was to settle the country between v
Lakes Huron and Superior with Highlanders, the
climate there being similar to that in Scotland
and the soil richer and more productive. This
offer was refused because the location chosen was '
beyond the jurisdiction of the Government of Upper "
Canada, and too remote from other settlements.

The Fencibles arrived in Upper Canada and v
received their lands according to the despatch from
Lord Hobart, Secretary of State for the Colonies, l
to Lieut. -Governor Hunter, dated March i, 1803. -
By this order twelve hundred acres were granted to
Mr. Macdonell, and two hundred acres to every
family he introduced into the colony.-'

Of other Scottish immigrations into Glengarry •
since that date, those of Locheil and the McLeods
have been mentioned.

The year 1803 saw other emigrations of Scots-
men, and in the ships that carried the Glengarry *
Fencibles were other Scottish immigrants into
Canada, many of them from Kintail and Glenelg. +
One old resident of the county, Murdoch
McLennan, had released a valuable farm in Kintail
rather than separate from his kinsmen and friends
who were emigrating. He said that there were
eleven hundred persons on the ship, and that they
were four months crossing in stormy and wintry
weather, especially off Labrador.

The county was divided into settlements:

169

The Scotsman in Canada

Breadalbane of the Campbells and others of North
Argyllshire who settled there ; Dunvegan, named
by the McLeods, a large number of whom settled
in that locality ; Strathglas suggests the Chis-
holms ; and Uist and Knokdart certain septs of the
Macdonalds.

Stormont, the adjacent county, was also settled
originally by Scottish United Empire Loyalists, and
St. Andrews in that county is a suggestive name.

The early settlers in Glengarry came chiefly
from the neighbourhood of the Mohawk River in
New York. They selected their land on the shores
of the St. Lawrence and Lake St. Francis, and
on the borders of the river Raisin as far inland
as Williamstown and Martintown. They were
joined in 1784 by 'officers and privates of the 84th
Regiment, and of that of Sir William Johnston,
from whose Christian name the former place
acquired its name.

From the very first the greater proportion of
the people were Scottish folk, most of whom had
come to the colony in 1783- Such names as those
of Grant, Rose, McLean, Murchison, and Bethune
are witness to this fact.

Among the officers who settled in the town-
ship of Lancaster were Col. Sutherland and Mr.
Gunn. In 1786 Capt. John Hay, from Glen-
brae in Aberdeenshire, who had come out to Prince
Edward Island in 1773 and afterwards joined the
84th Regiment, settled on the border of the river
Raisin. His place was named Glen of Hay
(Gaelic, Gleana-feair).

Among others who settled in Lancaster were the
170

The Glengarry Settlements

McPhersons from Badenoch. Kenneth, the son
of John, was for over thirty years postmaster and
general merchant at Lancaster village. His father
was John McPherson, who came out and took up
lands. Kenneth came out in 1822 as a follower of
Cameron of Thora. One of the McPherson family
named Murdoch died in his io;th year.

In the Scottish emigration of 1802 there came
out Mr. Donald Fraser, who became a merchant at
Williamstown. He bought Sir John Johnson's
place at Point du lac, and renamed it Eraser's
Point. His son, Lieut. -Col. Alexander Fraser, of
the Glengarry Militia, was living and over eighty
years of age in 1887.

A number of retired officials of the Hudson's Bay
Company settled in Glengarry. Among them were
the Hon. John McGillivray, whose eldest son, Neil,
became heir to the chiefship of that clan and to
the ancestral estate in Scotland ; Duncan Cameron,
father of the late Sir Roderick Cameron, of New
York city ; Mr. John McDonald, who resided at
Gray's Creek ; and Mr. Hugh McGillis, of
Williamstown.

This is the story of this famous old Canadian
community whose history is linked with the martial
valour and prowess of 1812. Many of the
descendants of the rugged old Highland settlers
have drifted west or into other parts of Ontario.
But whenever the Scotsman in Canada is spoken
of, the Glengarry settlements have a foremost place
in the memory and hearts of our people.

Bonnet, plaid, and dirk in han'
The heilan chiel's a fightin' man.

171

CHAPTER XII

THE PERTH SETTLEMENT

"Behold the Tiber," the vain Roman cried,
Viewing the ample Tay from Baiglie's side ;
But where's the Scot that would the vaunt repay,
And hail the puny Tiber for the Tay ?

Anon.

MONG all the provinces in Scotland," says
Sir Walter Scott, " the most fertile and the
most beautiful is the county of Perth.'* If this
cannot be said of Perth in Ontario, at least it
can be asserted that it has much beauty and
fertility of soil and is a pleasant home for Scots-
men in the New World. This was one of the
Canadian settlements of purely Scottish and
military origin. The names of the old town
and of the river on which it is founded at once
suggest the famed city and stream of Perth and
Tay in Scotland. The terrible depression iri trade
and manufactures in the Old Land that followed
the close of the Napoleonic wars produced a
large class of people who were out of employment ;
and suffering and privation began to be felt in
172

The Perth Settlement

different parts of Britain and, among other places,
in certain districts of Southern Scotland. Realising
the necessity of some relief from this condition,
the British Government deemed that it would be
wise to send many of the superfluous population
to Upper Canada, and not only relieve the Old
Land of her burden, but also fill the young colony
with loyal subjects of the Crown. As a result
of this idea, late in May, 1815, three transports
sailed from Greenock in Scotland, that famed port
of departure for emigrants, loaded with Scottish
families destined for Upper Canada.

These ships were the Atlas, the Baptiste
Merchant, and the Dorothy. These vessels, for
some strange reason, were all summer on the
ocean, and did not reach Quebec until the middle
of September. Arriving too late to go to the
new settlements that winter, the emigrants were
brought up to Brockville and Prescott, and kept
there in quarters until the following spring. By
April 1 8, 1816, they were conveyed to their future
home in the back townships on the Tay and Rideau,
having to travel through blazed trails in the, as
yet, uncleared forest. A letter of the Deputy
Quartermaster-General of October 13, 1816,
describes this settlement as follows : —

Rideau. — This settlement was commenced on the i8th April,
1816. The new village of Perth is situated on a small river, now
the Tay, formerly the Pike, which empties itself into the Rideau
Lake, at about five and a half miles below ; it is distant from
Brockville forty-two miles, twenty-one of which is an established
and good road. ... In the village there are twenty houses, and

173

The Scotsman In Canada

in its immediate vicinity there are 250 habitations, which will be
in readiness for occupation before the winter. . . . The settle
ment generally is provisioned to the 24th October, about fifty
families of Scotch, to the 24th December.

Meanwhile another source was to provide settlers
for the new settlement. After the close of the
war of 1812-14, many of the regiments which had
taken part in the struggle were disbanded, and
the rank and file were induced to becorrie dwellers
and landowners in the country which they had
helped to defend. In the month of June following
the settlement of the Scottish emigrants at Perth,
three regiments— the Glengarry Fencibles, the
Canadian Fencibles, and what was known as De
Watteville's Regiment— arrived at the settlement,
and the town plot of Perth was laid out, a bridge
was built over the Tay, and the foundation of the
settlement was carried forward.

The first settlers were purely Scottish, and many
of them Highlanders. A great number of the
military settlers were also Scotsmen ; and during
1816 many other ships, such as the Canning, the
Duke of Buckingham, and the Commerce, brought
hundreds of families, the majority of whom were
Scotsmen and Ulster Scotsmen.

The settlement at its foundation was a military
one, and under the control of the commander of
the forces. The troops were used at first to build
houses for the rest of the settlers and provide
roads and bridges. Among many other neces-
saries, axes for felling the forest were given the
settlers ; and though they had much to contend
174

The Perth Settlement

with, they were lucky in having the care and aid
of the Government during the first years of pioneer
life. Clothes and rations were also served out,
and everything was done to give these sturdy
pioneers a favourable start in their conquest of
the wilderness. There are in the archives at
Ottawa lists of supplies that were furnished ; and
that under the heading of hardware included all
sorts of articles from palliasses, blankets, billhooks,
and Flanders kettles, down a long list to shingle-
nails, brads, and iron wedges.

Another letter, dated Quebec', November 21,
1815, refers to the first settlement as follows :—

I have the honour to report to His Excellency that, of the
settlers recently arrived from Scotland in the Transports, Dorothy,
Atlas, and Baptiste Merchant, and since forwarded to Upper
Canada ; eight or nine unmarried men have proceeded to
Kingston, and are there employed by the Engineer Department
on the King's works. At Brockville thirty large families are
accommodated in the Barracks, in some adjoining huts, and in
the neighbouring farmhouses, where most of them have pro-
cured employment ; this station being considered the principal
depot of the Settlement about to be formed under the superinten-
dence of Alex. MacDonell, Esq. ; the ^aff Surgeon, Mr. Thorn ;
the Deputy Adjutant-Commissary-Ge/ jral, Mr. Grieg ; and Lieut.
McTier, Acting Deputy-Supt.

It is seen that those in charge were all Scotsmen.

The following statement will be of interest. It
is dated Scotch Settlement, Perth, August 10,
1818 (over two years later) : —

We, the undersigned Scotch emigrants, do hereby certify that
Mr. John Holiday, who accompanied us from Scotland as our
Schoolmaster, taught our children in Brockville Barracks from

175

The Scotsman in Canada

Martimmas, 1815, to Whitsunday, 1816, for which he received
no fee whatever, nor did we even hear Mr. Holiday express an
idea of making charge for the same. (Signed) John Thompson,
James Taylor, James McLaren, James Millar, Ann. Boldness,
Hugh McKay, Abraham Loner, Thos. Baker, John Ferguson,
James Eraser, John Furrier, Wm. McGillivray, James McDonald,
Alex. McFarlane, Thomas Barrie, John Brash, Alexander Kidd,
George Wilson, Wm. Johnston."

Another petition of inhabitants of Perth shows
"Much regret at the removal of the Rev. Wm.
Bell from the public school at this place, having
the highest opinion of his abilities as a teacher,
as well as of his moral and religious character."
The petition, which is a long one, is addressed
to the Deputy Quartermaster-General, and is dated
at the Scotch Settlement, Perth, December 27,
1820, showing that the settlement was still under
military supervision. It is signed by the following
fifty-five inhabitants, who are all Scotsmen : — John
Alston ; Jos. Taylor ; A. Fraser ; Wm. Mackay ;
J. Watson ; John Adamson ; Jas. McLean ; Jas.
Ferguson ; John Campbell ; N. B. Thomas ; Wm.
Brown ; Jas. Robinson ; Angus Cameron ; Peter
McPherson ; John Ferguson ; John Paterson ;
Robt. Smith ; Chas. Jamieson ; James Bows ;
Wm. McPherson ; Jos. Barrie ; Jas. Bryce ; John
Fletcher; Hugh Scott; Edwd. Harkness ; Jas.
Roberts ; Jas. Scott ; John McLaren ; John
McLeod ; Austin Allan ; Geo. Wilson ; John Allan ;
Abraham Ferrier ; John Ferrier; Jas. Fraser;
Samuel McEachern ; Jas. McCraken ; Donald
Gillies ; Alex. Kidd ; E. C. Mallock ; John Hay ;
Alex. McDonald ; Richard Jamieson ; Jas. Mc-
176

The Perth Settlement

Intosh ; Francis Allen ; John McNee ; Duncan
Cameron ; Wm. McGillivray ; Jas. McDonald ;
John Holiday ; Wm. Rutherford ; John McNiej;
Colin Campbell.

The following petition, addressed to the Lieu-
tenant-Governor of Upper Canada, asks for title
deeds to their lands, without which they were not
qualified to vote at the elections. Perth was just
then set apart to elect a member to the Provincial
House, and hence the request to be legally quali-
fied as electors. The petition, which is dated at
Perth, Upper Canada, March, 1820, is signed on
behalf of the inhabitants of the Perth Settlement
by twenty -four persons, all Scotsmen : Al. Thorn,
J.P. ; A. McMillan, J.P. ; R. Matheson ; Wm.
Bell ; Josh. Taylor ; J. Watson ; Alex. Matheson ;
John Jackson ; Josh. Holesworth ; Robt. Winch-
worth ; Thos. Cousin ; John Ferguson; W.
Morris; G. H. Reade ; Wm. Baily ; N. B.
Townes ; John Alston ; James Young ; Wm.
Matheson ; H. Graham ; David Bay ; A. Fraser.

The officers of the Glengarry Light Infantry
Fencibles in 1816 were — Col. Edward Baynes ;
Majors Robt. McDonald and Alex. Clark ;
Captains R. M. Cochrane, Alex. McMillan, Wm.
Campbell, W. Coates ; Lieutenants Jas. Stewart,
A. Leslie, Walter Kerr, Jas. McCaulay, Rodk.
Matheson, Angus McDonald, Robt. Kerr, John
McKay ; Ensigns Jos. Frobisher, Alex. McDonell,
Alex. McDonald, John Fraser, John Wright ;
Adjutant Wm. Blair ; Surgeon Alex. Cunningham.

The Scotsmen among the officers of the

VOL. I. M 177

The Scotsman in Canada

Canadian Fencibles, 1816, were : Lieut. -Col. Geo.
Robertson ; Capt. G. R. Ferguson ; Lieutenants
John Johnston, Alex. Grant, J. McKenzie ; Ensigns
Walter Davidson, Wm. Mitchell, J. H. Kerr ;
Quartermaster Alex. Fraser ; Surgeon T. Robert-
son.

The following letter from the Rev. William Bell,
who has already been mentioned, will be of interest
in its picture of early conditions in the settlement.

It is dated Perth, Upper Canada, October 10,
1 8 1 8 . He says :—

This being a military settlement, there are a great number of
discharged soldiers amongst us, but few of them come to church.
My congregation consists chiefly of Scotch settlers, together
with the half-pay officers of four regiments who are settled in the
neighbourhood. You will scarcely credit the extent of country
over which my labours at present extend. It is no less than
fifty miles around Perth, there not being any Protestant clergyman
nearer in any direction ; but the country is still very thinly
inhabited, though extremely fertile. The number of emigrants
arriving every year is great, but they are in a manner lost in a
country of such great extent. The town of Perth is situated on
the banks of the Tay, a beautiful river which falls into the
Rideau.

The Rev. William Bell was the youngest son
of Andrew Bell, of the parish of Audrie in Scot-
land. He was teacher of a grammar school in
Bute before entering the ministry. Of his many
sons, Andrew, the eldest, was the father of Dr.
Robert Bell, Chief Geologist of the Canadian
Geological Survey. His fourth son, Robert Bell,
was Member for North Lanark during the
178

The Perth Settlement

McKenzie regime. James, the seventh son,
the first male child born in Perth, and was foi
forty years Registrar of Lanark. The youngest
son, Rev. Dr. George Bell, was the first student
enrolled at Queen's University, and afterwards
Registrar of that institution. The only daughter
married John G. Mallock, first Judge of the county
of Lanark.

Another Perth family was that of Peter Camp%
bell, who came out in 1817. He was descended
from an old Highland family. Three of his sons
were Presbyterian ministers, the most noted being
the Rev. Dr. Robert Campbell, ex-Moderator and
present Clerk of the General Assembly of Canada.
Another son was Archibald, of Perth, father of
Archibald M. Campbell, the Ottawa explorer and
economic geologist.

Judge Mallock, of Brockville, was a brother of
Judge Mallock, of Lanark.

The Hon. Roderick Matheson was paymaster of
the military settlements on the Rideau. He was
afterwards appointed to the Legislative Council for
Upper Canada, and became one of the first
Dominion Senators. One of his sons is the
Honourable A. J. Matheson, Provincial Treasurer
for Ontario. Another was the late Marshall
Matheson, Master-in-Chancery at Ottawa.

The Honourable William Morris and Malcolm
Cameron are mentioned elsewhere in this work.

Judge John Wilson fought a duel in Perth in
1833 with Robert Lyon, and killed him. Wilson
gave himself up, pleaded his own cause, and was

179

The Scotsman in Canada

acquitted. Perth was the scene of the famous
litigation in connection with the MacNab and his
unfortunate settlement.

The McLaren family, the well-known lumber-
men of Buckingham and Ottawa, were Perth
settlers. Some noted members of this family have
been the late Senator McLaren, Peter McLaren,
of Perth, David McLaren, of Ottawa, and Pro-
fessor McLaren, of Knox College, Toronto.

James Wilson, M.D., was a well-known prac-
titioner of Perth. He became a noted geologist.
He died in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1881.

The Honourable John Graham Haggart, late
Postmaster-General and Minister of Railways and
Canals, is a prominent citizen of Perth. He has
represented Lanark County in many Parliaments,
and is one of the veterans of the Macdonald regime
still in the House of Commons. In addition to
his energy and abilities as a politician and a man
of business, Mr. Haggart is a fine scholar and a
close student of classical literature.

Another prominent Perth family is that of
Balderson, one of the oldest and most respectable
in the locality. Lieut. -Col. Balderson, of Perth,
and his brother, Mr. James Balderson, barrister,
of Ottawa, are the present representatives of that
family.

1 80

CHAPTER XIII

THE LANARK SETTLEMENT

Should fate command me to the farthest verge
Of the green earth, to distant barbarous climes,
Rivers unknown to song ; where the first sun
Gilds Indian mountains, or his setting beam
Flames on the Atlantic isles, 'tis nought to me,
Since God is ever present, ever felt,
In the void waste, as in the city futt ;
And where He, vital, breathes, there must be joy.

DURING the years from 1816 to 1820, there
was, as pointed out in the last chapter,
much depression in the motherland owing to com-
mercial declension, and this caused a great deal of
privation among certain classes of people in the
south of Scotland whose means of living depended
largely upon production and manufactures.

This class of people in the Scottish counties of
Lanark and Renfrew had suffered a great deal
from this depression, so that many of them, despair-
ing of eking out an existence at home, began to
look abroad with that hope eternal which inspires
the human breast to dream of a new life in the
more promising regions of the Western world.

Having this object in view, a considerable num-
ber of families in the two counties, during 1820,

181

The Scotsman in Canada

banded themselves together into societies for the
purpose of petitioning the Government for the
power and means of emigrating to Upper Canada
and for grants of land in that province. The
Colonial Secretary of the day was Lord Bathurst,
and to him and his Majesty's other ministers the
petitions of these societies were presented by
several Members of Parliament, who were aware
of the distress existing in Glasgow and the sur-
rounding country, and of the difficulties affecting
the petitioners. During the following winter much
was done by philanthropists to relieve the suffer-
ing of the poor, and work was made by the
magistrates of Glasgow to relieve the existing
conditions.

Meanwhile the interests of the several emigrating
societies were advanced by Lord Archibald
Hamilton, Kirkman Findlay, Esq., and John Max-
well, Esq., Members of the Commons. The result
was that grants of land were procured in Upper
Canada for heads of families and individual
petitioners, whose names were entered on lists
sent into the Colonial Office. These grants were
given on the understanding that the expense of
their passage and sustenance as far as Quebec
would be guaranteed by the societies.

Fully a thousand heads of families or individuals
in the county of Lanark were, through local assist-
ance, able to accept this offer ; while a local sub-
scription in Glasgow enabled those in that vicinity
to do likewise. Each man received one pound,
which was to be paid to the owners of the vessels
as part payment of passage money. The ships
182

The Lanark Settlement

which carried out these people were the Prompt
and the Commerce.

Immediately after this an additional sum of £500
was raised in London to enable the remaining
families in the societies, who had no means to do
so, to emigrate. These were decided on by ballot,
as out of 149 persons, only one-tenth of the expense
could be raised. One hundred of these families
were sent out in the ship Broke. Some account
of the details of this emigration will be of value
in showing the great difficulties undergone, and
the privations endured in early emigration to
Canada from the Old Land by the sturdy Scottish
settlers.

On October 24, 1820, a meeting was held at
the Black Bull Inn, in Glasgow, at which Lord
Archibald Hamilton, Colonel Mure, Kirkman
Findlay, James Oswald, Robert Dalglish, William
McGavin, and Robert Brown were the gentlemen
present. The following list of societies, including
altogether 6,281 individuals, was laid before the
meeting : —

Cambuslang and Govan, 227 persons ; Kilbride,
40 ; Stonehouse, No. I, 70 ; Stonehouse, No. 2,
89; Strathaven, 70; Wishawton, 81 ; Hamilton,
295 ; Lesmahagow, 112 ; Glasgow Highland and
Lowland, 167 ; Brownfield and Anderston, 395 ;
Glasgow Wrights, 200 ; Glasgow Junior Wrights,
205 ; North Albion, 127 ; Barrowfield Road, 269 ;
Rutherglen Union, 175 ; Camlachie Transatlantic,
215; Rumford Streets, 115; Glasgow Loyal Agri-
cultural Union, 118 ; Stockwell Street, 162 ; St.
John's Parish, 202 ; Kirkman Finlay, 158 ;

183

The Scotsman in Canada

Lanarkshire, 158 ; Parkhead, 145 ; Glasgow
Union, 119; Paisley Townhead, 603; Cathcart,
100 ; Emigrants from Renfrewshire, not of
societies, claiming means to emigrate, 188 ;
Glasgow Canadian, 284 ; Abercrombie, 160 ;
Bridgetown, 284 ; Bridgetown Transatlantic, 225 ;
Mile-end, 225 ; Spring Bank, 139.

The agent appointed was Mr. Robert Lamond,
43, Ingram Street, Glasgow.

The Government aid to these Lanarkshire, Ren-
frewshire, and West of Scotland emigrants was
on the following terms : —

One hundred acres were assigned to every family
on arrival in Canada on condition of residence
and partial cultivation within a limited period.
The Government were to defray expense of sur-
veying and charge of removal of emigrants from
Quebec to the place of location. The emigrants
were to arrange means and pay passage to Quebec
at rate of four pounds a head ; that the settlers
should receive at place of settlement not less than
three pounds a head for every emigrant, and
another advance of three pounds a head to be made
six months after their arrival ; all to be advanced
to enable them to establish themselves in the
country.

The following ships sailed carrying the Canadian
emigrants to their destination in the New World.

The ship Broke sailed from Greenock, July,
1820, with 176 passengers, the greater portion of
whom belonged to the Abercrombie, Transatlantic,
and Bridgetown societies. They were all poor,
and unable to pay th]eir passage. They left in good
184

The Lanark Settlement

spirits. A letter to the Secretary is dated on board
at Greenock, July 8, 1820, thanking the Committee
for the care and accommodation, and for being
relieved from their miseries of years past. It is
signed on behalf of the others by John McLachlan
and Thomas Whitelaw.

The ship George Canning, registering 485 tons,
sailed from Greenock, April 14, 1821, carrying
490 individuals, men, women, and children ; and
arrived in Quebec on June ist, all well, there
being only one death, that of a boy, who fell over-
board. Three children were born on the voyage.

A letter dated Gourock Bay, April 14, 1821,
from the representatives of the heads of families on
board the George Canning, thanks the Committee
who had embarked them, and also the owners of
the vessel. The eleven representatives who signed
in the name of the societies on board the Canning
were : Wm. McEwen, John McPherson (probably
father of Kenneth of Lanark), Duncan Mclnnis,
James Braidwood, James Youll, jun., James Paul,
James Borrowman, Walter Black, John Kilpatrick,
Robt. McLaren, and James Aikenhead.

The ship The Earl of Buckinghamshire, Captain
Johnson, sailed from Greenock on Sunday morning,
April 29, 1821, with 607 passengers, old and young,
of whom 287 were from Lanarkshire. She arrived
at Quebec on June 1 5th, all well. There were
seven births on the voyage, and one death from
premature birth.

The Greenock Advertiser of May 2nd, describing
the sailing of the vessel, said : " The emigrants,
generally, have a most respectable appearance ;

185

The Scotsman in Canada

and amongst them are various artificers, such as
smiths, joiners, &c., whose labours in their respec-
tive occupations must prove peculiarly valuable
to the other settlers in their agricultural operations,
to which the whole purpose to devote themselves
under the encouragements held out by the Govern-
ment, whose bounty, we are well persuaded, has
in few instances been more judiciously bestowed."

The ship Commerce, Captain Coverdale, sailed
from Greenock, May 1 1, 1821, with 422 individuals.
She arrived at Quebec, all well, on June 2Oth. Two
children and one woman died on board. There
were no births.

The ship David, Captain Gemmell, sailed from
Greenock on May I9th, carrying out 364 indivi-
duals. She was sent off in a fair wind under favour-
able circumstances, all on board in good spirits.
The passengers were chiefly from the counties of
Lanark, Dunbarton, Stirling, Clackmannan, and
Linlithgow. A letter to the Secretary of the Com-
mittee on Emigration, Mr. Robert Lamond, was
dated on board the ship David at Greenock,
May 19, 1821.

It was written on behalf of the several societies,
and thanked the Government for the several grants
and other advantages conferred upon the members
going to Canada, and also thanked the Emigration
Committee for their exertions on their behalf,
among other things for the many copies of the
Bible received from the British and Foreign Bible
Society. The letter was signed by five representa-
tives : Samuel Stevenson, John Blair, David Young,
George Bremner, and Archibald Paterson.
1 86

The Lanark Settlement

The comfort of the passengers in these ships was
well provided for by the Committee. The ships
themselves were thoroughly inspected, and pro-
nounced sound and staunch, and in every way fitted
for conveyance of emigrants to Canada, and the
ship's officers and men were also certified to be
sober and expert seamen, and well acquainted with
the navigation of the Gulf of the St. Lawrence,
that most dreaded part of the voyage to Canada.

The emigrants were exhorted in the new land
to " call to mind the days of old, the precept and
example so beautifully exemplified in Scotia's
cottages, where the daily worship of God might
have been heard in every family ; . . . see," the
advice ran, "that you do likewise ; and with the
blessing of God on your exertions, the difficulties
which may bear hard upon you for a little time,
will gradually pass away like a cloud."

The principal settlement in Upper Canada, which :
was the destination of these emigrants, was the
Lanark settlement. It was described in 1820 by1
Captain W. Marshall, the superintendent of the
settlement, as consisting of three townships each
ten miles square, situated immediately behind the
Perth settlement, and named respectively Dal-
housie, Lanark, and Ramsay. These three town-
ships were named respectively after the Governor-
General, Lord Dalhousie, his family name Ramsay,
and Lanark, the county in Scotland from whence the
settlers had come. The village of Lanark, fourteen
miles from Perth, contained a Government store
and dwelling-house, three stores, and about a dozen
other houses. It was fifty miles from Brockville

187

The Scotsman in Canada

on the St. Lawrence, and sixty-five from Kingston.
The land was described by a settler as hilly and
well watered.

There were in all forty different Scottish societies,
engaged in this settlement, which actually sent out
settlers. According to the original receipt of instal-
ments of loans authorised by Earl Bathurst, and
paid by Colonel William Marshall, the agent, there
were six hundred and five heads of families who as
settlers received these loans in three instalments,
which were paid during 1820, 1821, and 1822.
Each Preses, who represented the members of a
society, had to sign his name and to witness each
member sign his. The names of the Representa-
tives, or Preses, are as follows : —

Kirkman Finlay Society, James Donaldson.

Parkhead Emigration, William Wallace.

St. John's Parish, Robert Grant.

Rutherglen Union, Alexander Wark.

North Albion, John Miller.

Camlachie, William Bryce.

Spring Bank, Hugh and Robert Campbell and Robert Ruthven.

Balfron, John Blair.

Go van, Andrew Hill.

Milton, Dumbartonshire, Archibald Paterson.

Brownfield and Anderston, Thomas Craig.

Bridgetown Transatlantic, James Braidwood ; William Walker

and James Murray.
Wishawton, Walter Gordon.
Cambuslang, John McPherson.
Glasgow Union, James Paul.
Glasgow Trongate, John Gemmill.
Glasgow Wright, Robert McLaren.
Glasgow Wright, Junior, Duncan Mclnnis.
Glasgow Emigration, Duncan McPherson.
188

The Lanark Settlement

Glasgow Canadian, Walter Black.

Glasgow Loyal Agricultural, Wm. McEwen.

Bridgetown Canadian, John Cumming and William Stirling.

Cathcart, William McLellan.

Transatlantic, Daniel McFee.

Hopetown Bathgate, David Young.

Anderston and Ruglen, James Hood.

Hamilton, Robert Chalmers.

Abercrombie Friendly, Wm. Gordon.

Abercrombie, John Young.

Abercrombie Street, James Horn.

Abercrombie Society, James Youll, junior.

Alloa, Samuel Stevenson.

Strathaven and Kilbride, James Aikenhead.

Muslin Street, Peter McLaren.

Lesmahagow, Thos. Scott and James Brown.

Barrowfield Road, James Barrowman.

Deauston, George Bremner, senior.

Paisley Townhead, Daniel Richie.

Lanarkshire Society, James Gilmour.

Different Societies, David Freeland.

Lord Dalhousie, Governor-General, in a letter to
the Duke of Hamilton, dated Quebec, January 23,
1821, says that he has received during the past
summer nearly 1,200 emigrants from Lanarkshire,
and has placed them in a special district named
after their old home shire, Lanark. He says that
they are likely to prosper as they are willing and
have a good example of prosperity around them.
He adds that one of the earliest wants, aidf to build
a church and schoolhouse, he cannot grant, but
hopes that the Duke, or Lord Archibald Hamilton,
may be able to raise £200 or £300 in Lanarkshire
for the purpose. The money asked for was, as a
result, raised and forwarded.

CHAPTER XIV

THE MACNAB SETTLEMENT

He was a chief of high renown,

Of ancient line was he : —
But he had to leave his ain, and dree

His weird far o'er the sea.

ONE of the most interesting and instructive
episodes in the history of Scottish settle-
ments in Canada is that of the founding of the
township of MacNab by the last laird or chief
of that Ilk.

This settlement, like that of Col. Talbot, was
the result of the ambition, effort, and ideal of
one man, and has about it, moreover, a suggestion
of what some have called the feudal system of
founding society in the New World. This aspect
has been somewhat exaggerated by writers who
had but a superficial idea of the real facts con-
cerning the matter. It is true that MacNab's effort
failed, so far as his ambition aimed. But, in spite
of the amount of abuse and scorn heaped upon
the founder of this settlement, the greater portion
of the settlers were the gainers as the result of
what some would call their chief's absurd attempt
190

The MacNdb Settlement

to transplant a Celtic feudal community into the
New World. The only real loser and sufferer was
the poor old chief himself, 'who, owing to his own
impracticability and the ingratitude and disloyalty
of his settlers, failed to make any profit out of ?
his years of struggle to colonise a portion of Upper
Canada. It seems that, owing to some strong
prejudice, it is impossible for the average man to
see anything but evil and tyranny in the attempts
at colonisation made by such men as Talbot, Mac- j
donald of Glenaladale, and MacNab. The whole j
idea is scouted as dangerous to what is called the
democratic idea. The cry of landlordism and
feudalism is raised by people who have been
wrongly educated to believe that such men as
George Washington and Benjamin Franklin had
freed the world from such Old World serfdoms
as these colonisations would suggest. So cruelly
has the truth been hidden from the masses on this
continent and in Britain that it is only now, after
a century and a quarter of false teaching, that
the public are being informed of what a few have
always known, that Benjamin Franklin was the
engineer of a similar scheme of colonisation, only
on a far larger scale ; and that he and a few
other colonists approached the British Government
shortly before the Revolution with the modest
request for about 2,500,000 acres of land west
of Virginia, of which they were to be masters by
charter, to dispose of, settle, and rule as they
thought fit. Now that a century has gone by
since, and men are discovering that the idols of

191

The Scotsman in Canada

the democracy are not as white as they have been
painted, and that the people on the other side of
the struggle were not all wrong in their endeavours
to be loyal to a strong and lonig-tried social and
political system and tradition, it may be that they
may find that even men like Talbot and MacNab
were not all evil and absurd in their ideals, though
they have been somewhat misunderstood and mis-
judged by persons whose mere prejudice was
stronger than their knowledge of human social
conditions. The press and the average political
orator had much to do in falsely educating the
people into an exaggerated idea of what was
wrongly called the rights of man, with an utter
f orgetfulness or an unprincipled ignoring of his
responsibilities to others. It was this false con-
ception—namely, that the land belonged essentially
to the people— which incited thousands in the States
at the Revolution, and in Canada afterward, to
strive to repudiate community contracts made
under sacred obligations.

Though Mr. Fraser, the clever chronicler of the
MacNab settlement, and others holding the same
popular views, see nothing but oppression and
tyranny on the part of the chief, and nothing but
heroism and love of liberty and unmerited suffering
on the part of the people involved, yet, in spite of
this, the very bare account of MacNab 's settlement
which they give shows that their attitude is an
unjust and partial one.

It is not intended here to palliate or ignore any
of the failings of this sturdy Celtic chief ; but it
192

The MacNab Settlement

is not only wrong, but absurd, to see no wrong-
doing or failure of contract on the side of any
of the settlers.

The plain truth of the whole affair is as follows :
MacNab, like many another Scottish gentleman
at that day, had been ruined partly as the result
of his own fault and partly owing to the times.,
He hoped to retrieve his fortunes in Canada, and,
coming out, formed a scheme of colonisation similar
to those of Talbot and Bishop Macdonell, the latter
of whom encouraged him strongly to attempt the
undertaking. Having first approached the Pro-
vincial Government of the day, they looked favour-
ably on his offer to colonise a portion of the then
desolate, forest-clad regions of the Upper Ottawa.
They offered him a township — no great tract in
those days, where the settlements were sparse,
and land so far from markets and uncleared was
virtually worth nothing. The next proceeding was
to appeal to his brother-in-law, Dr. Hamilton, in
Scotland to send out settlers who would be willing
to be assisted to settle on the land on the chief's
terms. While his detractors have accused MacNab
of duplicity and deceit toward the settlers and
the Government, they fail to remember that these
people were virtually conveyed from Scotland to
Canada and aided to settle by MacNab ; that they
had not any means of their own ; and that it was
not reasonable that any man in his senses would
undertake to perform all this for such settlers and
expect no return. Thousands of people have since
settled in Ontario on Government lands, and, to

VOL I. N 193

The Scotsman in Canada

enable them to do so, have placed far heavier
liens on their property in mortgages than did Mac-
Nab's settlers to their chief. It is true that
MacNab was often a hard master ; but the fact
that the people came under his community rule as
they did proves that they did not altogether resent
this attitude on the part of their chief. They, on
their part, were not altogether an ideal people.

The Western Scottish Celt was not a purely
self-reliant person. He had for centuries de-
pended upon his superiors to act for and to pro-
tect him, and these settlers would never have seen
Canada at all had it depended on their own means
and initiative.

In 1823 MacNab left Scotland, where his estates
were deeply involved owing to the Jacobite move-
ment and his own extravagance. He was the last
of one of the oldest families in Scotland, and was
first cousin of Buchanan, or Hamilton, of Arnproir,
head of another old family of royal descent.
MacNab, when he arrived in Canada, was well
received by the gentry of Montreal ; but he was
not to be turned from his heart's project. He
proceeded to Glengarry, where he was for some
days the guest of Bishop Macdonell. Then, visiting
Toronto, he was offered, and accepted, his town-
ship of 81,000 acres, which had been surveyed by
P. L. Sherwood. This tract of land adjoined the
township of Fitzroy. MacNab gave to the district
his own name, and agreed to the terms offered by
the Government, dated November 5, 1823, which
were as follows : ' That the township be set apart
194

The MacNab Settlement

and placed under MacNab's direction for eighteen
months as an experiment ; that patents be issued
to settlers on certificate from MacNab that the
settling duties are well performed, and that his
claims are arranged and settled, or that patents
do issue to the petitioner in trust for any number
of settlers ; that the conditions between MacNab
and each settler be fully explained in detail ; that
a duplicate of the agreement be lodged with the
Government ; that MacNab may assign not less
than one hundred acres to each family, or male of
twenty -one years of age, on taking the oath of
allegiance ; that a grant of twelve hundred acres
be assigned to MacNab, to be increased to the
quantity formerly given to a field officer on his
completing the settlement of the township ; that
the old settlers pay the interest on the money
laid out for their use by MacNab, either in money
or produce at the option of the settler ; and that
the settler have liberty to pay both principal and
interest at any time during the first seven year5.

MacNab at first built a large log-house on his
place as a headquarters of operation, and which
he named Kennel Lodge, after his ancestral place
in Scotland. Then he wrote to his brother-in-law
to send out settlers. His own letter to Hamilton
speaks for itself, and shows his honesty of purpose
in settling the township. It is dated August 10,
1824. He states that he has already informed
Hamilton of his purpose and progress. He now
says that he is ready for the proposed settlers,
that he desires twenty families at first ; they are

195

The Scotsman in Canada

to be provided with three months' provisions arid
passage tickets. But before receiving such, each
head of a family is to sign a bond of agreement.
Hamilton is to see to the embarkation at Greenock,
and MacNab promises to meet them at Montreal
and see each one located on the land, and to pro-
vide for their transport to their destination. This
was no slight task for these two men to perform.
One was to procure the emigrants who might be
willing to venture, arrange for their leaving their
places, get them and their families to Greenock
on the Clyde, arrange for their passage, and pro-
vide food, passage and other supplies ; while
MacNab's part was to meet the emigrants at
Montreal and keep them there and provide their
passage, and provide for them until they could
procure homes in the new settlement, which was in
a remote place up the Ottawa. MacNab had also
to pay;for the surveying of their lands.

The bond signed by the settlers bound each
man to the amount of £36 for himself, £30 for a
wife, and £16 for every child, with interest in
money or produce. On April 19, 1825, the settlers
sailed from the Port of Greenock in the ship
Niagara, and arrived in Montreal on the 2 7th of
May following. Here they were met by MacNab
and his attendants, and before the end of June
they had reached the township and were put up
at Kennel Lodge, or in camps in the vicinity.

The following list of first settlers is given in
Mr. Eraser's book as having signed in the pre-
ceding January the bond which had been especially
196

The MacNab Settlement

prepared by the Attorney-General of Upper
Canada : James Carmichael ; Donald Fisher ;
Peter Campbell ; Peter Drummond ; James
Robertson ; Alexander MacNab ; James McFar-
lane ; Duncan Campbell ; James McDonald ;
Donald McNaughton ; John McDermid ; John
Mclntyre ; Peter Mclntyre ; Donald Mclntyre ;
James McLaren ; Peter McMillan ; James Storie ;
James McFarlane ; Alexander Miller ; Malcolm
McLaren ; and Colin McCaul.

In spite of the condemnation of MacNab, the
whole proceeding on his part seems to have been
a particularly hazardous one. He had gone to all
the expense referred to, besides providing each
settler with three months' provisions after leaving
Greenock ; and there was little chance of his
ever getting any compensation. In the end he
was virtually ruined. He had undertaken an
impossible task to establish a community in
the New World wherein he would be the
leader and intermediary between them and the
Government .

He was accused of having pretended to settlers
that he owned the township. But as Judge Jones,
who presided at the trial for libel brought by
MacNab against Mr. Hincks, of the Examiner,
remarked : " The chief gave the settlers location
tickets, in which he promised to procure them
patents from the Crown, which proved that he
never claimed the township at his own property."
The reply to this was that poor ignorant emigrants
such as these were could not know the difference

197

The Scotsman in Canada

between a patent and a title-deed. Such a state-
ment is a sad reflection on the class of settlers,
and does not hold good, as there were persons in
the icommunity, one of them a schoolmaster, who
from the first were hostile to the chief, who could
read and did know better. No doubt MacNab
naturally felt that he had a certain power in the
township under the superintendency granted him
by the Government. It must be remembered that
he felt a responsibility to the whole community,
even if he exercised it in the feudal manner.

The great mistake was his attempting such a
scheme at all. He might have known that so soon
as the settlers who came out under his guidance
and at his expense came into contact with others
who had made no such agreement, that dissatisfac-
tion would ensue ; and, as is ever the case, the
settlers would be persuaded that they were justified
in repudiating all obligations. He, on his part,
was no doubt exacting and arbitrary, and played
the laird overmuch in a community which fancied
that Jock was as good as his master. Then there
were the demagogues and the reformers, who were
only too glad to show up the idiosyncrasies of
such a conservative as the exacting old chief prob-
ably was ; who would exaggerate all his demands
into tyrannies, and proclaim his rights as wrongs
against the people. In this world there are always
the two sides to a question, and the historian
should strive to do justice to both sides.

The real difficulty in MacNab's case was that
only the first settlers were brought out to the
198

The MacNab Settlement

country by him, and that the more recent settlers
came in under different terms. In all cases, how-
ever, the laird lacked judgment in exacting terms
which were never carried out, and only hurt his
reputation and prevented his finally recovering
what was his own by right. In 1830 MacNa;b
met a band of emigrants in Montreal, and per-
suaded them to become settlers in his township.
They were from Isla, in the Campbell country,
and were MacNabs, Camerons, Campbells,
McKays, and McNevins. These he agreed to settle
and to procure their patents, but demanded a
feudal quit -rent — for him and his heirs as Chief of
MacNab for ever — of three barrels of flour, or their
equivalent in Indian corn or oats, for every two
hundred acres.

We are not told what expense MacNab went to
in getting them from Montreal or in settling these
peoples ; but they accepted these terms, which
were never fulfilled. It is not fair to be too hard
on the old laird. He was no more peculiar than
his settlers, who at first were willing to be assisted
and promise anything, which afterwards they did
not perform. The whole miserable succession of
after -troubles was but a translation into the New
(World of what has often been repeated in the
Old. It meant the relations existing between a
Highland chief and his people or dependants, and
there were faults on both sides.

In 1834 a large party of Stewarts, Fergusons,
Robertsons, McLachlans, and Duffs arrived from
Blair Athol, in Scotland, and settled in the town-

199

The Scotsman in Canada

ship, accepting the same terms as the last
emigrants, with the addition that all the pine
timber was reserved for the Arnprior Mills. We
are told that these people accepted these terms
without a murmur, because " all this time they
believed that the land was MacNab's own
property.'* And yet we are told that the location
tickets were the same as those of others, which
promised that MacNab would procure their patents
from the Crown.

It seems that there was something wrong on
both sides ; and while MacNab was no doubt im-
provident, impractical, and somewhat of a tyrant,
who, by heredity, thought his will the only law,
yet what sort of people were these who would go
blindly into such a bargain as we are told they
made during several years? There is a strong
suspicion of either crass stupidity on their part
or else a feeling that they could afterwards do
what many of them certainly did, namely, avoid
or ignore the obligation made, and thus, in their
turn, play the part of dishonour. No one wants to
palliate any attempt to rob or oppress the poor of
any land or clime, but the mere abuse of so-called
landlords in the Old Land, and of colonists on a
large scale in the New World, has gone too far,
and too many writers have painted the picture
of pretended or fancied oppression in far too
glaring colours. Even a man like MacNab de-
serves the justice due to him for his well-meaning,
if impractical and narrow, attempt at providing
a home for his peasant countrymen in the wilds
of the New World.
200

CHAPTER XV

GALT'S SETTLEMENT AT GUELPH

Where are ye groin', my canny, canny, Scot,

Far o'er the salt, salt sea?
Fm groin' to fare wi' honest Johnnie Gait

And the Canada Companie.

THE foundation of the city of Guelph and the
settlement of the surrounding country by
John Gait, the Scottish novelist, is an interesting
and important chapter in the annals of Scottish
settlements in Canada.

After the war of 1812 Upper Canada became
better known in the Old Land as a country of
promise and possible prosperity. The fine struggle
made by the loyal settlers side by side with the
Regulars to keep the country under the British
flag had gained respect for the province in Britain ;
and the returning officers of the regiments proved
good emigration agents in the interest of the young
country.

Later, in 1822-23, the debates in the Imperial
Parliament on the subject of the proposed Union
of Upper and Lower Canada, and the vote of

201

The Scotsman in Canada

£100,000 for the payment of losses sustained by
citizens of Upper Canada in the late war, turned
the tide of emigration in that direction.

At this period the founding of the Canada Com-
pany by John Gait was brought about ; and in
this connection he had seriously considered the
emigration on a large scale of Scottish and English
settlers to the western part of Canada.

Of a keen, shrewd, practical nature, and well
known as a writer and as a student of the
people of his own country, Gait was able to
secure the confidence of the Government and
the public, and a favourable consideration of his
schemes .

Consulted by Mr. Robertson, Chancellor of the
Exchequer, on Canadian affairs and Upper
Canada's liabilities, Gait established the Canada
Company, and became its secretary.

He was then appointed, with Sir John Harvey,
Col. Cockburn, and Messrs. McGillivray and
Davidson — four other Scots — a Commissioner of
the Government for the valuation of Upper
Canada.

Meanwhile he had consulted a noted Scotsman,
Bishop Macdonell, of Glengarry, Upper Canada ;
and when the question of the Clergy Reserves
had to be settled it was left to arbitration between
him and another noted Scotsman in Upper Canada,
the Honourable and Rev. John Strachan, then
Archdeacon of York.

He early turned his attention to the new lands
in the western peninsula, where Gait, named after
202

Golfs Settlement at Guelph

him by his friend Col. Dickson, was already a
flourishing village. Near here was the noted town-
ship of Dumfries, a well-known Scottish centre
of settlement.

On April 23, 1827, Gait started out into the
virgin forest, some miles north of the village of
Gait, for the purpose of founding what was after-
wards known as the town, then later the city of
Guelph, which he named after the Royal Family.
With him on this memorable occasion were
other Scotsmen — Dr. Dunlop, a noted character
Western Ontario ; Charles Pryor ; John

in

McDonald, land surveyor, afterwards Sheriff of
Huron County ; George Corbett, since of Owen
Sound ; and James McKenzie, who finally settled
in Guelph.

The ceremony consisted in the felling, in a
solemn manner, of a large maple -tree, each man,
commencing with Gait, cutting a few strokes. We
are told that the tree was duly cut down, an im-
pressive silence following the thundering jar of
the fallen forest monarch ; while Gait says : " The
silence of the woods that echoed to the sound
was as the sigh of the solemn genius of the
wilderness departing for ever."

Then the humorous Dr. Dunlop produced a flask
of whisky and " we drank prosperity to the city
of Guelph.'1

Among the earlier settlers were the following
of Scottish origin : Thomas Stewart, shoemaker ;
Wm. Gibbs, baker ; Jas. Anderson, carpenter.
Others arriving in 1827, with their place of settle-

203

The Scotsman in Canada

trient, are found in the books of the Canada
Company as follows : —

Lot i Jos. D. Oliver. Lot 19 Andrew McVean.

2 Allan McDonell. 20 Wm. Elliot.

6 Aaron Anderson. 23 Wm. Reid.

12 Jas. Thompson. 24 Jas. Smith.

13 Jas. McLevy. 27 Dobbin.

14 Robt. McLevy. 42 Jas. Corbett.

15 David Gilkison. 71 Chas. Armstrong.

Another party of emigrants arrived later in the
summer of that year direct from Scotland, and,
being for the most part farmers, they founded
what was afterwards known as the Scotch Block
on the Elora Road.

In Burrows' " Annals of Guelph " the names of
the most of these good Scottish settlers are given.
They were : Alex. McTavish ; Donald Gillis ;
Alex. Reid ; McFie ; Peter Buchart ; Angus
Campbell ; Halliday ; Joseph McDonald ; Capt.
McDonald, uncle of a Lieut. -Governor of Ontario ;
Jas. Stirton ; Jos. McQuillan ; Wm. Patterson ;
Rose ; McCrae ; John Dean ; Jas. Mays ; Thos.
Knowles ; the Kennedys, three families.

Many of these moved elsewhere afterwards ; the
Bucharts, I think, going north to Owen Sound.
Those who stayed became well-to-do citizens of
the community.

A third party came to the locality of Guelph

about the same time and settled in what was called

the Paisley Block, from the city of that name in

Scotland. Prominent among these were : John

204

I

Golfs Settlement at Guelph

Inglis ; Robert Laidlaw ; J. McCorkindale ; Drew ;
Campbell ; Alexander ; Gideon Hood ; Wm. Hood ;
Thos. Hood ; Boyd ; McKenzie ; John Spiers ;
Thos. Jackson ; John Jackson ; Jos. Jackson ;
Wm. Jackson ; and George Jackson.

These people all had families ; and many of
them became prominent and wealthy members of
the community and the province.

The historian gives John as the name of the
Laidlaw whose name is second on the list, but
his real name was Robert. He was grandfather
of Mr. Robert Laidlaw, the present able attache
of the Dominion Archives, the discoverer of many
valuable collections of historical documents, and
formerly a well-known journalist.

Gait took a deep interest in the educational
facilities of the young community, and insured half
the price of the building lots as an endowment
and maintenance of a school.

During the summer of 1828 Mr. Pryor was
sent out by Mr. Gait to survey the Huron tract
and lay out the plot of the proposed town of
Goderich.

In September Mr. Buchanan, British Consul of
New York, came to Guelph and inspected the
affairs of the Company, there being a conspiracy
to wreck it. The result of his inspection was
that he wrote to England praising Mr. Gait's
management. Before leaving Canada Gait paid
a visit to the sister settlement of Goderich.

On his leaving Guelph an expression of regret,
signed by 144 heads of families, expressed the

205

The Scotsman in Canada

obligation he had conferred upon the settlers whom
he had brought into the country.

He left the country regretted by all in the
community ; for through the busy, indefatigable
energy of this wonderful Scotsman a large portion
of what is now the Province of Ontario was opened
up and settled by a number of sturdy, self-reliant
communities, the most of whose citizens were
emigrants from that glorious land of Wallace,
Bruce, Robert Burns, and Walter Scott, his one-
time friend. For his able management of the
Canada Company alone the province owes Gait's
memory a debt of gratitude which can never be
repaid. Is there a statue to this remarkable man
in Guelph or Goderich or Gait? If not, there
should be one erected in the public square of
each of those places.

Certainly Guelph and Goderich should pay some
lasting tribute to the memory of that doughty
Scottish genius who laid their first foundations.

Far over the wave, in the old maritime city
of Greenock, from whose quays so many vessels
have sailed bearing Scottish adventurers to
Canadian shores, this fine writer and father of
Western Ontario communities sleeps in the tomb
of his fathers.

206

CHAPTER XVI

THE TALBOT AND MIDDLESEX SETTLE-

MENTS

What a farce, Henrico, is this public iwll
We hear so much about, but never see : —
Who lies to the mob, may ever use them ill
Where honest Jack could never set them free.

Old Play.

THE TALBOT SETTLEMENT

ONE of the most remarkable chapters in the
history of Canadian pioneer life is that of the
Talbot settlement, in what is now the county of
Elgin in Ontario.

The history of this important undertaking, with
that of the eccentric and remarkable undertaker
is related in a very able and exhaustive contribu-
tion to the Royal Society of Canada by Dr. Coyne,
F.R.S.C., of St. Thomas, whose grandfather was
a prominent member of the early Talbot settle-
ment.

The Honourable Thomas Talbot, of Port Talbot,

207

The Scotsman in Canada

on the shores of Lake Erie, and the founder through
long years of toil and expense of one of the most
successful Upper Canada settlements, remains to-
day as one of the most picturesque and interesting
personalities in the history of our country. About
the lives of few men has there gathered so much
of the romantic and the mysterious as has become
attached to his. When his real story is known,
the elements of tragedy lie deep beneath the seem-
ingly strange events of his life and his sudden
self-banishment from the court and camp of the
Old World to the rough hardships of a pioneer
condition in the New.

As regards the man himself and his evident
life -tragedy, those who care to study the subject
will find all the details in the ably-collected memoirs
of Dr. Coyne, with its long list of documents bear-
ing on the subject. Let it suffice here to say that
Col. Thomas Talbot, the intimate friend of the
Duke of Cumberland and Arthur Wellesley, after-
ward Duke of Wellington, suddenly sold his com-
mission in the army in 1800, and came out to
Upper Canada, where he got a grant of 5,000
acres of land, with the avowed object of settling
that part of the province with emigrants from the
Old Land. He had been in Upper Canada some
years before as aide-de-camp to Simcoe, and his
settlement included a large area along the northern
shore of Lake Erie.

Because of his aristocratic connections, his
prominence in British society, and for other reasons,
Talbot has by some been compared with MacNab,
208

The Talbot and Middlesex Settlements

whose settlement has already been dealt with. In
some few superficial aspects there is a similarity
in their object, but there the comparison ceases.
Both, it is true, were regarded as eccentric, but
whereas MacNab has been shown to be impractical
in his ideals and methods, the opposite is true of
Talbot. Dr. Coyne, who is an impartial and not
by any means a too lenient student of this remark-
able man, says of Talbot : " But aristocrat as he
was, and with all his eccentricities, there was a
practical side to Talbot's character, and he looked
forward as well as backward. His importance as
one of the makers of Canada is based upon the
plan of settlement which he formed, or rather
adopted, and which he continued to carry out with
characteristic determination for nearly half a cen-
tury." Dr. Coyne gives a proper estimate of
Talbot's place in Canadian history in the following
summary of his accomplishment as a father of
Canadian pioneer settlement : " As founder of the
Talbot settlement, he attached his name to one
of the richest and most prosperous agricultural
regions in the world, extending from Long Point
to the Detroit River. The Talbot Road is the
longest, and was for many years the best, as it
still is one of the best, in the province. The pro-
perty of the Talbot settlers was systematically and
extensively advertised. The Government made use
of it for the purpose of attracting immigrants to
all parts of the province. Throughout Upper
Canada the settlement was held up as a model for
imitation."
VOL I. O 209

The Scotsman in Canada

Talbot's scheme of settlement, so far as the
Scottish settler was concerned, included especially
the townships of Dunwich, Aldborough, South Dor-
chester, and North Yarmouth, which he settled
largely with Argyllshire Highlanders. Their lan-
guage was principally Gaelic, and many of them
had emigrated as a consequence of proclamations
offering grants of from one hundred to two hundred
acres to each settler. The settlement, which was
started in 1803, was for many years stayed by
the war of 1812-14 ; an<^ these pioneers suffered
much from invaders from the south across the lake.
When the war was closed in 1816, a few Scottish
and Ulster Scottish settlers arrived from the United
States and settled in Dunwich and Aldborough. In
the same year some families of the Selkirk settle-
ment of Kildonan on the Red River, who had
removed into Upper Canada, among them the
McBeth family, came in and settled/ These were
followed about 1819 by a large influx of Argyll-
shire Highland emigrants who took up land in
Aldborough. These settlers formed a very desir-
able addition to the population, being of a superior
class. So many came from Argyllshire, that when
the Marquess of Lome, as Governor-General,
visited St. Thomas in 1881, the descendants of
these early settlers gathered in thousands and pre-
sented him with an address. A printed copy of this
address, which was composed by the Rev. Dr.
McNish, a noted Gaelic scholar and a native of
Argyll, is in the Library of Parliament at Ottawa.
It is signed by hundreds, including many Camp-
210

The Talbot and Middlesex Settlements

bells. The Marquess, in his reply, informed his
audience that he had never seen, even in Argyll-
shire itself, so many Argyllshire people present
at one time.

The following is a list of persons of Scottish
extraction who were settled by Col. Talbot in the
townships of Dunwich and Aldborough, dated
March 20, 1820 : —

William Bannerman ; George Bannerman ;
James Black ; Neil Blue ; Arhd. Blue ; Duncan
Brown ; Robert Blue ; John Brodie ; Alex. Brodie ;
Alex. Baxter ; George Brodie ; Hugh Black ; Henry
Coyne ; Donald Currie ; John Currie ; John Clark ;
Wm. Clark ; Alex. Cameron ; Donald Campbell
(i) ; Donald Campbell (2) ; Archd. Campbell

(1) ; Donald Campbell (3) ; Archd. Campbell

(2) ; Dougald Campbell (i) ; John Campbell (i) ;
John Campbell (2) ; Dougald Campbell (2) ;
Duncan Campbell ; James Campbell ; Archd.
Campbell (3) ; Archd. Coswell ; Neil Camp-
bell ; John Campbell ; Alex. Campbell ; Angus
Campbell ; Archd. Campbell (4) ; Donald
Campbell (4) ; John Campbell (4) ; Donald
Cameron ; Donald Campbell (5) ; Thos.
Dewar ; John Douglas ; James, George, Thos.
and John Dixon ; Thos. Dewar (2) ; Alexd.
Dewar ; Malcolm Downie ; Colin Ferguson ; John
Ferguson ; Duncan Ferguson (i) ; Alex. Forbes ;
Mungo Forbes ; James Ferguson ; Donald Fer-
guson ; Angus Gunn ; Donald Gunn ; George
Gunn ; Alex. Gunn ; John Gibson ; Jas. Gibson
(i) ; James Gibson (2) ; Hugh Graham ; David

211

The Scotsman in Canada

Neil
Robt.

Gibson ; Wm. Gibson ; Robt. Gibb ; George s
John Gillies (i) ; Archd. Gillies; Col
John Gillies (2) ; Wm. Gunn ; Angus Gray John
Gillies (3) ; John Gillies (4 ; Alex. Gray , John
Gray ; Duncan Gillies ; Neil Galtaaith
Haggard ; Alex. Haggard ; John Kerr ;
Kerr; John Livingston ; John Lertch i) ; Dun-
fan liitd. ; Colin Leitch ; Malcolm ; Leitch ; John
Leitch (2) ; Neil Leitch ; Donald Mclntyre ; John
McPherson; Duncan McLelland ; Robt. McDer-
mand Wm. McDermand ; Abr. Mclntyre ; James
McKay; John McCallum (i) ; John McCallum
72) John Matheson ; John McLyman ; Hugh
McKean ; Carson McCurdy ; James McLean ;
Neil McPhail; Alex. McNabb; Duncan McNabb;

Daniel McKinley ; John McLean ; Peter McKmley
(!) ; John McDugald (i) ; Duncan McFarland
DonJ McGregor ; Archd. Mclntyre (i) ; Angus
Mclntyre (i) ; Findlay McDermod ; Donald Mcln-
tvre (2) ; Donald McNaughton ; Allan McDonald ,
Angus McKay ; Gregor McGregor ; John Menzie ;
Laughlan McDugald; Donald McEwen; Ned
McLean ; Duncan McLean ; Duncan McKinley ,
James McKinley; Peter McKellar (i) ; Arch.
McLean ; Donald McLean (i) ; John Mclntyre : ;
Malcolm Mclntyre ; Duncan Mclntyre (i) ; Donald
McDermod; Malcolm McNaughton ; Duncan
McCallum ; Duncan McCall ; Thos. McCall (i) ;
Samuel McCall ; Duncan McKillop ; Archd.
McKillop ; Donald McKillop ; Donald McAlpme ;
Malcolm McAlpine ; Donald McGregor ; Angus
Mclntyre (2) ; Donald Mclntyre (3) ; John

212

The Talbot and Middlesex Settlements

McTavish ; John Munro ; Colin Munro ; Archd.
Munro (i) ; George Munro ; John McKellar (i) ;
Peter McKellar (2) ; Neil Munro ; Archd. Munro ;
Alex. Mclntyre ; Dugald Mclntyre ; Duncan
Mclntyre (2) ; Dugald McLarty ; Donald McPha-
drain ; Neil McPhadrain ; Alex. Munro ; Donald
McArthur ; John McKellar (2) ; Archd. McKellar ;
Dougald McKellar ; Archd. Mclntyre (2) ; Dun-
can McCallum (2) ; John McLean ; Donald Mcln-
tyre (4) ; Alex. McPhail ; Archd. McTavish ; John
McCachna ; Donald McCugan ; Donald McKean
(2) ; John McDougald (2) ; Archd. McArthur ;
John McArthur ; Duncan Patterson (i) ; Archd.
Patterson (i) ; Donald Patterson (i) ; James
Paul ; Donald Patterson (2) ; Archd. Patterson
(2) ; John Patterson ; Duncan Patterson (2) ; Hugh
Ruthven ; Colin Ruthven ; James Ruthven ; Mal-
colm Robertson ; Wm. Stewart ; Duncan Stewart ;
Robt. Shaw ; Donald Sutherland ; George Suther-
land ; Alexander Sutherland ; John St. Clair ;
Daniel St. Clair ; John Smith ; David Full ; Neil
Walker ; Angus Walker ; Donald Walker.

What is especially remarkable in this list is the
number of emigrants bearing the same name.
There are four Archibald Campbells and the same
number of Donald Mclntyres, and in the list they
are each known by their special number. The
descendants of these 207 heads of families number
thousands in all parts of Canada who are among
our most prominent citizens.

213

The Scotsman in Canada

II
THE MIDDLESEX SCOTTISH;. SETTLEMENTS

The county of Middlesex was largely settled by
Scottish immigrants, and many of the townships,
such as McGillivray and Lobo, bear witness to
this in their names.

The first ministers of the Church of Scotland
in Middlesex were Alexander Ross and Donald
McKenzie, who both took the oath of allegiance
in 1832. Other early Presbyterian clergy were
John Scott ; William Proudfopt ; ,W. McKellican,
1833 ; Alexander McKenzie, 1837 ; Daniel Allen,
1838 ; Donald McKellar, of Lobo, 1839 ; Duncan
McMillan; Williams, 1839; Lachlan McPherson,
Ekfrid, 1846 ; and William R. Sutherland, Ekfrid,
1848.

In the history of Middlesex there is given the
following lists of Scottish marriages, by Presby-
terian ministers. Twenty-four marriages, from
August 6, 1833, to April 29, 1835 ; twenty-three
from May 7, 1835, to Nov. 20, 1836; and nine
from February 17, 1837, to December 8th of same
year ; all recorded by the Rev. Wm. Proudfoot of
the Associate Secession Church.

In 1835 seven marriages are recorded by the
Rev. James Skinner, of the United Secession
Church; and in 1836-7 he records four others.
In 1835 the Rev. Wm. Fraser registered two con-
tracts ; and the Rev. D. McKenzie four in 1834-7.

All of these marriages are, with a few exceptions,
214

The Talbot and Middlesex Settlements

between Scottish persons, and will be valuable
data for family history.

Owing to a scarcity of clergy of the Scottish
Church, many of the settlers joined the Baptist
and Methodist Churches. In the former denomina-
tion and its offshoot, The Church of the Disciples,
prominent clergy in Middlesex were. : Dugald
Campbell, 1838 ; Isaac Elliot, 1839; Dugald Sin-
clair, Lobo, 1839 ; and Richard Andrews, 1840.
There are also recorded marriages by Baptist and
Methodist clergy, many of which were between
persons of Scottish birth or origin.

In 1831, the chairman of the Quarter Session
was John Bestwick, while two other Scotsmen, Dun-
can McKenzie and John Mitchell, sat as magis-
trates. In 1842 the County Council contained the
following Scotsmen : Lawrence Laureson, Andrew
Moore, Thomas Coyne, Thomas Duncan, John D.
Anderson, Archibald Miller, Isaac Campbell, Hiram
Crawford, John Edwards, and John S. Buchanan.
In 1843, Thomas Graham replaced Moore, James
Murray replaced Buchanan, and Samuel Kirkpatrick
replaced Duncan.

In the First Regiment of the Middlesex Militia
were the following Scottish names : Lieut. -Col. L.
Patterson ; Major J. McQueen ; Captains A.
Gillis, J. McKinlay, J. Patterson, G. Munro ;
Lieutenants McCall, Gillies, D. McKinley, Black-
wood, and E. McKinley ; Ensigns Mclntyre,
McGregor, and Sinclair.

The first settler in London, the county town, was
Peter McGregor, a Scotsman, who settled there

215

The Scotsman in Canada

in 1826. In June of 1827 Robert Corfrae, another
Scotsman, came to the place.

The township of Ekfrid was one of the leading
Scottish settlements in Middlesex. Among the
pioneers were : John Campbell, Angus Campbell,
Donald McTaggart, Archibald Miller, John
McLachlan, John Elliot, Donald McGugan, and
Duncan McCall. Among those who came in 1835
were Dougald Patterson, Duncan Campbell,
Donald McFarlane, Hugh Rankin, and Alexander
McMaster.

Among the pioneers and early settlers of Ekfrid
still living there in 1880 were, with the date of their
settlement : Angus Campbell, 1828 ; Duncan
McGregor, 1830; Lachlan and Angus McTaggart,
1831 ; Robt. Orr and N. McLellan, 1832 ; Jas.
Gowanlock, A. Stevenson, and A. McDougal, 1833 ;
David Dobie, 1834 ; Jas. Allen, Hugh McLachlan,
Hector McFarlane, and C. McRoberts, 1835 ;
Angus Chisholm, 1836 ; Alexander McBean, 1837 ;
John E. Campbell, 1839 ; Jonn A- Dobie, Alex-
ander McKellar, and Archibald Mclntyre, 1840 ;
Jas. G. Begg, Alexander Eddie, George C. Elliot,
Robert McKay, Alexander McNeill, and Daniel
McCrea, 1842 ; David Cowan and Adam Clarke,
1845 ; Duncan McRea, 1849.

The first township offices on record are those
of 1833. Those elected then were : Duncan
McLean, clerk ; Christopher Sparling and James
Mclntyre, assessors ; D. McLean, collector ; John
Mclntosh, John Campbell, Hugh McAlpine, John
Galbraith, Robert Parker, James McLellan, Andrew
216

TJie Talbot and Middlesex Settlements

Wilson, Malcolm Galbraith, John McCallum, Alex.
Mclntyre, and Peter McDonald, road masters ;
Thos. Curtis, Donald McTaggart, and Joseph Provo,
wardens.

In 1840, John Mclntyre, Malcolm Campbell, and
John McKellar were elected wardens, with Malcolm
McFarlane, collector. The first mentioned school
and library commissioners, in 1844, were John
Mclntyre ; Donald McFarlane, senior ; John R.
McRae, senior, Humphrey Campbell, and John
Campbell.

The township of Lobo was another noted Scottish
settlement. It was surveyed in 1819 by Burwell,
and the next year a large immigration of settlers
from Argyllshire in Scotland poured in, and took
up land throughout the whole township. Archibald
McArthur and Thomas Caverhill were the senior
or first councillors. John Harris was the first
treasurer, Duncan McDougall was collector of
taxes. In 1842, Hugh Carmichael was clerk, and
Duncan McLean was chairman of Council. Among
the pathmasters were John Edwards, Neil Mclntyre,
Archd. Paull, McLean, Donald McAllister, Hugh
Johnson, John Campbell, Hugh Dewar, Duncan
McBain. Other officials were Archd. McKellar,
Malcolm Gray, Jos. Mclntosh, Hugh Johnson, and
Donald Johnson. In 1844 Alexander Sinclair was
chairman of Council ; John Brown, clerk ; John
Gray, assessor ; and Archd. McVicar, collector of
taxes. In 1842 there were six schools in the town-
ship. The Scottish teachers were John Campbell,
Donald McCrea, William Munro, and John Ross.

217

The Scotsman in Canada

The first inspector for Lobo in 1844 was Alexander
Sinclair, and in 1862 Thomas Ure. The names of
the first settlers who were heads of families jn
j820 were: Malcolm McCall, Donald Lament
Dugald McArthur, and the Johnson Smclair, and
McKellar families ; also Duncan McKeith, Neil
McKeith, Hugh Carmichael, Charles Carmichael,
John Mclntyre and family, Duncan Mclntyre
Archibald Campbell, Malcolm Campbell, John
McLachlan, John McCall, John McDugalL after-
wards Justice of the Peace, and John '

family

The township of McGillivray was not as
thoroughly Scottish in its origin as Ekfrid and
Lobo, but contained a very strong Scottish ele-
ment Scotsmen are mentioned at different periods
as being among the leading township officers. In
1843, Thos. Laughlin was pound-keeper; W.
Henry, R. Long, and Isaac Moodie, wardens ; and
Thos Laughlin and George Barber, school com-
missioners. In 1846, James Simpson was assessor.
In 1848, Andrew Neil was a warden, and m i»5°>
John Graham was an auditor. In 1852, John Cor-
faett was reeve. Andrew Erskine took up land in
i8s2 David Cameron settled here in 1849, aged
seven years. His father Samuel came from Scot-
land in 1842 and settled in Lobo. Other names
are: Donald McKenzie, Jas. Corbett, 1843; A.
Erskine 1849; Wm. Fraser, 1858 ; T. Mclnms,
?8537' James Marr, 1852; C. T. McPherson,
,853 R. Neil, 1852; Duncan Stevenson, 1851.
Other families mentioned in !866 were either
218

The Talbot and Middlesex Settlements

Scottish or Ulster Scots, such as the Hannas,
Kennedys, Camerons, Nichols, Lathrops, John
Me Vicar, Logans, and Christies.

Another strongly Scottish settlement of Middle-
sex was the township of Mora.

Leading Scotsmen among its early settlers were :
John Coyne, Archibald Mc"Callum, Archibald Camp-
bell, Andrew Fleming, George Fleming, John D.
Anderson, Donald Ferguson, who married Jane
McLachlan in 1 8 1 8, and died in 1851. Hugh
McLachlan was another old settler.

Capt. William Symes, of Glencoe (1834) ;
Donald McLean (1834), and Archd. Campbell
(1818), were other noted settlers. Other names
are Dobie, Parr, Mclntyre, Walker, Simpson,
McAlpine, and Armstrong. In the oldest extant
record-book, dated 1857, Neil Munro, George
Currie, and Charles Armstrong are councillors.
The village of Glencoe is so called after the famous
gleu of that name in Scotland. The first sur-
veyors were A. P. McDonald and Ross. As late
as 1860 the leading citizens included many Scots-
men. J. W. Campbell was the first reeve. Other
names are Dr. Mclntyre, Charles Murray, John R.
McRae, Dr. McKellar.

The township of East Williams formed part of
the lands of the Canada Company, and were sur-
veyed by McDonald, of Goderich. It was settled
in 1833 by many Scotsmen and their families, such
as those of Donald Mclntosh, Donald Henderson,
Donald Fraser, James Ross, James McPherson,
James Bremner, Hugh McKenzie, and Hugh Craw-
ford. Alexander Stuart, 1832 ; John Stewart,

219

The Scotsman in Canada

1832 ; Donald Henderson, 1832 ; David Clu-
ness, 1833 ; John Levie, 1834, were early
settlers. The Rosses and Mclntoshes were
noted families. Capt. Hugh Mclntosh, the
Andersons, Campbells, McQuillicans, McNeills,
Colin Scatcherd, Wm. Fraser, David H. Craig,
Alex. B. McDonald, Neil McKinnon, William Hal-
bert, were all noted residents. In 1880 the leading
old residents of the township were : Tafford Camp-
bell, 1847 ; James Campbell, 1846; John Ding-
man, 1833 ; Donald McNaughton, 1834 ; John
Levie, 1834 ; John Leitch, 1843 ; Neil McTaggart,
1831 ; Wm. Mclntosh, 1831 ; Hugh McDonald,
1840 ; David McKenzie, 1836 ; John L. McKenzie,
1831 ; Malcolm Mclntyre, 1875 ; Wm. Menzie,
1844 ; John More, 1846 ; John Milligan, 1848 ;
Tas. D. McDonald, 1848 ; A. J. Ross, 1833 ;
Donald Ross, 1832 ; Duncan Stewart, 1844 ;
Donald C. Stewart, 1833; John Stewart, 1845.

This is a good example of the Scottish stock
in a representative Canadian community founded
by men of Scottish extraction. The village of
Nairn, in 1885, was also composed largely of
Scottish inhabitants.

West Williams was settled by the same stock as
East Williams, the names being Stewart, McKenzie,
Campbell, Cameron, Cluness, Ross, McNeill, &c.

There are to-day hundreds of families in that
and adjoining districts who are descendants of
these early settlers in the Middlesex townships.
There are also thousands of people of Scottish
descent scattered all through Western Ontario, of
220

The Talbot and Middlesex Settlements

whom no mention can be made in a work of this
size and purpose. The author has endeavoured in
this volume to give but a general description of the
leading and most noted Scottish hives or central
communities, and it is to be hoped that the material
gathered together in this work may encourage local
historians to pay more attention to the archives
of the counties and towns throughout the
different provinces of the Dominion. As Joseph
Howe said : " A wise nation preserves its records,
gathers up its monuments, decorates the graves of
its illustrious dead, repairs the great public struc-
tures, and fosters national pride and love of coun-
try by perpetual reference to the sacrifices and
glories of the past."

221

CHAPTER XVII

THE ZORRA SETTLEMENT AND THE
MACKAYS

A homely folk,

They filled one glen,

With Highland dream and glee;

But now they're George's fighting men,

To win across the sea,

And find their graves where none may ken,

In a far countrie.

THE Scottish settlers of Western Ontario were,
for the most part, folk who had dared to
come out from the Old Land because they willed
to do so. They were, some of them, evicted tenants
from strath and glen. They were, however, not,
like the people of other Highland settlements,
driven forth, or led by some Moses of colonisa-
tion, into a new and strange country, depending
on a leader to bring them into their promised
land of milk and honey. There were in all the
counties sturdy Lowland settlers from Glasgow and
the Clyde borders or other Lowland county places.
Then there were Highlanders in groups, or mingled
with Lowlanders and other folk not of the land-
o' -cakes, southern men and women, who knew not
the heather and loved not Robbie Burns.
222

Zorra Settlement and the Maclcays

Chief among this great body of Scottish folk
was the noted Highland settlement of the town-
ship of Zorra, in the county of Perth, in Western
Ontario.

As early as 1820 two Scotsmen, brothers, named
Angus and William Mackay, came there into the
dense, uncleared wilderness, and started to make
it their home. They were sturdy Highlanders from
the far north of Scotland, and belonged to the
great clan Mackay, whose land is historic Suther-
landshire. They cleared a bit of the forest and
planted the ground, and fought the fight of the
early pioneer with brave hearts and a faith in
the future of their adopted land. Nearly ten years
later one of the brothers, Angus, returned to Scot-
land and bore favourable witness concerning the
new land in the northern Scottish shire of his
fathers ; and the following* year returned to
Canada, accompanied by his aged parents and a
whole shipload of his f e How -shir errien .

Many of these were the former tenants of glens
made over into sheep-walks by the middle farmers
or better-class tenants, who were willing to rent
the land from the landlord for a fair rental. Much
has been written on this subject, and writers have
waxed eloquent over what they have considered
the brutal treatment of the evicted glensmen. But
the truth was that the glens were overcrowded
with a well-meaning, but often impracticable,
people, who had for centuries depended on their
lord or chief for livelihood. They had all been
fighters or deerstalkers or cattle-drovers or

223

The Scotsman in Canada

fisher-folk. For farms there were none, seeing
that nine -tenths of those regions were mountains
and lochs, and the glens deep and narrow and
only fit for a covert for deer or a place of ambush
when besieged by an invading; foe. They had
been for centuries the children of a feudal system
of clan-fealty and clan-service, where chief made
war on chief, and his men followed at their leaders'
beck and robbed their enemies and harried their
lands. It was an age of fighting and open
robbery, where now, under a democratic system,
men steal and dispossess others of their worldly
gear in a more subtle and crafty, though less
noble, manner. It was an age when life itself
was the price of failure, and the leader and his
followers went down together to the last man.
But after the first half of the eighteenth century,
with the ending of the Jacobite wars, all of this was
changed. The old order of clan foray against clan
and Highland raids of the Lowlands was put down
with an iron hand, and the great chiefs became
civilised, or were in hiding or driven abroad, and
the great mass of the Highlanders were left without
any leaders or without any means of subsistence
beyond deer-stealing or the making of illicit spirits.
Then was the one great cure for all this found
in the formation of the Highland Fencible regi-
ments, whereby thousands of idle glensmen were
(made to perform great martial service for the
Empire. But a great many more there were who
were at a loss what to do. In the old days they
were retainers on great chiefs or lords, who fed
224

Zorra Settlement and the Mackays

and clothed them in return for services performed.
But when left to their own resources they knew
not what to do ; the men especially were im-
practical, not loving to cultivate the land, and
with no knowledge of the art if they had cared
to. To this great surplus population of Northern
and Western Scotland the idea of emigration to
the New World came as a godsend, and was,
though at the time considered as a terrible hard-
ship, a real blessing. Serious as was the pioneer
life of the New World, they were thrown on their
own resources, and it was a case of struggle or
perish. They had no landlords to house and feed
them, no factors to blame for their ills ; they
had to get up and put their own shoulders to
the wheel and literally do or die.

Too much has been written in a prejudiced
manner of the cruelty of the landlords by writers
who have not made a complete study of the subject.
It has been falsely represented that these people
were driven off lands that they had owned or had
tilled for centuries.

The truth is that in Scotland in those days the
people no more owned the land than the people
of Canada do to-day. Then, as now, the land
belonged to the man who had the wealth to keep
it up or own it. How much of the land of Canada
to-day belongs to the people? Scotland was a
small country with a dense population in places ;
but we are a small population in a vast territory,
and yet how little, if any, of our millions on
millions of acres of land is owned by the bulk of

VOL. I. P 225

The Scotsman in Canada

our people. The very descendants of those who
were said to have left Scotland to become land-
owners in the New World own less of the land,
and get less off it than their ancestors did in
Scotland.

On the other hand, there was then, and is now,
little good tillage land in many of the Scottish

shires.

There was probably, in cases, cruelty on the
part of landowners and factors ; but such cruelty
and injustice exists in some form in Canada and
the United States to-day. In the vicinity of the
capital of Canada there are now large tracts of
land held by speculators and others who refuse
to sell it unless extravagant prices are paid, and
which literally places the privilege of owning a
portion of the soil of this country out of the power
of many of our Canadian citizens.

But, be the reasons for their leaving Scotland
what they may, those hardy Highlanders bade
farewell to their straths and glens, and sailed to
the westward, feeling that if their position was
to be improved at all, they must seek homes abroad.
Those good Zorra pioneers were a fine and
superior stock. They were, as has beeen said of
the Pilgrim Fathers of New England, the sifted
wheat, chosen men. They had a good education,
or in its place a proper estimate of its value in
the preparation of a life career. Wherever they
settled there rose the walls of a schoolhouse ; and
the few books brought into the wilderness were
of a high standard and deeply valued. The names
226

Zorra Settlement and the Maekays

most common in this prominent Scottish settle-
ment were those of Mackay, Sutherland, Morrison,
Gordon, Murray, Bruce, Ross, McLean, McDonald,
Gikhrist, Matheson, Fraser, Gunn, McKenzie, and
Munro. Many bearing these names have gone
forth from the pioneer community and made them-
selves prominent places in the life of our country
and in that outside its borders. There has been
a great group of distinguished Churchmen,
scholars, financiers, and others who have made
the Zorra community noted in the history of
Canada .

Probably no Canadian community has made its
influence felt over a wider sphere of action and
effort than has the Zorra settlement and its
adjoining groups of Scottish families.

It has been especially noted in the missionary
world ; so much so, that it might be called a
nesting-ground for preachers of the gospel. This
has been owing largely to the fact that the men
and women of Sutherland were, in the pioneer
days of Canada, and before then in the Old Land,
the most earnest, God-fearing element in the north
of Scotland.

But scholarship, and literature, and the more
worldly interests of life have had worthy
followers in the sons of this the most distinctive
Scottish settlement of Western Ontario. In
connection with the history of such a settle-
ment as this of Zorra a great lesson is
taught Canadians ; and it is this, that we are
liable to forget the great influence which heredity
and the social influences of the Old Land have

227

The Scotsman in Canada

had on our whole community. It is true that the
Scottish race has been a peculiarly strong, hard-
headed, careful, cautious, and deep-thinking
people. But much of this is the result of
their peculiarly strong, deep nature, which has been
influenced as perhaps that of no other people by
a long-continued conservative training in a severely
spiritual school. Religiously speaking, to know
God inwardly and to keep His commandments has
been the great impulse and national intent of the
Scottish people ; and grave as are their weak-
nesses, no people on earth have developed so deep
and self-punishing, self-searching a conscience as
have this people. This is true of both Highlanders
and Lowlanders, and of that large community of
Scottish folk who are a mixture of both.

The Rew. W. A. Mackay, in his interesting
little work " Pioneer Life in Zorra, says : " No
Zorra boy to-day is ashamed of either the porridge
or the Catechism on which he was reared." He
also adds : " The motto of the typical boy is
•' Don't sleep when you ought to be awake ; don't
stay awake with eyes closed and hands folded ;
work with your hands ; think with your head ;
and love with your heart ; and never forget that
character is capital.' ' The best result of this
creed of life has been such noted men as Arch-
deacon tiody ; the late Hon. James Sutherland ;
Rev. C. W. Gordon ("Ralph Connor"); and
the distinguished Eastern missionary, " Formosa
Mackay."

Like the Glengarry settlement, the Zorra com-
munity was, in its day, a little Highland Scotland
228

Zorra Settlement and the Mackays

in itself. But, as in the other,, the Macdonell clan,
the great Roman Catholic Highlander of the
Western Isles predominated ; so, in Zorra and its
surrounding settlements, it was the great northern,
Protestant, Presbyterian clan Mackay that formed
the bulk of the population. It is remarkable, after
all, how alike Highlanders are. Though separated
in creed, both of these were fighting clans ; and
both produced great soldiers and " saints of God."

Strange to say, these two clans contributed the
two most famous of the Scottish Fencible regi-
ments. The first Lord Reay, the chief of the
Clan Mackay, was the commander who made the
Reay Regiment famous in the fighting annals of
Europe. Lord Reay was one of the first baronets
of New Scotland, and his uncle, Sir Robert Gordon,
was Premier or First Baronet of Nova Scotia.

General Hugh Mackay of Scourie was William
the Third's Captain-General of his Scottish forces,
and met Claverhouse at Killiecrankie . A ballad
of that day ran : —

Valiant Jockey's marched away

To fight the foe with brave Mackay.

Mackay of Scourie was a great Christian
soldier ; and without doubt he saved Scotland for
William. He died afterwards in the action at
Steenkirk fighting the French. The King attended
his funeral, and when the body was laid in the
grave said, " There he lies ; and an honester man
the world cannot produce." Comparing Mackay
with another general who was also killed in the
same action, William said : " Mackay served a

229

The Scotsman in Canada

higher Master, but the other served me with his
soul."

In 1798 the Glengarry Fencibles and the Reay
Fencibles were both ordered to Ireland to quell
the rebellion there ; which they did in a short
time. It may not be known that a granddaughter
of the commander of the Reay Regiment which
went to Ireland, lived and died in Woodstock, and
is buried in the Scottish graveyard there in the
heart of the Zorra settlement of " fighting Mac-
kays." She was a descendant of the great Lord
Reay and of the family of Hugh of Scourie, his
famous cousin. Her father-in-law and cousin was
the last Mackay of the family who owned lands
in Scourie.

Thus is the Zorra Mackay settlement, as is the
Glengarry settlement with the great Macdonald
chiefs, closely associated with the great Mackay
names in Scotland's history and that of the
Empire .

The Glengarry settlement was, as has been
pointed out, closely associated with the Macdonald
settlements in Prince Edward Island.

The Zorra settlement was also linked to the great
Pictou settlement of Mackays, many of the latter
of whom removed to Zorra from Nova Scotia on
the decline of the shipbuilding trade.

The men of Zorra are now to be found scattered
all over the Dominion, in the far west and middle
west, and some in the republic to the south. But
all are bearing witness to the splendid ideals and
fighting qualities of the great race to which they
belong.
230

CHAPTER XVIII

THE HURON AND BRUCE SETTLEMENTS

Domed with the azure of heaven,
Floored with a pavement of pearl ;
Clothed all about with a brightness
Soft as the eyes of a girl ;

Girt with a magical girdle,
Rimmed with a vapour of rest,
These are the inland waters,
These are the lakes of the west.

Miles and miles of lake and forest,
Miles and miles of sky and mist,
Marsh and shoreland, where the rushes
Rustle, wind and water kissed;
Where the lake's great face is driving.
Driving, drifting into mist.

TWO leading ideas are for ever closely asso-
ciated in our minds with patriotism, and
they are the land of our birth and upbringing
and the race or stock from which we have sprung.
In these two respects the hardy sons and ,the
fair daughters of Huron and Bruce are, without
doubt, among the highly favoured of earth's
peoples."

231

TJie Scotsman in Canada

Nowhere in the world is there to be found a
more healthful and beautiful region than that
bordering upon Lake Huron, where it forms the
coast -line of those two picturesque and progressive
counties.

iWith a splendid soil, productive of fine fruits
and grains, and rich in pasturage for cattle, a
climate at once invigorating and salubrious, it is
a (region of pleasant meadows and sloping hill-
sides, delightful streams, and a bold and, in many
places, sublime coast -line of cliffs and bays and
jutting promontories, facing one of the most
splendid sweeps of fresh water in either hemi-
sphere. It is a region in all respects the fit cradle
for a hardy, self-reliant, and happy race of men
and women — fit home alone for the indomitable
and nobly strong.

But dear as is the soil whereon we tread1, arid
the waters and lands and hills and sky-line of the
region of our birth and youth, even dearer to us
all must ever be the thought and memory of the
race or stock to which we belong, and from which
we have sprung.

If of late we, as a people, have failed to realise
this idea, it is not because it is not a sacred
obligation thrust upon our higher nature, as the
proper attribute of any great and heroic people,
but rather because our life in a new country has so
exaggerated the stern necessity and the ephemeral
achievement of the present, that all natural and
fine feelings and ideals have been forced into the
'background . If we only go back to the days of
232

The Huron and Bruce Settlements

our grandparents we will enter a condition of
society where it was quite common to have three,
and even four, generations dwelling under one
roof ; and we will witness a community where
for generations all were knit in the, same bonds
of blood and kinship, where the joys and sorrows,
the good and ill, the faith and speech and song
were those of one people, when the rich and poor,
the great and humble, were all, though remotely,
of a common stock or origin.

On this Western continent of aliens from many
lands, in this hurried day of constant change and
mutual struggle, it is difficult for us to understand
the -conditions of society just described. But if
we pause to remember and consider, we must
realise that it was from just such a stock that we
have sprung.

When, less than three-quarters of a century ago,
the pioneers of Huron and Bruce began slowly at
first an influx of settlement, which continued up
to the latter end of the last century, into what
was then a wild and lonely region of almost track-
less forest, they came in for the most part in
Companies—^ sons, fathers, and grandfathers, new
from the more strict, more narrow, but ideal
society of the loved Old Land of mountain and
misty glen.

Whatever of good, whatever of hope, whatever
of ideal and character they brought out and estab-
lished in the New World was the product and gift
of the Old Land and the old days. The very
manner of life, the quaint accent of speech, the

233

The Scotsman in Canada

wonderful old Gaelic tongue, the stern faith in
God, the very manner of prayer and praise were,
and have continued ever since as, the blessed gift
of the old homeland away a whole ocean apart
from the new, yet ever near and dear to the
remembering heart and the Celtic imagination.

It is impossible for the observant traveller to
visit this region of a sturdy, happy, industrious,
and intellectual people and not see, down every
roadside and village street, in the school, the
church, the market, and home, strong evidence,
even yet, that the bone and sinew, the brain and
ideal, the faith and energy, that have made these
counties what they are to-day, are the product of
the great Scottish and Ulster-Scottish race, cradled
for a thousand years in the storied land of Wallace
and Burns and Bruce and Bannockburn.

While we are all Canadians in this promising
young land, yet it is well that we should not forget
how much of our blood is of the old Scottish and
Ulster -Scottish stock — that people of the iron will
and the dourest, sternest, most uncompromising
Christianity in the whole world. While we lead in
the mart or senate, or guide the ship or the plough,
or weld the character or the iron at the anvil, it
is for our good to remember that the faith in earth
and heaven is still at root the old faith ; that
even though we may forget the Old Land and
the old accent, the old slower, sterner, narrower
ways, that we have to think of God as did our
fathers, and that though in a stranger and far
land He leads us still.
234

The Huron and Bruce Settlements

In this connection it is but due to our ancestry
if we, not in any spirit of boasting, but of reverence
and thoughtfulness, remember what Scotland has
meant to our sires and grandsires in this land of
their adoption, and of what it may yet mean to
us in the present and the future.

It is significant to recall that the first British
connection with Canada was a purely Scottish one,
and that the first name given to the Maritime
Provinces and all of Quebec south of the St.
Lawrence was New Scotland, or Nova Scotia. This
vast territory was, by act of the Scottish Parlia-
ment, made an adjunct of the Scottish kingdom,
and Sir William Alexander was constituted its
Governor. Nearly three hundred years have
passed since then ; and during all this time there
has not been a portion of what is now under our
vast Dominion that has not been conquered,
reclaimed, and settled by members of our hardy
race.

From Sir William Alexander, the first Governor
of New Scotland, and Abraham Martin, the brave
old Scottish pilot who guided Champlain's ship
up the St. Lawrence, to Lord Strathcona, we have
had a long list of mighty men in all walks of
life, prominent in the upbuilding of Canada, bear-
ing the clan and family names of our race — such
as Macdonald, Mackenzie, Gait, Fraser, Mowat,
Campbell, Drummond, Ross, Cameron, McLean,
Logan, Fleming, Wilson, Grant, and Smith.
Indeed, there is not a clan or family name -of
Highland or Lowland Scotland that has not been

235

The Scotsman in Canada

in some way associated with Canadian development
from sea to sea.

The people of Huron and Bruce have been
specially favoured in this respect. It is true they
have a notable proportion of English, Irish, and
German stock among their population who have
borne witness to the fine qualities of their stock ;
but it is not any the less a fact that the greater
portion of the two counties is settled by direct
Scottish or Ulster-Scottish stock. Everywhere in
the .towns and country places of this beautiful
lakeside region are met the characteristics of the
Scotsman, either direct from the old land of Burns
and Scott or from that first great Scottish colony
of sturdy Scotsmen, Ulster ; where Edward Bruce,
the ibrother of the famous Robert, made the first
Scottish invasion, and where, throughout the cen-
turies since, the Scotsman has settled and made
the land his own, and where to-day he is more
Scottish, and his Presbyterianism is more of the
old school, than anywhere else in the world.

The very name of the more northerly of these
two counties is significant and fitting. The name
of Bruce will ever be associated with Scotland and
Scotsmen, and is synonymous with the cause of
liberty and national freedlom ; and as the great
Scottish royal hero and patriot fought against
oppression without and ills within, so may the sons
of Bruce and Huron ever be found on the side of
true liberty of thought and action, and enemies
of all tyranny and ill in the community and State.

Goderich, the leading town of the county of
236

The Huron and Bruce Settlements

Huron, was founded by a noted Scottish writer
and coloniser, that remarkable man John Gait,
who was second only to Sir Walter Scott as a
novelist, and who had so much to do with the
pioneer settlement of Western Ontario. The
present city of Gait bears his name, and Guelph
was founded by him and named in honour of the
Royal Family. He called the beautiful capital of
Huron County after Lord Goderich, the Colonial
Minister for that day. Associated with Gait in his
early settlements for the Canada Company was
that eccentric and original character Dr. Dunlop,
another Scotsman, who personally built the first
building erected at Goderich.

In his autobiography Gait describes the first
appearance of the Huron coast and the site of
Goderich : —

We then bore away for Cabot's head ... we saw only a woody
stretch of land, not very lofty, lying calm in the sunshine of a
still afternoon . . . and beheld only beauty and calm ... in the
afternoon of the following day we saw afar off, by our telescope,
a small clearing in the forest, and on the brow of a rising ground
a cottage delightfully situated. The appearance of such a sight
in such a place was unexpected ; and we had some debate, if it
could be the location of Dr. Dunlop, who had guided the land
exploring party already alluded to ; nor were we left long in
doubt, for on approaching the place, we met a canoe having on
board a strange combination of Indians, velveteens and whiskers,
and discovered within the roots of the red hair, the living features
of the Doctor. About an hour after, having crossed the river's
bar of eight feet, we came to a beautiful anchorage of fourteen
feet of water, in an uncommonly pleasant small basin. The place
had been selected by the Doctor, and is now the site of the
flourishing town of Goderich.

237

The Scotsman in Canada

The chief agents in the early settlement of the
county of Bruce were Scotsmen. The townships
have nearly all Scottish names, the rest being
mostly Indian. The Scottish ones are Lindsay,
Arran, Carrick, Bruce, Culross, Elderslie,
Greenock, Kincardine, and Kinloss.

The surrenders of the lands from the Indians
were procured through Scotsmen. Lord Elgin,
for whom Bruce was named, was the Governor of
the day. His Secretary was Lawrence Oliphant, a
noted Scottish writer who was the author of the
account of Elgin's mission to China. The village
of Oliphant, on the Huron shore opposite Wiarton,
was named after him. Oliphant also held the
position of Superintendent of Indian Affairs. He
effected in 1854 the surrender to the Government
of (what is called the Saugeen Peninsula, com-
prising the greater part of Northern Bruce. He
had as coadjutors three noted Scotsmen — James
Ross of Belleville, a well-known lawyer ; Charles
Rankin, a noted land surveyor ; and Alexander
Mac Nab, the Crown Lands Agent, who resided
at Southampton, and was father of Mr. John
MacNab of that place.

In 1848 the Lake Huron shore in this region
was surveyed by Alexander Murray, Assistant
Geologist to Sir William Logan. One of the
earliest pioneers of Bruce was Capt. Alexander
McGregor of Goderich, who, in 1831, developed
the fishing trade at the famous Fishing Islands
above Saugeen. The old stone building— now a
ruin—on Main Station Island, opposite Oliphant,
238

The Huron and Bruce Settlements

was the first permanent building erected in the
county of Bruce. Doctors Dunlop and Hamilton
of Goderich formed a new company to exploit
these fisheries. Another fishing company of Scots-
men of Southampton was that formed in 1848 by
Captains Spence and Kennedy, who purchased the
rights of the Goderich Company. Capt. Kennedy
was a Scottish half-breed. He went in command
of a party to discover Sir John Franklin. Spence
was an Orkney man, probably of the Selkirk settle-
ment. The present writer knew Spence. He died
in I9°4- He was a cousin of Mr. William
Houston, the well-known journalist and compiler
of the Constitutional Documents on Education.

One of the two pioneer settlers of Kincardine
landed at that place in the spring of 1848. His
name was Allan Cameron, or " Black " Cameron.
The pioneer settler on the Durham Road was ja
young Scotsman named John Beatty. His sister,
Miss Beatty, was the first white woman to under-
take the hardships of bush life in Bruce County.
The Eeatties walked on foot from Owen Sound
by way of the Indian trail to Southampton, and
from there they followed the beach to Kincardine.
This was in 1848.

This year more Scotsmen began to come into
the Kincardine district. They were Alexander
McCallay ; William Dowall ; three brothers,
Donald, Alexander, and John McCaskill ; George
McLeod ; two brothers, James and Alexander
Munro ; and Patrick Downie. The following year
Capt. Duncan Rowan and his brother John arrived,

239

The Scotsman in Canada

and the land was gradually taken up. In 1849 the
first free -grant lands in Huron township were
settled by a Scottish group — Duncan and Alexander
McRae and Findlay McLennan and their families.

Among the pioneers of Brant township were
John Lundy ; Thomas Todd ; Jos. L. Lamont ;
and three Stewarts — Archibald, Alexander, and
Moses.

Up to 1852 the settlers were mixed, with a good
average of Scotsmen ; but in that year 109
families, from the Island of Lewis, in Scotland,
settled in the township of Huron. They were
mostly fishermen, shepherds, and crofters, who only
knew Gaelic, so that they had a hard time for
many years. The Island of Lewis is in the iWestern
Hebrides, is a part of the shire of Ross, and is a
famous place.

From there have gone forth many adventurers
into our West and North-West, and into all parts
of the world. The people are a hardy crofter
and fisher -folk, who have endured much from
Nature in the past and have looked mostly to the
sea for a living, and often a burial. The lan,d
of the Island of Lewis was, in the past, largely
in the hands of certain families of the McLeods,
Mackenzies, Rosses, and Mclvors, with some
McDonalds, all of whom were connected with the
Hudson's Bay Company.

The people who came to Bruce were a simple,

God-fearing, and steadfast folk, but who had all

their troubles ahead of them by reason of their

utter ignorance of farming as it is carried on

240

The Huron and Bruce Settlements

upon this continent. A complete list of the Lewis
emigrants is given in Robertson's " History of
Bruce County." Of the 109 heads of families
there were 29 Macdonalds, 16 McLeods, 10 Mac-
kays, 1 1 McLennans, and 7 Mclvors. These
people were mostly fishermen, and had their
passage provided by the proprietor of the Island
of Lewis.

There were many other Scottish Highlanders
settled in Bruce besides the Lewis emigrants, and
so numerous were the " Macs " that all sorts of
nicknames had to be given to distinguish indi-
viduals—such as Little, Big, Black, Red, Long,
and Short ; and Robertson says of one school
section the John Macdonalds were so plentiful that
they had to be separately designated by a letter
of the alphabet, as John A, John B, until John U
closed the list.

With such a stalwart and enduring stock, it is
not to be wondered at that these counties became
noted among the finest of the Canadian communi-
ties. They not only produced able local repre-
sentatives in all walks of life, but they also sent
their sons and daughters out to the settlements
of the Far West, and had their part in the building
up of that part of Canada. The youth of Bruce and
Huron distinguished themselves in South Africa,
as well as in our own North-West Rebellion.

From the first settlement the Bruce people were

loyal and ready to defend their country. The

earliest Militia rolls of 1859 show that the majority

were of Scottish origin. A list of these veterans

VOL. I. Q 241

The Scotsman in Canada

is interesting : Col. Alexander Sproat ; Richard
Mclnnis ; Neil McLeod ; John MacNab ; Donald
Campbell ; William Walker ; James Hogg ;
George Hamilton ; Alex. Angus ; Peter Angus ;
Donald McPherson ; James Calder ; Alex. Mcln-
tosh ; James Mclntosh ; Edward Ferguson ;
Andrew Laurie ; Thos. Smith ; Edward Kennedy ;
Wm. Chisholm ; James Jack ; James George ;
Thomas Sharp ; Thomas Montgomery ; John
Murray ; Alex. Munro ; Peter McGregor ; James
Fleming ; James Mason ; Duncan Ross ; Thomas
Adair ; James Orr ; Alex. Robertson ; John
Spence ; W. S. Scott, M.D. ; Neil Campbell.
This comprises the Scottish members of No. i
Company, ist Battalion of Bruce in 1859.

When {he Militia Act was amended in 1868,
the following year three Bruce Scotsmen received
commissions — Lieut. -Col. Andrew Lindsay ; Major
John Gillies ; and Major James Rowand.

The Captains of Companies were also all Scots-
men : Robt. Scott; M. McKinnon ; J. H.
Coulthard ; John Mclntyre ; James Stark ;
Andrew Freeborn ; and James Allan.

In the Reil Rebellion of 1870 the Scotsmen
from Bruce were Capt. Hunter ; Capt. Thos.
Adair ; A. Mclvor ; Jas. Glendenning ; Wm.
McVicar ; Duncan Kerr ; James Gilmour ; J. Gil-
roy ; Donald Robertson ; George Smith ; Robt.
McFarlane ; and John Kerr. In 1885 the second
North- West Rebellion broke out, and the Bruce
battalion distinguished itself under Capt. Douglas.

In South Africa, Bruce gave a hero to the
242

The Huron and Bruce Settlements

Empire in Trooper Gordon Cummings, pf
Kitchener's Horse. He was born in Saugeen in
December, 1875, and was killed at the Battle of
Nooitge-dacht on December 13, 1900, while gal-
lantly striving to procure ammunition for his
column.

An account of some noted residents of the
county of Bruce of Scottish extraction must close
this brief essay.

Lieut. -Col. Alexander Sproat, who was one of
the earliest settlers, was of Scottish descent, a
graduate of Queen's College, a provincial land
surveyor ; then a bank manager ; County
Treasurer, 1864 to 1873 ; first Member for Bruce
in the Dominion Parliament ; and Colonel of the
32nd Battalion. He was made Registrar of Prince
Albert, North-West Territory, in 1880, and died
in 1890.

The Rev. John Eckford was born in Scotland,
educated at Edinburgh University, and came to
Canada in 1851. He was a noted preacher in
Bruce County, Reeve of Brant in 1857, and
Superintendent of Schools up to 1871.

Alexander Shaw, K.C., came to Bruce in 1858 ;
was County Solicitor in 1867 ; was elected to
Parliament in 1878 in the Conservative interest.

Donald Sinclair was born at Islay in Scotland
in 1829, and came to Bruce in 1853. He taught
school, became a merchant at Paisley, and was
elected to the House of Assembly from 1867 to
1883, and was aopointed Registrar that ytear ; a
Liberal.

243

7

The Scotsman in Canada

William Gunn was born in 1816 near Glasgow.
In 1852 he came to Kincardine from Napanee.
He was a merchant ; then Superintendent of
Schools from 1853 to 1858; and Deputy Clerk
of the Crown to 1894. He was also a Commis-
sioner to Scotland on the Herring Industry.

Henry Cargill, Esq., M.P., was of Ulster-
Scottish stock. He was born in 1838, and
educated at Queen's College, Kingston. He
became a successful lumber merchant in the
tounty of Bruce, and was elected to Parliament
for East Bruce from 1887 to 1903. He was a
Conservative.

Alexander McNeill, Esq., M.P., was a distin-
guished Member of the Canadian House of
Commons, where he represented North Bruce for
eighteen years in the Conservative interest, being
noted as a leading Imperialist. He introduced the
first motion in the Canadian House of Commons
leading to closer commercial relations with the
mother country. He was born in Larne,
county of Antrim, Ireland, of Ulster-Scottish
and Scottish stock. His father's family was
a branch of the McNeills of Gigha, who went
into Ulster with the Scottish settlements and
had lands in Antrim. His mother, his father's
cousin, was a sister of the famous Duncan
McNeill, Lord Colonsay, Lord Justice of Scot-
land. Mr. McNeill's maternal grandfather was
McNeill of Colonsay. He studied for the Bar
t the Inner Temple, London, England, but came
o Bruce County about 1870, and has been a
244

The Huron and Bruce Settlements

successful farmer. His residence, " The Corran,"
near Wiarton on Colpoys Bay, is one of the most
beautiful places in the county. He is an earnest
and able student of all public questions concerning
both Canada and the Empire.

Alexander MacNab was born in 1809. He was
appointed Crown Lands Agent for Bruce, and was
for thirty years connected with the Land Office in
the county. His son, John M. MacNab, residing
at Southampton, is an authority on the county
history.

John Gillies, Esq., M.P., was born at Kilcalom-
nell, Argyllshire, Scotland. He came to Canada
in 1852 ; was Warden of Bruce in 1863, 1869,
1870, 1871, and 1872 ; was elected to Parliament
from 1872 to 1882, when he was defeated by
Alexander McNeill. He was a strong Liberal.

John Tolmie, Esq., M.P., the present popular
Member of the Dominion House for North Bruce,
is a Scotsman by birth, having been born in the
parish of Laggan in Scotland in 1845. His
mother was Mary Eraser. Mr. Tolmie came to
Canada in 1868, and has been a farmer and salt
manufacturer. He has been returned to the House
of Commons four times in the Liberal interest for
West and North Bruce.

James Ernest Campbell, Esq., J.P., merchant
and manufacturer, of Hepworth, is a prominent
man in the county. He was nominated three times
in the Liberal interest in North Bruce. Mr. Camp-
bell is of Ulster-Scottish stock, being a son of
the Rev. Thomas Swainston Campbell (Anglican),

245

The Scotsman in Canada

of >Wiarton, whose father, the Rev. Thomas
Campbell, M.A., of Glasgow University, and first
Rector of Belleville, Upper Canada, was son of
James Campbell, Esq., of Kilrea, of a cadet branch
of the House of Argyll. Mr. Campbell was
appointed by the Canadian Government as Com-
mercial Agent for Canada at Leeds and Hull,
England, but declined the position. His elder
brother, Thomas Francis Campbell, M.D., of Hep-
worth, is a well-known local physician.

246

CHAPTER XIX

THE GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF SCOTTISH
EXTRACTION CONNECTED WITH CANADA

Such were our memories. May they yet
Be shared by others sent to be
Signs of the union of the free
And kindred peoples God hath set
O'er famous isles, and fertile zones
Of continents ! Or if new thrones
And mighty states arise ; may He,
Whose potent hand yon river owns,
Smooth their great future's shrouded sea !

" Quebec," a poem by the Duke of Argyll.

NO stronger link has bound Canada to the
Motherland than that of her Governors-
General, who have so ably and faithfully repre-
sented the British Sovereign in the Western world.
It must naturally be a matter of pride to all men
of Scottish descent in Canada to realise that the
greater majority of our viceregal representatives
have been of Scottish birth or extraction. Certainly,
in a work of this nature, it is but right to lay
stress upon this remarkable fact, which is but one
more witness to the proof that Canada is, indeed,
newer -Scotland.

v When we go back in our Canadian history to

247

The Scotsman in Canada

the first quarter of the seventeenth century, down
a period of nearly three hundred years, we find
that Canada, or New Scotland, is made part of,
or an outlying" extension of, Scotland ; that even
then our country was connected with the Scottish
race ; and the object of movements and ambi-
tions arising among and influencing that ancient
people. Ever since, in some manner, Canada has
been connected with Scottish success or Scottish
failure. Scottish dreams, having their birth in the
Old Land of mountain and glen, have had more
than their fulfilment in the forests and plains and
seaports of the Caledonia of the West. From
Alexander to Strathcona Canada has been closely
woven into the web of Scottish life and its trustee-
ship of the outer-lands of the broad earth.
Likewise can it be said that the history of Canada
is but an extension of that of Scotland, and that
during a period of three hundred years past the
secret of the greatness and weakness of the greater
portion of our Canadian peoples is to be sought
for and found, not so much in our borders, as in
the misty mountains and glens, the castles and
sheilings of the loved Old Land. The pride and
race-ideal of the Canadian boy and girl should,
if truly inculcated, go back beyond Wolfe and
Brock and Queenston and the Heights of Abraham
to Bruce and Bannockburn. Truly if the race
and the blood count for anything (and if they do
not, what else should?), the greater majority of
our people have in their veins that fierce and hot
blood which brooked no conqueror, either martial
248

The Governors- General

or religious, for the glorious period of a thousand
years of Scotland's greatness ; and it would seem
worse than madness to expect to build up on
this continent a new race --patriotism from which
so much of splendid achievement and venerable
race -memory were excluded.

Therefore, from this important standpoint, it will
be more than merely interesting to the Scottish
Canadian to know that the greater number of our
viceregal representatives were of Scottish blood,
and connected with, or representatives of, families
renowned in the splendid history of North Britain.

Whatever may be the future fate of the country
now called Canada, she will never, so long as the
present race predominates, be separated from the
history and dominant spirit of Scotland ; and if
we but travel from Nova Scotia to the Fraser
River, we will find many a name of place or
treasured chronicle as lingering witness to the
conquering will and fearless spirit of those, her
missioners of material advancement and intellec-
tual and spiritual enlightenment, whom she has
sent forth into all lands.

The first Scotsman appointed a Governor in
Canada was the famous Raleigh, of Scotland ; Sir
William Alexander, Viscount Canada, and Earl of
Stirling, who was in 1621 by James the Sixth and
the Scottish Parliament appointed hereditary Lieu-
tenant of New Scotland. Alexander's Governor-
ship was over all that country now known as the
Maritime Provinces, including Prince Edward
Island and all the islands in the Gulf, except New-

249

The Scotsman in Canada

foundland, with all of what is now Quebec south
of the river St. Lawrence. Canada has every
reason to look back with pride upon this her first
Governor, who was also her first founder.

It is about time that a statue to this great man
should be erected in the Dominion ; and it is no
credit to the Canadians of Scottish extraction and
no witness to their exact knowledge of Scottish
and Canadian history that long ere this no monu-
ment to him as the real founder of British Canada
has been thought of or deemed necessary.

It is a disgrace to British Canadians to have
to say that while monuments to Champlain have
been erected in the Maritime Provinces and Quebec
— and one is soon to be placed in the capital at
the expense of the Canadian Government — that no
monument has ever been suggested to this great
Scotsman.

The second Governor, if we except the second
Earl of Stirling, who, like his illustrious father,
was deeply interested in the founding and colonisa-
tion of early Canada, was Sir David Kirke, another
distinguished man of Scottish extraction.

The first Governor of Canada under British rule
after the capture of Quebec was another Scotsman,
General Murray, a brother of Lord Elibank, who
succeeded to the command on the death of Wolfe ;
and when the civil Government was formed in
1763 he became the first civil Governor. In 1782
Henry Hamilton, a Scotsman, was Lieutenant -
Governor ; and he was Administrator in 1784.
In 1805 Thomas Dunn was President and
250

The Governors-General

Administrator of the Government of Lower
Canada. In 1797 Peter Hunter was Adminis-
trator of Upper Canada ; and in 1814 Sir Gordon
Drummond, a distinguished soldier, occupied the
same position.

The Duke of Richmond, who was Governor -
General front 1818 to 1819, when his able career
was ended in so sudden and tragic a manner, was
of royal Scottish extraction on the paternal side,
•being descended from Charles the Second, while
his mother was the daughter of the fourth Marquess
of Lothian, head of the great House of Kerr.
When the Duke died in so sad a manner, th,e
result of the bite of a mad fox, he was on a
journey through the Ottawa district, studying the
country in the interests of development and emigra-
tion. The privations consequent on his journey
in the wilderness, Where he succumbed, must have
added much to his sufferings in his last hours.
He died literally in the performance o'f his duty,
as so many faithful Britons have done in connection
with the upbuilding of Canada.

The Duke's daughter, the Lady Sarah Lennox,
married Sir Peregrine Maitland, a scion of another
noted Scottish family. He became Lieutenant -
Governor of Upper Canada, and was Administrator
of the Canadian Government in 1820, following
the Duke's death. He was fated to govern in a
difficult period when restless spirits, suffering under
some real grievances, were being influenced by
less sincere intriguers to break the bond to the
Motherland. There is proof that ever since the

251

The Scotsman in Canada

early years of the nineteenth century, when Wilcox
was sent over from1 the United States as a paid
emissary of insurrection, there was always such
an influence in the country.

Lord Dalhousie was appointed Governor -General
in 1820, as successor to the Duke of Richmond.
He was the representative of the noble Scottish
House of Ramsay, and his mother was of the old
family of Glen in Linlithgowshire . He was a dis-
tinguished scholar and statesman, and a success-
ful Governor in that difficult period which pre-
ceded the Lower Canadian Rebellion. History
shows this Governor to have been a kindly and
refined gentleman, with a fine mind and a strong
ideal to serve his Sovereign and the country well.
Lord Dalhousie was recalled and sent to India
as Governor, where his son, the tenth Earl, went
later, in 1847, and remained until 1856.

Lord Gosford, who became Governor-General
in 1835, and remained up to 1837, was of the
ancient Scottish family of Acheson of Gosford,
county of Haddington, Scotland ; from which place
the family take their title as Earls of Gosford,
though the title belongs to the Irish peerage. He
was also a baronet of Nova Scotia. His ancestor,
Sir Archibald Acheson, of Gosford in Hadding-
ton, was one of the noted undertakers for land
in the great Scottish settlement in Ulster in the
seventeenth century.

Lord Gosford was fated to be a Governor in
a critical period of our history, when no Governor
could cope with the extreme conditions which
252

The Governors- General

existed in both Upper and Lower Canada, and
which evidently had to come to a sharp ending
in the Civil War which ensued. It has now been
proved that much of the so-called misrule of the
Governors was really traceable to the local
politicians, whose several factions each strove to
use the Sovereign's representative for their own
particular uses. Lord Gosford strove to do his
duty under a trying ordeal which neither he nor
any other single man could prevent. In Lower
Canada it was a plain case of a clever dema-
gogue and his short-sighted allies, who foolishly
dreamed that they could destroy British rule and
set up a pocket republic of their own on the St.
Lawrence. The " representative Government "
plea as the cause of this rebellion was just as
much a pretence as was the " no tax without
representation" of the American rebels in 1776.
In Upper Canada it was different ; but the Upper
Canadian Rebellion would never have come to a
real .active head had there been no previous
outbreak in Lower Canada.

Lord Cathcart, 1845-46, was the next Scottish
Governor. He belonged to one of the oldest
Scottish families, who were Barons since 1447.
His mother was of the Border Scottish family of
Elliot, and was first cousin to the Earl of Minto.
His connection with Canada was during the in-
teresting period of the Union, the last and vain
political experiment before Confederation. During
this period the seat of Government was removed
from place to place in both provinces, and the

253

The Scotsman in Canada

continual race jealousy between Upper and Lower
Canada was becoming stronger year by year. The
truth was that the great growth of the Upper
Province demanded an adequate representation not
agreeable to the claims and privileges of the
Lower.

Lord Cathcart's successor was Lord Elgin,
during whose tenure of office the party and race
feeling reached their climax for the second time.
Lord Elgin was one of the finest of our Governors ;
but he was made the victim of extreme party
hatred, and was hooted and insulted in the streets.
In spite of this he did his duty as he conceived
it ; and history has justified hirri and now con-
demns the actions of both parties in the country,
who made his position as Governor almost im-
possible. The idea has been instilled into the
minds of our people that the whole trouble arose
out of what was called the family compact, and
the cruel tyranny of withholding1 from the people
the free boon of responsible Government. Since
Confederation we have had this glorious gift so
much expatiated upon by cheap orators. But alas
for human consistency and the much-be -praised
democracy! Has it improved matters? Have we not
now even more than formerly of party strife and
mutual abuse? Does not the Press of each party
continually educate us into the idea that the party
in power is robbing and ruining the rest of the
country? Have we not had enough land-grabbing
and fraud on the part of public officers ventilated
in our present-day Press during the last twenty
254

The Governors- General

years to totally eclipse all the charges brought
against any Government official since that arch-
grafter, Benjamin Franklin, first inaugurated such
nefarious practices upon this unfortunate continent?
Then, when we think of the present day and the
much-abused family compact of the 1837 period,
it is much to be feared that if Lyon McKenzie
were living to-day he would feel that the inter-
married ruling class of his day sank almost into
insignificance before its counterpart of the present
time.

It is for the Scottish Canadian to correct this
grave evil, and to explain this strange failure in
the infallibility of this democracy, which he has
so long regarded as the sole panacea for all social
and political ills. It is now becoming realised
that the early British Governors in this country
had a good deal of right on their side, and had
often only acted for the best. Lord Elgin's ex-
perience of Canada was, however, not a pleasant
one ; and he was glad to leave the country, where
he had striven to do his duty. He was in no way
to blame for the stormy period, as both Provinces
had, at the Union, one responsible Government ;
and Elgin had full instructions to consult his
Ministers. The whole difficulty was in the people
themselves. His distinguished father-in-law, Lord
Durham, who had so much to do with the granting
of responsible Government, had an equally dis-
agreeable experience as Governor.

Lord Elgin was male representative of the
famous family of Bruce, renowned in Scottish;

255

The Scotsman in Canada

history, because one of its greatest kings, Robert
Bruce, whose daughter married a Stuart, and
through lack of male heirs of Robert Bruce carried
the royal line of Scotland into that family. Lord
Elgin's ancestor was a cousin of the illustrious
monarch whose name is immortal in Scottish
history.

The next Canadian viceregal representative of
Scottish extraction was Lord Lisgar, 1868-72.

This statesman and nobleman was in the male
line the descendant and representative of the
Scottish family of Young of Auldbar, who re-
moved into Ulster at the settlement of that
province. He was also descended of the Houses
of Douglas and of Knox of Ranfurly, kinsman of
John Knox. Lord Lisgar thus was strongly
Scottish in his descent, and whatever good he did
for Canada was owing to his Scottish blood. He
was the first Governor -General under the Canadian
Confederation, and proved himself a dignified and
competent representative of the Queen in the new
Dominion of the West.

He was succeeded by one of the most popular
of all our Governors, and one who was, like him-
self, of the Ulster-Scottish stock, Lord Dufferin.
In previous accounts these Ulster Governors have
been classed as Irishmen. But, as in this chapter
I have taken the trouble to show for the first
time, this is neither correct nor fair to the Scottish
race as a race. Therefore, as this work has for
its object to deal with the Scottish peoples in
connection with Canada, it is necessary to point
256

The Governors-General

out very definitely the true facts in the cases
cited.

Lord Dufferin, though exceedingly proud of his
Hamilton descent, was paternally of the Scottish
family of Black wood, of whom the famous Edin-
burgh publishers of that name are a noted branch.
The Blackwoods were originally a Fifeshire family,
and Lord Dufferin's ancestors came into Ulster at
the Settlement.

On the maternal side the distinguished Governor
was representative and senior heir-general of the
Hamiltons, Earls of Clanbrassil. The first of the
family to leave Scotland for Ulster was James
Hamilton, son of the Rev. Hans Hamilton, Vicar
of Dunlop, in Ayrshire, who became the first
Viscount Clanbrassil. While Lord Dufferin's titles
were Irish, he was very much of a Scotsman in
blood and tradition, and it is interesting to
Canadians of Scottish stock to remember that he
was Governor at a period of our country's history
when the two pre-eminent leaders of Canadian
party politics were also of Scottish stock — Sir
John A. Macdonald and the Honourable Alexander
Mackenzie. It is not necessary in this chapter to
go into the whole career of this noted statesman
and diplomat, as it is well known to all Canadians.

Other members of the noted clan or family of
Hamilton have been associated with Canadian
history. One family of merchants of the
name were prominent in our history and were
associated with Quebec and Hamilton in Upper
Canada. The Honourable Robert Hamilton,

VOL. I. R 257

The Scotsman in Canada

Member of the Upper Canada Legislative Council,
was a leading member of this Canadian family,
and the present venerable Anglican Archbishop
of Ottawa is of the Quebec branch of this Scottish-
Canadian family.

Lord Dufferin had for his successor another dis-
tinguished Viceroy, and the heir of one of the
few Scottish princely houses. The Marquis of
Lome, now Duke of Argyll, is of royal extrac-
tion not only by descent from1 Robert Bruce and
the royal house of Stuart through many female
ancestors, but it is not generally known that he
is the male representative of the old princely line
of O'Duin, Kings of Ulster and Argyll in an
ancient period of Scotland's history. Even down
to the days of Mary Queen of Scots the Earls of
Argyll lived in regality within their own borders,
and were regarded by the Scottish monarchs
rather as powerful allies than as subjects. In
the time of Queen Mary, the Earl of Argyll was
living as a prince in Argyll, with barons or lords
under him, of whom the three mentioned in history
were Lord Glenorchy, ancestor of the Marquess
of Breadalbane ; Lord Auchinbreck, head of that
noted house of soldiers and baronets ; and Lord
Ardkinglas ; the heads of the three great cadet
houses of the family, and all Baronets of Nova
Scotia.

The present writer has seen an original letter

written by King Charles the First to the great

Marquess of Argyll, in which he treated him

rather as an important ally and influential

258

The Governors- General

Scottish leader than as a subject ; and ap-
pealed. to him to give his aid and influence
the Royal cause in the trouble with the
Roundheads. Down to that period the chiefs
of Argyll had held the hereditary justiciary-
ship of all Scotland, which placed them in an
almost regal position. This, the eight Earl
and Marquess resigned into the hands of the King,
retaining, however, to himself and his heirs the
jurisdiction of the Western Isles and Argyll, and
wherever else he had lands in Scotland, which was
ratified by an Act of Parliament in 1633. It was,
therefore, quite meet that the heir of such a great
historic house should marry a princess of the
reigning Royal House. But it was especially in-
teresting to Canadians that they should be sent
to represent the monarch in the young Dominion
The Marquis of Lome and the Princess Louise
did much in Canada to forward the intellectual
and material interests of the country. He had
much to do with the opening up of the Far West
which he traversed to the shores of the Western
Ocean at a time when it was a most difficult under-
taking ; and he has keenly appreciated the great
if e work, in this connection, of his close and dis-
tinguished friend and fellow Empire-builder Lord
Strathcona.

The Duke of Argyll, like his distinguished father,

s a statesman and a scholar, and is one of the

ablest and greatest Imperialists in the British

Empjre He has, ever since his viceregal term

Canada, been deeply interested in the welfare

259

The Scotsman in Canada

of this country. In his Many speeches, when here,
and since on Imperial occasions, he has ever ex-
pressed a firm belief in the great possibilities of this
country as a nation in the Empire. In addition to
his other notable qualities he possesses the poetical
gift in no small degree, a gift that seems here-
ditary in the blood of the great family of which
he is the head. Some of his finest verses were
written about Canada, and during his stay in this
country. Notable examples are his poem, the
finest ever written on the subject, " Quebec," and
his " Hymn for Confederation." He and the
Princess were the founders of the Royal Canadian
Academy of Arts and the Royal Society of Canada.

The Duke's ancestors and the cadet houses of
his family contain a long list of noted statesmen,
patriots, soldiers, scholars, and divines who have
been closely associated with the history of Scot-
land and the Empire. Many of his name, (and
some of his blood, have borne a prominent part
in the history of Canada ; and thousands of good
Canadian citizens bear his name and are worthy
members of the famous clan.

The Earl of Aberdeen, who was Governor -
General from 1893 to 1898, was also the head of
another distinguished Scottish house, and the male
representative of the great clan Gordon. This
name, like that of Campbell, has for centuries been
connected with the history of Scotland, as repre-
sented in the noble houses of the Dukes of Gordon,
the Earls of Huntly, Sutherland, Aberdeen, and
Kenmure. To merely mention those houses is to
260

The Governors-General

suggest to the reader of Scottish and British history
a whole host of associations with all that is noble,
chivalrous, tragic, and moving in the past centuries
of Britain.

A few personalities stand out prominently on
the frescoes of memory, such as George Gordon,
fourth Earl of Huntly, the famous " Cock of the
North," who virtually held Northern Scotland in
his grasp, and was, for all his sad end, considered
to have been the wealthiest, wisest, and most
powerful subject in Scotland in his day. His
famous ancestor, Sir Adam Gordon, who in 1305
sat at Westminster as one of the representatives
of Scotland ; Sir George Gordon, first Earl pf
Aberdeen, Lord High Chancellor of Scotland ; the
famous poet, Lord Byron, whose mother was a
Gordon of Gight ; the great Earl of Aberdeen,
grandfather of the present Earl, Premier of
England ; and last, but not least, the famous
General Gordon of Khartoum, one of the greatest
saints and heroes in British history. Lord Aber-
deen has had a distinguished career as a vice-
regal representative — twice in Ireland and once in
Canada. He is also Lord -Lieutenant of Aberdeen-
shire. He and his noted Countess were among
the most intimate friends and followers of the
famous Liberal leader, the late Right Hon.
William Ewart Gladstone, whose son has become
the first Governor of United South Africa. (It
might be not out of place here to mention that
Gladstone was of Scottish descent. His father's
family were Gledstanes, of Southern Scotland, and

261

The Scotsman in Canada

his mother was a Robertson of Stornoway, Isle of
Lewis. Her maternal grandfather was Colin
McKenzie, Bailie of Dingwall, of the Coul family
of McKenzie. There are members of this family
living in Canada.) Lady Aberdeen, who is known
throughout the world as an active leader in many
organisations to raise and alleviate humanity,
comes also of a noted Scottish stock. Her father
was Sir Dudley Coutts Majoribanks, first Lord
Tweedmouth, and representative of the old family
of Majoribanks of Holly and Leuchie and that
Ilk ; and through her mother she is of the Ulster-
Scottish branch of the Hoggs and Swintons of
Berwickshire.

Lord Aberdeen's military secretary in Canada
was another noted Scotsman and a scion of an
ancient Caithness family, Captain John Sinclair,
since then Member of Parliament for Forfarshire,
and now Secretary of State for Scotland, lately
raised to the peerage as Lord Pentland. He is
married to Lady Marjorie Gordon, only daughter
of Lord Aberdeen. Lord Pentland has had a
successful career as a statesman, and is a fine
scholar. He is of the Dunbeath branch of the
family of the Earls of Caithness. His father was
the late Capt. George Sinclair. Lord Pentland
was also Member of Parliament for Dunbarton
County and Assistant Private Secretary to the
Secretary of State for War and a Captain of the
5th Lancers, and also a member of the London
County Council.

It is very significant of Scotland's part in the
262

The Governors- General

building and destiny of Canada to turn front the
historic families of Gordon and Sinclair to that
of Elliot.

The Earl of Minto, who succeeded the Earl of
Aberdeen as Governor -General, represents this
old historic Scottish house. Like Lord Aberdeen,
he is also a Baronet of Nova Scotia. His ancestor
was Gilbert Elliot, of Stobs, who was also ancestor
of the famous Lord Heathfield, the defender pf
Gibraltar. Lord Minto's ancestors were dis-
tinguished jurists, governors, naval and military
officers, and ambassadors. Prominent in his
family were Sir Gilbert Elliot, Lord Justice
Minto ; the Honourable Andrew Elliot ; Admiral
George Elliot ; the Right Honourable Hugh Elliot,
Governor of Madras ; the first Earl of Minto,
successively Viceroy of Correa, Ambassador at
Vienna, Governor of Bengal, and President of the
Board of Control. The present Earl has been
one of the most successful Viceroys both in Canada
and India. His first connection with our country
was as military Secretary to the Marquess of Lands -
downe, from 1883 to 1886. Lord Minto is
Viscount Melgund of Melgund, County Forfar, and
Baron Minto of Minto, County Roxburgh, and Earl
of Minto. Lady Minto is a sister of Lord Grey,
the present Governor -General of Canada ; and is
through her mother of the old Scottish family of
Farquhar of that Ilk.

The present distinguished Governor-General of
Canada, Earl Grey, has accomplished a great deal
for the welfare of the Empire in Africa,

263

The Scotsman in Canada

England and Canada. He is, to-day, one of the
most noted personalities in the Empire. As
Governor of Canada, he has not only wisely and
firmly represented his Sovereign, but he has also
from the first held before the Canadian people
a high ideal of citizenship and responsibility to
the Empire and the Canadian community. Lord
Grey, while, as is well known, the representative
of a great historical house of Northern England,
noted for its statesmen, soldiers, and sailors, is
also, on the maternal side, of Scottish extraction,
his mother being a daughter of Sir Thomas Harvie
Farquhar, Baronet, representative of the ancient
family of Gilmanscroft in North Britain. When
one visits the beautiful county of Northumber-
land, on the borders of Scotland, the ancient home
of Lord Grey's paternal ancestors, and his present
family seat, and sees the wonderful heather-clad
hills extending down over the border, well into
Ihe middle of the northern county, it is hard to
realise that one is not in Scotland. And when we
remember that the name of " Grey " has been a
great one in Scotland front the earliest days, and
that original Scottish origin is claimed for this
noted family, it is not difficult for our Scottish
historian to lay some claim to our distinguished
Governor as a representative of the great mother
of peoples scattered throughout t:he world. Lord
Grey has also added to his many achievements
in a unique way by his memorable journey over-
land to and through the famous Hudson Bay and
Straits, being the first Governor-General of Canada
264

The Governors-General

to essay or accomplish this difficult journey. The
result of this trip has been, however, to show to
the outside world that Canada has a great ocean
gateway in the north that may some day rival the
St. Lawrence, and become a great shipping port
for the grains and other products of the ever-
growing West. Lady Grey, who has so endeared
herself to the Canadian people, is also through
her mother of the blood of the great historic House
of Lindsay of Balcarres, one of Scotland's most
noted families.

Our next Governor is to be of the Royal Stuart
blood, in the person of his Royal Highness the
Duke of Connaught, uncle of the King. This will
add but a more illustrious example to the long
list of Viceroys of Scottish blood who have repre-
sented their Sovereign in this the Scotland of the
New World.

265

CHAPTER XX

THE SCOTSMAN AND EDUCATION

Though guiding plough 'neath heather dune,

Or tiller of the herring sea,

Or jingling gold in Glesca' toon,

Or lad wV herd or parson's crook

Or canty clerk in far countrie,

Or proudsome laird o' Linnisdeer ; —

By corry, loch, or ingle nuik,

The Scotsman's nose, where'er ye speir,

Is no' far frae his specs' and buke.

.Anon.

IT has been truly said that perhaps the strongest
instinct of the Scottish people is that well-known
intense craving which they have ever had for know-
ledge and learning. This instinct is not limited
to the scholarly class alone, but is widely shared
"by the whole people to a greater extent than is
found in any other nation throughout the world.
It is especially strong in the natures of the great
financial adventurers in the Old World and jthe
Colonies. This accounts for the fact that so many
of them, like Andrew Carnegie, Lord Strathcona,
and Sir William Macdonald, have endowed learn-
ing and literature so largely. It was no uncommon
266

The Scotsman and Education

thing to find among the necessarily limited personal
effects of an early pioneer Scottish merchant of
Quebec, Hudson Bay, or Virginia, of the eighteenth
century], a number of well-chosen and well -thumbed
volumes of the classics. Even such a writer as
Horace was not excluded. Many of these men led
lives of hard, exacting, material, counting-house
toil. They were men in whom, from all appearances,
literary inclinations were the last thing to be ex-
pected. They were pain, hard-faced, often sordid
or commonplace appearing dealers in the virgin
markets of the material world ; and yet underneath
that outer husk of exacting mercantile ambition
there lay hidden the kernel of the intellect and
imagination, that strangely associated character-
istic which has so often rendered the successful
Scotsman such a mystery to his fellow-beings who
could not see below the surface of the everyday
man. It has been said that somewhere in every
real personality there lurks hidden the soul of a
poet. Certainly this is largely true of many Scots-
men famous in the successful out ways of the
material world. This larger wisdom, this under-
dream, this deep sympathy with the finer things
of life, which so many of these men have carried
with them into the dreary northern wilds, or other
remote places of rude and almost savage pioneer
life, explains why so many of them have proved
to be Nature's true gentlemen, with such fine
instincts for culture, on their return to the purlieus
of civilisation. This abtly ingrained or heredi-
tary love of schohi Co and refinement will also

267

The Scotsman in Canada

explain why so many of our Canadian Universities
and other seats of learning have been founded
by Scottish merchants and financiers, from whom,
as a class, in no other nationality would such an
intellect -worshipping impulse be expected, or even
regarded as possible.

It is this remarkable use or trusteeship of his
wealth, here and in the Old 'World, that sets the
Scottish millionaire or merchant prince apart from
all others of his class. B> reason of his innate
knowledge or desire, from the very first, how to use
his wealth when it has been acquired, he reveals
himself as a scion of the old Scottish aristocracy.
The desire to go back, to own the land, to be
a lord or laird, to found or aid a college or
university, is more than the mere material (am-
bition of success. It shows a deeper spirit. It
is often the spirit of a Highland mother acting
through her son of a Lowland name. It is often
the longing or harking back of a strain of gentle,
lordly, religious, military, or scholarly blood, still
working in and influencing the otherwise plain,
dour, practical business man of the present. This
may explain why the chief builder of the Canadian
Pacific Railway and a leading spirit in the
Hudson's Bay fur trade sent a regiment to help
his Queen and the Empire in South Africa. But
this (spirit in the Scotsman goes back even farther
in the blood than we suspect. Can we wonder at
this -refined impulse and instinct in the race when
we know that before the pays of Charlemagne a
great wave of the intell* °nt out from the
268

The Scotsman and Education

ancient kingdom of Caledonia, whose capital was
at Inverlochy in tae Scottish Highlands, and
influenced the civilisation of Europe. From
those remote days down to the period of James
the .Fifth and the great John Knox have Scotsmen
had high ideals of scholarship and the intellect.

Since then nowhere; outside of Scotland have the
children of the ancient mother shown this remark-
able characteristic more than in- Canada. In all
grades of our educational development, from the
University to the common school, the personality
and influence^ of the Scotsman have been promi-
nent. It is a significant fact in our intellectual
history, and one remarkable in the history of any
young country, that all of our leading Universities,
with scarcely one exception, and our other higher
institutions pf learningc have been from the first
established .and control sed by Scotsmen. This fact,
more than any other, s JDWS to how great an extent
Canada has been a New Scotland in character and
ideal, and certainly justifies the publication of a
work of this nature.

It can easily be understood that the colleges
in connection with the Presbyterian Church had
a Scottish origin. But when it is known that not
only the Anglican, Roman Catholic, Baptist, and
Methodist Colleges, but also the two great inde-
pendent Universities, have had a similar origin,
the importance of this becomes extremely
significant.

Without doubt the most^ prominent Scotsman
in connection with Cinadian higher education

269

The Scotsman in Canada

was the Honourable and Right Rev. John Strachan,
who, in addition to his work as a divine and states-
man, was Canada's greatest educationalist of the
first half of the nineteenth century.

(When the narrow mists of religious and party
prejudice have cleared away, it will be acknow-
ledged that the omitting of a biography of this
remarkable man from a series of works entitled
" Makers of Canada " was not merely a rank in-
justice to the memory of a great man, but was
robbing our people of a knowledge of one of the
most important personalities in the history of their
country.

It has not heretofore been pointed out that this
strong and militant scholar was the founder of
two of our leading Universities — Toronto and
Trinity ; that he was intended by the founder,
another Scotsman, to be tfi.e first Principal of a
third — McGill ; that he waji also the founder and
teacher of the first collegiate school in Upper
Canada, was also the founder of Upper Canada
College ; and, by his influence, established the
first group of grammar schools in Upper Canada.

(When this is realised by the great mass of
Canadians, they will wonder that so unique a fact
has been so long unchronicled and that his name
has remained unhonoured. Dr. Strachan, an
Aberdeen and St. Andrews' man, came out to
Canada for the especial purpose of taking charge
of the new college, which was one of the chief
dreams of that wise and earnest Governor, John
Graves Simcoe. This project, however, did not
270

I

The Scotsman and Education

mature ; and this, among other disappointments,
caused Simcoe to resign and leave the country
before the arrival of Strachan. But the latter
did not despair, though it was not until many years
after, when he had become a distinguished educa-
tionalist and divine, that he was able to carry out
his original educational ideal.

In the year 1827 he procured a charter and
acquired 500,000 acres for the endowment of what
was then called King's College, now the University
of Toronto.

Not only was this college the result of his un-
tiring exertions, but he became its first President
from 1827 to 1848, when he was succeeded by
another learned Scotsman, the Rev. Dr. McCaul,
who had been, from the opening of the college,
a leading professor, holding the chairs of Classic
Literature, Belles Lettres, Rhetoric, and Logic. In
the list of the first students fully one -half bore
Scottish names.

Many noted Scotsmen have since been identified
with Toronto University, among them Sir Daniel
Wilson, who succeeded Dr. McCaul as President ;
Professor Young, the greatest Canadian metaphy-
sician ; Presidents Loudon and Falconer, the latter
the present distinguished Head. All the Presidents
of Toronto University have been Scotsmen or men
of Scottish ancestry.

The Canadian Almanack for 1877 gives the fol-
lowing list of Scottish members of the University
Senate : — Visitor : Hon. D. A. Macdonald, Lieut. -
Governor. Senate : Hon. Thos. Moss, Rev. John

271

The Scotsman in Canada

McCaul, G. R. R. Cockburn, W. T. Aikin, M.D.,
John Fulton, A. McMurchy, Hon. J. C. Morrison,
Hon. A. Crooks, G. P. Young, R. Ramsay Wright,
John Boyd, J. McGibbon, J. H. Richardson, M.D.,
Jas. Bethune, Q.C., Jas. Loudon, M.A., J. Thor-
burn, M.D., T. Kirkland, M.A., James Fisher,
A. F. Campbell, T. W. Taylor, Laughlin McFar-
lane, Rev. Neill McNish, Hon. ,Wm. McMaster,
John McDonald, M.P., Daniel Wilson, LL.D.,
Rev. Daniel McDonald, Hon. C. S. Patterson.

To-day the University has greatly increased in
size and importance. But the list of Scottish
names associated with the senate and faculty has
also increased accordingly. Such distinguished
names as Falconer, Ramsay Wright, Macallum,
and McLennan are among those of a host of noted
scholars who to-day stand high in the world of
learning.

Toronto University, then King's College, was
the one educational institution for the whole
province, and was started under favourable
auspices. As the years went on, however, con-
troversies arose, chiefly because the college, under
its original charter and the influence of Dr.
Strachan, was distinctly a Church of England
institution, the Anglican being then the State
Church of Upper Canada, as the Roman Catholic
was and still remains that of Lower Canada. This
condition of affairs naturally caused a good deal
of ill-will and discontent, and the other Churches
demanded, and finally accomplished, the complete
separation of King's College from the Anglican
Church.
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The Scotsman and Education

Dr. Strachan, who had put so much of his life-
work into the founding of the college, might, if
he had been a man of less determined character,
have acquiesced in the fate of his college and
have allowed the idea of a purely secular college
to dominate the life of the province. But he was
made of sterner stuff, and was too true to the
principles of his Church, as he and others then
yiewed them, to stand idly by and see no Church of
England college for the training of the youth of
that communion. He went to work once more,
and, after some more years of strenuous effort,
saw Trinity University rise up under his hands as
the representative of the ideals and culture of the
Church he loved in the province.

The complete revolutionisation of King's
College by the University Act of 1849, in spite of
his earnest protestations, would have broken the
heart of a feebler and less persistent man. He
was of those — and there are many in this country
of his mind — who believe that religion and the
University life should not be divorced. He was
then in his old age, in his seventy-second year,
when he proceeded to England to raise funds for
the new Church of England University ; and he
succeeded, though in the face of many obstacles.

The third President of the University of Toronto
was Sir Daniel Wilson, the noted ethnologist,
whose " Prehistoric Man " ranks high in the
world's literature of anthropology. He was one of
a note'd Scottish family of scholars and scientists,
and his name will long be remembered in the

VOL. i. s 273

The Scotsman in Canada

history of the University as one of its most dis-
tinguished heads.

Professor Young, another noted teacher of Scot-
tish extraction, was a man of remarkable intellect,
and, had he only devoted his time to writing works
of philosophy, would have ranked among the
greatest metaphysicians on this continent. He had
in his nature all the best elements of the thinking
Scotsman, and in his time wielded a great influence
in leading the students to think seriously and
elementally regarding the problems of existence,
and to regard their studies as a part of the develop-
ment of their own character and their outlook on
life. *

Professor Ramsay Wright is distinguished in
scientific research.

Professor A. B. Macallum is regarded to-day
as our greatest biologist, and has received recog-
nition throughout the European scientific world.
A Canadian of Scottish parentage, he has all of
the elements of the pure Scotsman in his strenuous
individuality.

Professor John Cunningham McLennan, Direc-
tor of the Physical Laboratory and Professor of
Physics, is another noted Canadian scientist of
pure Scottish extraction who is pre-eminent in his
own field.

Professor Lash -Miller, a noted chemist, makes a
fourth Scotsman in the gifted group of scientists.

President Falcone::, like Dawson and Grant, is
a distinguished Nova Scotian, or New Scotland
man, who has become a scholar and educationalist.
274

The Scotsman and Education

Like Grant, he had the great advantage of educa-
tion in the Motherland. He studied when a lad
at the well-known grammar school in Edinburgh,
under the famous Professor Masson, the teacher
of Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Drtimmond, Barrie,
and a host of other notables, and who was later
Professor of Literature at Edinburgh University.
Masson's Life of Milton is the one great work
on the immortal poet, and his knowledge of Sir
Walter Scott and Edinburgh was the result of a
labour of love extending over a lifetime. I had
the good fortune to know him in his latter days,
and he seemed like a more genial and saner
Carlyle. I will never forget his summing up of
his pupil Stevenson in the following words : " He
strove to accomplish with hard labour what Scott
and Thackeray achieved with ease."

It must have been a great boon to Dr. Falconer
to be educated under such a man and in such a
company and atmosphere at this formative period
of his life. Thus we have, after a century of
colonial development, in Falconer and Peterson
the distinguished heads of our two great Canadian
Universities, two noted products of Scottish Educa-
tion both of the youth and the mature man.

McGill University, like Toronto, had Scots*
men for its founders ; and, like Toronto, con-
tinues to-day to have a Scotsman as its head,
and to have Scotsmen in Canada its principal
benefactors .

Like Toronto, it is a great secular University,
bearing the same relationship to English-speaking

275

The Scotsman in Canada

Quebec that Toronto does to Ontario, save that
McGill is not a provincial University.

In the year 1813 the Honourable James McGill,
a prominent and wealthy merchant of Montreal,
died, and left by his will to four trustees a parcel
of land as a site for a university or college —
" With a competent number of professors and
teachers to render such establishment effectual and
beneficial for the purpose intended."

He left, on the same conditions, the sum of
10,000 dollars to be expended in founding and
maintaining the college. He made but one pro-
viso, that his name should be given to the college,
showing the natural ambition of the Scotsman to
be identified with learning. The names of the
four trustees were those of prominent Scotsmen.
They were John Richardson, James Reid, James
Dunlop, of Montreal, and the Rev. John Strachan,
who was then the Rector of Cornwall in Upper
Canada.

The original idea of McGill was that the Rev.
John Strachan should be Principal of the Institute,
as the one man qualified to carry out his ideas.
This included the stipulation that the college should
be a Church of England University.

Sir William Dawson, in his sketch of McGill
and the University, says, with regard to this
matter : " Mr. McGill's resolution to dispose of
his property in this way was not a hasty death-
bed resolve, but a mature and deliberate decision."
Sir Williarn. gives as the two principal reasons for
his action, first, " The long agitation on the part
276

The Scotsman and Education

of some of the more enlightened English colonists
in behalf of the establishment of a University
and a system of schools " ; and of the influence of
Dr. (afterwards Bishop) Strachan, Sir William
adds : " It seems at least highly probable that
Strachan had a large share in giving to Mr.
McGill's wishes the form which they afterwards
assumed." It will be seen also that Strachan was
the only scholar on the board of trustees, the other
three being Montreal merchants.

James McGill, the founder of the University, was
a native of Glasgow, Scotland, where he was born
on October 6, 1744. He came to Canada before
the American Revolution, and was early engaged
in the North-West fur trade. With his brother
Andrew he became one of the leading merchants
of Montreal. He was Colonel of the City Militia,
and in 1812 was made a Brigadier-General of
the Reserve. He was also a member of the Legis-
lative and Executive Councils. He died in 1813.

The after-history of McGill University showed
the constant supervision, care, and benevolence of
Scotsmen. The delay in the foundation of the
University, caused by litigation, prevented Dr.
Strachan becoming its head ; and another noted
Scotsman, and an Anglican divine, the Rev. John
Bethune, became its first Principal. He was a
son of the Rev. John Bethune, the Presbyterian
pastor of Williamstown, and had been a pupil of
Dr. Strachan ; hence his conversion to the
Anglican Church.

Senator Ferrier was President of the college

277

The Scotsman in Canada

Council in 1852, and in 1855 there was a revival
of its fortunes, and Dr. (afterwards Sir William)
Dawson, the noted scientist and educationalist, be-
came its head. Dr. Dawson was a native of Pictou
and a pupil at the famous academy there. He
became as noted in the field of geology as Sir
Daniel Wilson was in anthropology. Under his
able management the University developed during
the middle and latter years of the nineteenth cen-
tury, without any State assistance, into one of the
greatest Universities in the Empire. On its senate
and among its professors were many Scotsmen
famous in finance and learning.

In 1 88 1 the treasurer was Mr. Hugh Ramsay,
and the benefactors of that date included Sir
William Macdonald, Mr. David Greenshields, Mr.
Andrew Stuart, and Miss Scott. The first Dean
of the Medical Faculty was the noted Dr. George
W. Campbell, and a great friend of the University
was Sir William Logan, the eminent geologist.

But another great Scotsman was to arise for
the weal of the college in the well-known Scottish-
Canadian financier, Peter Redpath. He was born
in Montreal in 1821. His father, John Redpath,
was, says Sir William Dawson, " one of those
strong, earnest, pious, and clear-headed men of
whom Scotland has supplied so many to build up
the 'colonies of the Empire.'* Of the son Sir
William says : " As an educational benefactor, the
name of Mr. Peter Redpath will ever be remem-
bered in connection with the Museum, the Library,
and the University chair which bears his name."
278

The Scotsman and Education

Appointed as Governor of the college in 1864,
he gave of his means and time to the work ;
even after his removal to England in 1880 his
interest in the University never flagged.

The corner-stone of the Museum was laid by
Lord Lome, the present Duke of Argyll, in 1888,
and the Library was opened in 1893 by Lord
Aberdeen. Mr. Redpath's distinguished career as
a financier and philanthropist closed in February,
1894, at his place, the Manor House, Chislehurst,
England. He died in his seventy-third year,
widely mourned on both sides of the ocean. The
Rev. Dr. Me Vicar, the venerable and distinguished
Principal of the Presbyterian Theological College,
and one of Canada's greatest Scotsmen, said, in
his address at the public funeral service held in
Montreal in Mr. Redpath's honour : " He was a;
man of good ability, sound judgment, refined and
elevated taste, and excellent culture ; a lover of
literature and art, and, what is infinitely better,
a lover of truth and the God of truth. . . .
Gentle, amiable, yet where purity and principle
were concerned he was as firm as a rock."

Among many other noted Scotsmen connected
with McGill were the Hon. Alexander Morris, Rev.
Dr. Cook, Rev. Dr. Me Vicar, and the Rev. Dr.
Douglas, one of the greatest divines arid the
leading orator of the Canadian Methodist Church.

We now come to the latest period in the life
of McGill, and with it we find associated four
noted men, three of them distinguished Scottish
Canadians — Lord Strathcona, his noted cousin,

279

The Scotsman in Canada

Lord Mountstephen, Sir William Macdonald, and
Principal Peterson.

Lord Mountstephen, who has done so much for
education and the general alleviation and improve-
ment of life in Montreal, is a distinguished
financier. He has lived for many years in
England.

His famous cousin, Sir Donald Alexander Smith,
Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, is the greatest
living Scottish Canadian, and, with Sir John A.
Macdonald, stands pre-eminent among men of
Scottish birth who have been builders of the
Canadian portion of the Empire.

On October 31, 1889, he, then Sir Donald
Smith, was inaugurated as Chancellor of McGill
University. The Governors, at that date, of Scot-
tish extraction were P. Redpath, H. McLennan,
E. B. Greenshields, and S. Findlay. The Principal
was Sir Willaim Dawson. The Fellows were Pro-
fessor A. Johnson, Rev. Dr. McVicar, J. R.
Dougall, Rev. Dr. Clark -Murray, Rev. Dr. Hen-
derson, Dr. G. Ross, Rev. James Barclay, Dr.
Robt. Craik, and the Rev. Dr. Barbour.

Sir Donald A. Smith succeeded the Hon.
Senator Ferrier, who had long been an able and
earnest chairman of the affairs of the University.
All these names, it will be seen, are Scottish, and
significant of the Caledonian nursing of McGill.

Among other generous benefactors the name of

one other man stands forth pre-eminent as a great

friend of education in Lower Canada, namely, Sir

William Macdonald. This able and generous

280

The Scotsman and Education

Scotsman has been more than princely in his dona-
tions to McGill and its important adjunct, Mac-
donald College. He has been an ardent follower
in the footsteps of McGill, Redpath, Strathcona,
and Mountstephen . It is remarkable what a keen
interest all these great and successful Scottish
financiers have taken in intellectual institutions.
But in none has it been so strong a personal matter,
one might almost say an inspiration, as in the case
of Sir William Macdonald. As Strachan in-
fluenced James McGill, so there is no doubt that
McVicar, in the past, inspired Sir William, or at
least showed him how much could be done in the
direction his benefactions have taken.

McGill has had many other friends, such as
the late Sir George Drummond, who was one of
Canada's leading merchant princes and financiers,
Senator Robert Mackay, and others, who have
aided the cause of education in Montreal.

Sir William Macdonald has a strong ally and
friend in his schemes for McGill in the present
able and learned Principal William Peterson,
C.M.G. Principal Peterson is a distinguished
Scottish educationalist, late of Dundee University.
He was born in Edinburgh in 1856, is a graduate
of the famous Edinburgh High School and Edin-
burgh University, and a student of the Universities
of Gottingen and Oxford. He is a trustee of the
Carnegie Foundations for Learning, and a Com-
panion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George.
He has charge of one of the largest Universities
in the Empire, and is a great administrator and

281

The Scotsman in Canada

possesses the unique power of interesting others
in his work and gaming the co-operation of
practical men.

Under his guidance the influence of McGill is
spreading abroad over the Dominion, and is closely
affiliated with the smaller Universities in the Mari-
time and Western Provinces.

Another noted University, which is perhaps more
than any other distinctly Scottish in its origin, is
Queen's, the great Presbyterian University of
Canada. Just as Toronto University means largely
the work of Strachan and Wilson, and McGill
stands for McGill, Strachan, and Dawson, so the
history of Queen's means largely the life struggles
and ideals of another great Scottish Canadian, the
late Principal Grant. Like Dawson, he was a
scion of the Pictou stock, and thus the New Scot-
land or Nova Scotia of Sir William Alexander,
though not so noted in the world of commerce
or agriculture, has been a remarkably intellectual
mother to Quebec and Ontario, giving them, as
she has in succession, four leading University
Presidents and distinguished educationalists — Sir
William Dawson, Principal Grant, and, latest of all,
President Falconer, of Toronto University, and
Queen's present able Principal, Dr. Gordon. It is
a remarkable fact concerning Nova Scotia that her
Scotsmen from Alexander down have not only been
scholars and men of letters, but also strong indi-
vidualities, men of the world and battlers for the
right. They have been splendid administrators
and organisers, and prominent among Canadians
282

The Scotsman and Education

in this respect was he who was, perhaps, Canada's
greatest all-round University head, Principal
Grant.

It is true that Grant had the faculty of grouping
other great workers about him. One in particular,
his great life-long friend and brother Scotsman,
Sir Sandford Fleming, upheld his arm and did
great service for Queen's. But she owed most, as
Sir Sandford himself has testified, to the marvellous
all-round ability and human personality of George
Munro Grant. Our University life may have had
more profound scholars, but as a man who wrought
for all the best ideals of a Scottish University,
religious and national, Grant stands alone in our
national life.

When one thinks of Grant, beautiful old King-
ston, the Aberdeen of Canada, with its solid old
Scottish stone buildings in their beautiful lake-
side park with its stately elms, is brought to mind.
It seems like a sort of instinct that Presbyterianism
should have fixed upon Kingston, the ancient
capital of Upper Canada, as the seat of its own
particular University. It may have been the
vicinity of so much good building stone (for Scots-
men dearly love a good solid foundation to their
dwellings as well as to their faith and philosophy)
which guided them to this place. But at any rate,
of all Canadian cities Kingston has been, in her
own peculiar way, a city of Scotsmen and h^s
been governed by Scotsmen.

From the days of the Scottish United Empire
Loyalists this particular breed of men have made

283

The Scotsman in Canada

it their home. So much is this so that the one
noted family, the Cartwrights, would stand out
alone as an exception were it not that they are
closely allied with sturdy Ulster-Scottish stock,
and were the first friends and allies of the famous
John Strachan, who here found his sole welcome
and encouragement on landing from the mother
country. On viewing these solid, plain, dignified
University buildings, standing on their great slope
among the splendid old elm-trees facing the lake,
one is struck by the whole Scottish atmosphere
of the place. But the visitor wonders at the mas-
sive, quaint old stone residence of the Principal,
and at the strong likeness, inside and out, to an
old Scottish manor-house, until he is informed that
it was built by and was the residence for years
of that other old Scottish Episcopalian divine and
Churchman, the Venerable Archdeacon Okill
Stuart, who was one of Kingston's earliest leading
citizens, and a prominent Churchman and divine
of old Upper Canada.

Here in this old city three distinguished Canadians
were reared, educated, and started their careers,
namely, Sir John Alexander Macdonald, Sir Oliver
Mowat, and Sir Alexander Campbell.

The first of these three remarkable men wag
one of the founders of Queen's, being present at
the meeting held in St. Andrew's Church, King-
ston, on December 18, 1839, for the purpose of
organising and raising funds for the endowment
of the college. Sir John's name is also among the
following twenty-six on the charter granted to
284

The Scotsman and Education

the University, under date October 16, 1841 :
Revs. Robert McGill, Alexander Gale, John
McKenzie, Wm. Rintoul, W. T. Leach, Jas.
George, John Machar, Peter Colin Campbell, John
Cruikshank, Alex. Matheson, John Cook, the Hon.
John Hamilton, Jas. Crooks, Wm. Morris, Archd.
McLean, John McDonald, Peter McGill, Ed. W.
Thompson ; Thos. McKay, Esq., James Morris,
Esq., John Ewart, Esq., John Steele, Esq., John
Mowat, Esq., Alex. Pringle, Esq., John Strange,
Esq.

The result of the efforts made was that the
college was first opened on March 9, 1842, in a
small frame house on Colbourn Street. The staff
consisted of two professors, who had charge of
eleven students. The first Principal was the Rev.
Dr. Lidell, who was also Professor of Philosophy,
Natural and Moral Logic, Hebrew, Church History,
and Theology. Dr. Lidell's only assistant was the
learned and brilliant Rev. Peter Colin Campbell,
who afterwards became Principal of Aberdeen Uni-
versity, and who was Professor of Classics. A
list of the first students will be interesting. They
were Thomas Wardrope, Lachlan McPherson, John
McKinnon, Angus McColl, W. A. Ross, Robert
Wallace, John B. Mowat, Wm. Bain, John Bonner,
H. A. Farndon, and Wm. Kerr. During the
second season Professor Williamson was added
to the staff, and Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Wardrope
as Assistant in Classics. The college soon moved
into a more commodious building on Princess
Street, opposite St. Andrew's Church, and the

285

The Scotsman in Canada

Preparatory School was formed. The Presby-
terians of Upper Canada donated generously, and
soon, with Dr. Sampson as leader, a medical
faculty was established. In the drawing-room of
Mr. John A. Macdonald's residence a meeting was
called, and there was settled the basis of the School
of Medicine to be affiliated with the University.
Queen's claims to be the first University opened in
Ontario or Upper Canada, and its first registered
student was George (afterwards Dr.) Bell, since
Registrar of the University. It was the first
University in the country open to students of all
creeds. For years Queen's struggled with diffi-
culties, financial and otherwise ; yet in 1868 it had
107 students, 14,000 dollars revenue, and 35,000
dollars in capital. At this time the Rev. Dr.
Snodgrass was Principal.

During the next twenty years, under the Prin-
cipalship of Dr. Grant, the University made her
most marvellous advance, until in 1889 she had
425 students, nearly 40,000 dollars revenue, and
500,000 dollars capital.

Principal Grant's personal appeal to the Pres-
byterians of Upper Canada was one of the mo3t
remarkable efforts for University education ever
made by a single man in Canada. In 1887-8 he
raised for the Permanent Endowment Fund the
sum of 250,000 dollars.

In December, 1889, this University held its first

Jubilee celebration, and granted an honorary

degree to Lord Stanley, the Governor-General.

Among the leading speakers were His Excellency

286

The Scotsman and Education

the Governor-General ; Sir John A. Macdonald,
a founder, and Premier of the Dominion ; Mr.
(afterwards Sir) Sandford Fleming, the able and
indefatigable Chancellor of the University ; Sir
Alexander Campbell, Lieut. -Governor of Ontario,
and the son of one of the founders ; Major-
General Cameron, Commandant of the Royal
Military College ; Sir James Grant, of Ottawa ;
the Hon. G. Wi. Ross, Minister of Education for
Ontario ; Rev. J. A. McDonald, Hon. Wm.
McDougall, and the Rev. Principal McVicar, of
Montreal College.

The growth of Queen's has kept pace with the
development of the country, and one at least of
her professors, Dr. vWatson, has a world-wide
reputation as a thinker. In Principal Grant the
University had a head whose herculean labours in
the college hall, as well as among the many bene-
factors of the college and in public affairs, ma'de
him one of the most prominent personalities in
the Dominion. He and the distinguished Chan-
cellor developed the institution in a spirit of loyalty
to the British Crown, and to the Dominion as a
part of the Empire.

In 1902 Principal Grant died, mourned by all,
his death proving a great loss to the intellectual
life of the whole Dominion. He was succeeded by
Dr. Gordon, also a Nova Scotian, the present
scholarly and able Principal, who has done much
to carry on the work which Dr. Grant made
possible by his energy, wisdom, and dominant will.

287

CHAPTER XXI

THE SCOTSMAN AND EDUCATION

(continued)

THE Roman Catholic Church in Upper Canada
also owes its early foundation and develop-
ment to a great Scotsman, the Right Rev.
Alexander Macdonell, its first bishop in the
province .

Bishop Macdonell, like Bishop Strachan, was
from the first an earnest and persistent worker
in the cause of education. He was a very dis-
tinguished man, and the Roman Church owes much
to this great Highlander, who was the pioneer
apostle of its tenets and ideals in what is now
the Province of Ontario.

He was of good birth and old Highland lineage,
and yet_a man who had a great .love for the wide
mass of humanity about him ; and the memory
he left behind him at his death was one that
showed how universally beloved and respected he
had been by all classes and creeds of the com-
munity. Bishop Macdonell was born on July 17,
1762, in the Glen of Urquhart, Loch Ness, Scot- -
land. Sent abroad for education with the idea
of orders, he spent some time at Paris and Valla-
288

The Scotsman and Education

dolid, in Spain, where he was or.dained to the
priesthood in 1787. The story of his regiment
and its coming to Canada is told in the account of
the Glengarry settlements. This gave him the
name of the Warrior-priest, which he so well
deserved. He made his '.headquarters at St.
Raphael's, where he later raised another regiment,
the Glengarry Fencibles, of which he was chap-
lain throughout the war of 1812-15. For his
general patriotic services he received a pension
from the British Government, which ultimately
reached the sum of £500 a year, at which amount *'
it was continued to his successors in office in the
Bishopric of Kingston. In the year 1819 he was-"
created Vicar-General and Administrator of Upper "
Canada, with the title of Bishop of Rhoesina. In.
1826 he was appointed first Roman Bishop of
the Upper Province, taking the title of Bishop of*
Regiopolis, or Kingston.

Here he founded in 1837 the College of
Regiopolis, which afterwards, in 1866, was granted
powers as a University. The Bishop did much
for this institution, and was in reality its sole
founder and friend, and in this work was succeeded
by his nephew, the Rev. Angus Macdonell, who
became ultimately head of the college. Bishop!
Macdonell worked hard for Catholic education in
the province, and succeeded in getting grants front •
the British Government for Catholic school teachers ~
throughout the province. There is a vast amount
of correspondence in the Canadian State Papers
relating to the Bishop and his work. He stands
VOL. I. T 289

The Scotsman in Canada

out prominently as a man, a statesman, and a
scholar ; and belongs to that golden age of the
Empire and Canada when some of the leading
spirits who guided and controlled the community
were scholars and divines and were not all
politicians. In his day he had several compeers ;
and chief among; them was his fellow-Scotsman,
fellow-scholar, fellow-divine, and, like himself, a
Member of the Provincial Government, the Hon.
and Very Rev. John Strachan. These two men
had much in common and worked together for the
common good.

Another friend of the Bishop was the A.iglican
Archdeacon Okill Stuart, of Kingston, another
Scotsman, who wielded a great public influence ;
and another was the Ulster-born Scotsman, the
Rev. Thomas Campbell, the first Rector of Belle-
ville, and a distinguished graduate ol Glasgow
University. Mr. Campbell was a special friend
of the Bishop, and they had a mutual regard for
each other, as men of Highland blood and birth
usually have, though one was a Macdonell and
the other a Campbell. They were both, in a way,
statesmen and men of affairs, and gentlemen of
^the old school of a fine culture, who regarded
olfV* W •"" their cure of souls to extend to the weal of the
w^whole community as well as of the mere individual.
*/ Both had a great influence in the common com-
i^ munity, and they were on the same side with strong
political affiliations, and had very positive opinions
te» as to the importance of a good classical educa-
tion. It was a day, in spite of certain traditions
290

The Scotsman and Education

held to-day concerning it, of a broad religious
toleration on the part of men of culture, and a:
time when religion was more respected than it is
to-day, and when it had a greater influence through
the whole community. The Roman Church has
great reason to be proud of this distinguished and
faithful prelate, whose life should be written as
a testimony to the work of the man himself and
his relationship to the important events of his day
in the old Upper Province.

We have already shown the Scottish origin of
many of our Canadian universities ; and we now
come to another one, connected with the great
Baptist Church of Canada, McMaster University,
which, like Dalhousie and McGill, carries its story
in its Scottish name.

It will have to be more and more recognised,
as time goes on, that religion and education have
ever been, and must still be, closely connected.

This has been proved in the past by the fact
that our leading educationalists and founders of
colleges and universities have been divines.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the
history of the Baptist Church in Canada, and in
the life and ideals of the Rev. Robert Alexander
Fyfe, who was to some extent the John Strachan
of the Baptist Church in this country. Like
Strachan, he was of Scottish parentage, but, unlike
him, was born in Canada. His parents had come
from Scotland in 1809, and' the noted divine
and educationalist was born near Montreal on
October 20, 1816.

291

The Scotsman in Canada

His parents were evidently Presbyterians, as he
joined the Baptist Church in his nineteenth year,
and then left a mercantile life for the ministry
of that Church. The necessity he was under of
having to go to the United States to prepare for
his life's work must have early impressed him
with the idea of the need of a college for his
denomination in Canada. However, after a year
of study at Madison College, New York State, he
entered the newly established seminary at Mon-
treal, where he spent two years. Then, after five
years in American Baptist colleges, he was
ordained at Brooklyn, Massachusetts. But his
strong patriotism, which was ever a marked
characteristic of the man, drew him back to
Canada. He at once took an active part in the
vexed question of King's College and the clergy
reserves, and soon rose to prominence. After some
years in pastoral and academic work at the
Montreal seminary, he in 1859 founded the paper
the Canadian Baptist. Dr. Fyfe's life-work was
the founding of Woodstock College. This was a
residential seminary for young people of both sexes,
with a theological department for those who de-
sired to enter the ministry. In 1857 this college
was founded, and was granted a charter under
the name of the *' Canadian Literary Institute,'*
which was afterwards changed to that of
" Woodstock Academy."

Dr. Fyfe became its first Principal ; and for
eight years was its sole teacher of theology.

The Toronto Baptist College, now McMaster
292

The Scotsman and Education

University, was, as its name shows, the result of
a Scotsman's liberality and ideal.

This important institution of learning was
founded in 1881 as Toronto Baptist College by
the Honourable William McMaster. This gentle-
man had been for years a generous contributor
toward the support of Woodstock College. In
1887 it was incorporated as McMaster Univer-
sity, representing the Baptist Church of Canada.

This University is now well equipped with an
able staff of scholarly and earnest men. The
building, a fine structure, stands at the north of
Queen's Park among the large group of colleges
that has made the old park so famous as a place
of education.

Even Victoria University was influenced, though
indirectly, by Scottish educationalists.

The founder of the University was really that
noted educationalist, Dr. Egerton Ryerson. But
it is interesting to know that Dr. Ryerson was
educated as a boy and youth under James (after-
wards Judge) Mitchell, a noted Grammar School
master, who came to Canada from Scotland with
Dr. Strachan.

Thus we see that this wonderful influence of
Scottish learning permeated the whole early life
of all parts of the Dominion, and has continued
to do so ever since.

It is also interesting to know that the first
corner-stone of Victoria, then the Upper Canada
Academy, was laid on June 7, 1832, by a Scotsman,
Dr. Gilchrist, of Colborne.

293

The Scotsman in Canada

The Province of Nova Scotia is also well
equipped with Universities, the principal one
being Dalhousie, at Halifax. All of these Mari-
time halls of learning were founded by Scotsmen,
and carried on largely by men of Scottish extrac-
tion and education.

Dalhousie College had the honour of being
founded by one of Canada's finest Governors, Lord
Dalhousie, who was then Lieutenant -Governor of
that province. He is referred to in the chapter on
the Governors -General. He was a man of broad
mind and scholarly attainments, and was desirous
of advancing culture in the New World. Before he
was appointed Governor -General of Canada he was
for a year Governor of Nova Scotia (1819-20).

During the war of 1812-15 with the United
States the port of Customs in Maine was seized
and held for some time by the Governor of Nova
Scotia, Sir John Sherbrooke. The Customs
revenues, collected during that occupation, were
set aside by the British Government for expendi-
ture within the province. Lord Dalhousie, who
succeeded, was authorised to expend it as he
pleased on any local improvement. Following the
bent of his inclination, he saw his opportunity,
and determined to found a seminary for the higher
branches of education on the plan and principle
of the Edinburgh Academy, such an institution
being then much needed in the province . In 1 8 2 1
the college was founded and given the name of
Dalhousie College, after its noble patron and
founder. It was designed to be non -sectarian,
294

The Scotsman and Education

and " open to all occupations and sects of
religion."

The original Board of Governors, appointed by
the Crown, consisted of the Governor-General of
British North America, the Lieutenant -Governor
of Nova Scotia, the Anglican Bishop, the Chief
Justice and President of the Council, the Provincial
Treasurer, and the Speaker of the Assembly. Lord
Dalhousie's intention was to establish one single
non-sectarian University for all Nova Scotia. With
this idea in view, the Board of Governors strove
unsuccessfully to form' a union with King's College.

It was not until 1838 that the college was
organised under a Scottish President, the Rev. Dr.
McCulloch, who in 1816 had founded Pictou
Academy. He was one of Canada's great pioneers
of learning. Dr. Mackay says of him : • " He was
the power in the country from his advent. He
made Pictou a centre to which colonists came.
The clergy looked to him' as their natural leader
and supported his educational propaganda.'! He
was, in short, much such a man as Strachan was
in the Anglican Church in Upper Canada. Dr.
McCulloch was a hard and energetic student and
a noted naturalist. His death came as a great
loss to Nova Scotia.

It must be admitted that though Dalhousie was
avowedly non-sectarian, that its head and pro-
fessors were all of the Church of Scotland. Uni-
versity powers were conferred in 1841. President
McCulloch died in 1843, and the college was soon
after temporarily closed. It was not until 1863

295

The Scotsman in Canada

that the present University was re-established, an
Act being passed carrying out as nearly as possible
the design of its original founders. In 1868 a
Faculty of Medicine was organised, and in 1883 a
Faculty of Law. The Rev. James Ross, another fine
Scottish scholar, who had studied under Principal
McCulloch at Pictou and had been head of Truro
Academy, was made Principal of the college. He
was Professor of Ethics and Political Economy.
He was the son of a clergyman from Alyth, in
Forfarshire, who settled at Pictou in 1795. Dr.
Ross was born there in 1 8 1 1 . Many professor-
ships were endowed in the college by successful
Scotsmen — five by Mr. George Munro, a Nova
Scotian in New York City ; and three by Mr.
Alexander McLeod, of Halifax.

The University of King's College, the oldest
University in Canada, was founded by a dis-
tinguished Ulster Scotsman, the Right Rev. Charles
Inglis, the first Anglican bishop of Nova Scotia.

A sketch of Bishop Inglis's life is given in the
chapter on Churches. He was a learned divine
and a great missionary bishop to a poor and
scattered people of the United Empire Loyalist
stock, and was, in a sense, the founder of the
Anglican Church in Canada. The life of such a
man should be written. It would cover a valuable
period in our early history, and would be of great
service in stimulating the hearts and minds of
coming generations. He was a scion of the great
Scottish House of Inglis, which has produced some
noted men. His branch had gone into Ulster at the
Scottish settlements early in the seventeenth
296

The Scotsman and Education

century. He got a charter for King's College,
which was granted by George the Third in 1802.
It was, and still is, distinctly an Anglican Univer-
sity, and, for this reason, has never been able to
compete with Dalhousie, which has been largely
non-sectarian.

The chief Roman Catholic college of Nova
Scotia, St. Francis Xavier's College, was also
founded by a Scotsman, the Right Rev. Dr.
McKinnon, Bishop of Arichat. It was established
at Antigonish in 1854, and in 1866 was created
a University.

The University of New Brunswick was founded
largely under the direction and advice of one of
its commissioners, Mr. J. W. (afterwards Sir
William) Dawson, the distinguished Scottish-
Canadian Principal of McGill University.

Mount Allison Wesleyan College and Univer-
sity of New Brunswick has owed its existence to
the benefaction of a noted merchant of Sackville,
C. F. Allison, of Scottish extraction and a worthy
member of that noted old South Scotland family.
; One cannot close this short account of Mari-
time educational institutions founded by Scottish
ideals and enterprise without a word for that re-
markable old seat of pioneer learning, Pictou
Academy, which was founded by the Rev. Dr.
McCulloch, and which was, in a sense, the " Eton "
of many noted Scottish Canadians, such as Dawson
and Grant. It was in many senses the pioneer school
of Scottish scholarship in the Maritime settlements,
and should not be forgotten even in this day of
vast technical institutes called Universities, where

297

The Scotsman in Canada

the once loved " humanities " are crowded out in
the interests of monetary considerations.

Noted professors of Scottish extraction are
numerous in all our colleges. Dr. Paxton Young
was a distinguished metaphysician. He has already
been mentioned.

The Rev. Michael Willis, D.D., LL.D., was one
of the Principals of Knox College. He was born
at Greenock, Scotland, in 1798, and educated at
Glasgow University. With Dr. Willis were asso-
ciated at Knox College the Rev. Dr. Burns, Pro-
fessor Young, and the Rev. Dr. Caven, who
succeeded him. He retired in 1870. The Rev.
William Caven was born in Kirkcolm, Wigtown-
shire, in 1830. He came, on both sides, of
Covenanter stock. Dr. Caven came to Canada
in 1847 with his parents, and studied for the
ministry under the Rev. William Proudfoot and
the Rev. Alexander McKenzie. William Proud-
foot was born in Scotland in 1787 and died in
1851. He was an early missionary in Upper
Canada and the founder of the Presbyterian Church
at London, Ontario. Vice -Chancellor Proudfoot
and the Rev. Dr. Proudfoot were his sons.

The Rev. John Hugh MacKerras was Profes-
sor of Classics in Queen's University. He was
born at Nairn, Scotland, in 1832. His father
was a schoolmaster. The Rev. D. H. Me Vicar,
Principal of the Presbyterian College at Montreal,
was born near Campbeltown in Kintyre, Argyll-
shire, in 1831. He was one of the most
distinguished divines of the Presbyterian Church
in Canada.
298

The Scotsman and Education

Among the most important and interesting of
Canada's educational institutions was the old
Toronto Grammar School, now known as the
Jarvis Street Collegiate Institute.

This school was founded by a Scotsman, and
has been conducted for over a century largely
by Scotsmen. In 1807 an Act was passed estab-
lishing district Grammar Schools in Upper Canada.
The Home District School was located in the town
of York, and the trustees were, with two excep-
tions, all Scotsmen. These were the Rev. George
O'Kill Stuart, John Small, Duncan Cameron,
Samuel Smith, and William Graham. It was
the first public school in the county of York, and
was opened on June i, 1807. The first master
was the Rev. George O'Kill Stuart. He was
born at Fort Hunter, on the Erie Canal, in 1776.
His father, the Rev. John Stuart, was a clergy-
man of the Church of England, the son of a
Presbyterian family of the Ulster Scotsmen in the
North of Ireland. His history will be given in
the chapter on the Scotsmen in the Churches.

He was succeeded, as master of the school, in
1812 by the Rev. John Strachan, who was suc-
ceeded in turn by the Rev. Samuel Armour, born
in Scotland, who had charge until 1825. Another
Ulster Scotsman, Marcus C. Crombie, became head-
master in 1838. He was born in 1800 in Dun-
given, County Derry, Ulster. His family had
removed from Scotland. In 1872 Dr. Archibald
MacMurchy was appointed Rector, and he has
carried on the best traditions of this famous
school.

299

TJie Scotsman in Canada

Among later trustees were David Buchan, the
Rev. Dr. Barclay, of old St. Andrew's Church,
and the Honourable John McMurich.

The school has a long list of distinguished
graduates, who fill important positions in all walks
of life throughout the Dominion.

It will be of additional interest in surveying the
field of common school education to discover that
nearly all the heads of education in the different
provinces are Scotsmen by descent, as instanced in
the Superintendents of Education for Nova Scotia
and New Brunswick and the Deputy Minister of
Education for Ontario.

Dr. A. H. Mackay, the able and energetic
Superintendent for Nova Scotia, is a scion of that
great fighting clan of Northern Scotland, and his
ancestors lived in Rogart, Sutherlandshire, the
home of Sir John A. Macdonald's forbears. He
is an accomplished scientist, as well as an edu-
cationalist, and has done much for education and
learning in his province, being also a prominent
member of many learned societies. He is the
editor for Nova Scotia of the Educational Review.

Dr. Hay, Superintendent of Education in New
Brunswick, is, like Dr. Mackay, another noted
Scottish educationalist and scholar. Like Dr.
Mackay, he is a prominent Fellow of one of the
scientific sections of the Royal Society of Canada.
He is the editor, for New Brunswick, of one of
Canada's finest educational journals, the Educa-
tional Review.

Dr. Colquhoun, Deputy Minister of Education
for Ontario, is a man of high ability as a writer,
300

TJie Scotsman and Education

scholar and librarian. He was intimately con-
nected with Canada's grand old librarian, another
noted Scotsman, Dr. James Bain, late head of the
Toronto City Library, and the founder of Canada's
finest Reference Library. Dr. Colquhoun has
taken a deep interest in all questions connected
with the intellectual development of the province
which he so ably serves.

In closing this necessarily imperfect account of

the Scotsman in Canadian education one could

^ive, were there room, an immense list of pro-

'essors and teachers and institutions like the

amous Gait High School largely founded and

erved by Scotsmen. There is great need of a

ood history of education in this country, and

hen it is written it will be found that in this

iportant field the Scotsman has largely predomi-

ited.

Reference must also be made to a new and

portant development in our country in the direc-

i of technical education, as so far evinced in

Macdonald College, and in this connection the

;t significant movement is that m'ade by the

i. W. L. McKenzie King in establishing the

imission on Technical Education, which is now-

,ged in studying thoroughly the whole ques-

in Canada and in outside countries.

hat is most remarkable about this Commis-

is the fact that not only is the founder a

"nent Scottish-Canadian statesman, scholar,

fublic servant, and the virtual founder of our

ir Department, but nearly the whole Cora-

i is made up of noted Scottish Canadians,

The Scotsman in Canada

such as Professor Robertson, Professor Bryce, and
the Honourable John Armstrong, assisted by three
other able Scotsmen, Gilbert Murray, David
Forsyth, and James Simpson. It is expected that
this Commission will do much to aid the cause
of technical education in Canada. That its
members should happen to be Scotsmen is addi-
tional witness of what Scotsmen are doing for
Canada.

Professor Robertson is widely known as a noted
educationalist and an authority on nature -study
and agriculture. He was the originator of Mac-
donald College, the first school of its class in
Canada. Dr. Bryce, who is the author of the
second volume in this history, that dealing witl
Western Canada, is the best living authority amon£
Canadian writers on Western Canada. He has hac
a long and successful career as an educationalis
and scholar and writer on historical and othe
subjects. He belongs to a noted Scottish-Canadis
family, one of his brothers being Dr. P. H. Bryc
the accomplished head of the Dominion Hea7
Department at Ottawa. Professor Bryce was c
of the founders of the University of Manitoba, .•
has for years been identified with education
that province. He is a Past-President of
Royal Society of Canada and is a membei
the British Association. The other members of
Commission are also men who have made a <
study of the question of education. Thus w>
that from its earliest history to the presen.
Scotsmen have been prominent in the educa,
development of our country.
302

CHAPTER XXII

THE SCOTSMAN IN THE CHURCHES

Where is that land, o'er what lone sea,

Where never broodeth Piety ? —

Where ceaseth not the week-day din

Of toil ; nor Sabbath bells begin

To chime their solemn sancturied hour,

When reverence wakes, and love hath power ? —

Reveal that land ; and thou wilt see

A place of no great race to be.

IN dealing with the Scotsman in Canadian
religious life, we must necessarily commence
with the great Presbyterian Church, which, nohap
how the larger portion of its members may
gird strongly against the union of Church and
State, yet has been for centuries virtually the State
Church, and for centuries will remain the National
Church, of Scotland. To think of Scotland (as
apart from Presbyterianism is, as it were, to con-
template a man apart from his soul. The greater
history of the rugged Old Land is that of Knox
and Chalmers, Drummond and Carlyle, and a host
of other spiritually-minded souls who have guided
Scotland, or set her by the ears in all the rancour
of theological and metaphysical strife.

303

The Scotsman in Canada

In spite of many weaknesses — one strong one
of to-day being that she has ceased to act as a
community— Canada has good reason to admire
the great Church of Scotland within her borders.
No religious organisation to-day shows such a
splendid group of strong, individual, intellectual
personalities as does the Presbyterian Church
among her clergy, and this is especially notable
in a Church famous for the active part taken by
her laymen in Church work.

In dealing with this and other Churches we are
confronted with the fact that as many of the lead-
ing representatives of the Bar and Bench will be
treated under the subject of Politics, so some of
our very greatest divines are elsewhere referred to
in the chapter on Education and the Universities.
Such men as Bishop Strachan, Grant, Fyfe, and
Bishop Macdonell are examples of this, whose
notable careers are dealt with elsewhere.

Owing to the great host of good earnest and
faithful representatives of Scottish Christianity in
the history of the Dominion, it will be impossible
to more than mention certain prominent men, and
perhaps groups of men, in the different Churches
in the several provinces. Then, several groups
of the clergy, as in the case of those of Prince
Edward Island, have already been referred to in
the histories of the settlements.
{ It goes without saying that the clergy were
among the earliest active influences in the national
development. We will find them from the chap-
lains of the fighting and disbanded regiments to
304

The Scotsman in the Churches

the early devout missionaries among the savages
and the pioneers ; and, as was usual in other
vocations, the Scotsman bore his own part in this
spiritual work. The early annals of the privations
of the rude settlements are jewelled with accounts
of venerable men of God, who went side by side
with the fighter and the winner of the soil ; the
pioneer, teacher, and the lawgiver. Among the
earliest buildings in the sparsely cleared settle-
ments were the church and the log school-house,
those two grand witnesses to the soul and mind of
Scotland's advance guard in the New World.
When the shadow of the forest yet darkened the
Young Land, in many a rude place of pioneer
worship rang out the soul-stirring strains of the
Hundredth Psalm.

There is a petition to the King's Most Excel-
lent Majesty in 1822, from " His Majesty's most
faithful and loyal Ministers and Elders in con-
nection with the Established Church of Scotland
in Upper and Lower Canada," presenting the great
disadvantages under which they laboured in con-
sequence of there being no legal provision made
by public authority for the Church's support.

The petition is signed for Quebec City by James
Harkness, D.D., Minister of St. Andrew's Church ;
and Jos. Thompson, James Ross, John Munro, Wm.
Morris, Daniel Wilkie, David Ross, Alexander
Badenoch, James Thorn, J. Ross, Probationer ;
Jos. Morris, M.D., John Anderson, Joshua
Whitney, and Andrew Paterson, Elders.

For Cornwall, by Harry Leith, Minister, who

VOL. I. U 305

The Scotsman in Canada

has just arrived, and no Elders ordained. De-
cember 26, 1822.

For Williamstown, by John McKenzie, Minister ;
and Neil McLean, D. Cameron, Allan McMillan,
John McLennan, and Hugh McDonell, Elders.
December 27, 1822.

For Kingston, by John Barclay, Minister of St.
Andrew's Church ; John McLean, Sheriff Mid-
land District ; Lieut. -Col. Donald McPherson, late
4th R. O. Bn. ; Anthony Marshall, J.P., H. Mac-
donald (father of Sir John A. Macdonald), Samuel
Shaw, and John Mowat (father of Sir Oliver
Mowat), Elders. December 18, 1822.

For Lochiel, by John McLaurin, Minister ; and
Alex. McLeod, John McPhee, Roderick McLeod,
John Campbell, and Donald McGillivray, Elders.
December 26, 1822.

For Montreal, by J. Somerville, H. Esson, and
Hugh Urquhart, Ministers ; and George Gordon,
Thos. Porteus, Philip Ross, J. Leslie, Robt.
Armour, James Carswell, H. McKenzie, and Thos.
Blackwood, Elders. December 12, 1822.

During the same period the clergy of the Inde-
pendent Presbyterian Church were : Rev. Jos.
Johnston, educated at Glasgow University, ordained
in Ulster, stationed at Cornwall and Osnabruck.
Rev. Wm. Smart, Missionary at Brockville ;
Rev. Wm. Bell, educated in Scotland, settled at
Perth ; Rev. Robt. McDonell, ordained in the
United States, settled at Bay of Quinte ; Rev.
Jas. Harris, educated at Glasgow, Licentiate of
Ulster, settled at York.
306

The Scotsman in the Churches

The Rev. Dr. William Reid, who came to
Canada from Scotland in 1839, mentions the lead*
ing Scottish clergy of the Church of Scotland who
were in active service in Upper and Lower Canada
when he arrived in the country. They were Dr.
Cook, of Quebec, afterwards of Morrin College,
who aided in the foundation of Queen's ; Rev.
Dr. Mathieson, a stalwart champion of the Scottish
Church ; Rev. H. Esson, also of Montreal, after-
wards of Knox College, Toronto ; Rev. Dr.
Urquhart, of Cornwall, then Moderator of the
Synod ; Rev. Peter Colin Campbell, of Brockville,
an accomplished classical scholar, first Professor
of Classics in Queen's, and afterwards Principal
of King's College, Aberdeen ; the Rev. James
Cruikshank, of Bytown (now Ottawa) ; Rev. W.
Bell and Rev. T. C. Wilson, of Perth; Rev. G.
Romanes, Smith's Falls, afterwards of Queen's
College ; Rev. Dr. Machar, of St. Andrew's
Church, Kingston, and Rev. H. Gordon, of
Gananoque ; the Apostolic Rev. Robert McDowall,
one of the earliest pioneers of the Church ; Rev.
Thomas Alexander, of Coburg ; Rev. Dr. R.
McGill, Niagara ; Rev. Dr. Bayne, of Gait ; Rev.
D. McKenzie, of Zorra ; Rev. James George, of
Scarborough, afterwards of Queen's ; Rev. M. G.
Stark, of Dundas, an accomplished scholar ; Rev.
Wm. Rintoul, of Streetsville, afterwards died as
a missionary in Quebec ; Rev. Dr. Neil Seymour.
Among other Presbyterians, not of the Church of
Scotland, were Rev. Dr. Taylor, of Montreal, and
Rev. Mr. Boyd, of Prescott.

307

The Scotsman in Canada

Many of the most noted Scottish clergy of the
Presbyterian Church have been referred to under
the chapter on Education, and it will suffice to speak
generally of the origins of the various principal
congregations or great Church centres, giving some
lists and sketches of early missionaries.

Among the earliest of these was the founder
of the first Presbyterian Church in Old Canada,
the Rev. George Henry, who was a retired chap-
lain of a Scottish regiment. He organised the
first congregation in Quebec City in 1765, and
the first place where services were held was a
room in the old Jesuit barracks.

Mr. Henry's successor was the Rev. Dr. Sparks,
who was, for years, the leading Presbyterian divine
of that city. He received his education at the
Montreal Grammar School and at Aberdeen
University.

He came to Canada in 1788, and was ordained
by the Presbytery of Elders in Scotland before
his departure. He came out as tutor in the family
of Col. Caldwell, and succeeded the Rev. Mr.
Henry at the Scottish Church. In 1804 he re-
ceived the degree of Doctor of Divinity at Aber-
deen University. In 1810 the first Scottish church
at Quebec was opened. Sir James H. Craig gave
the ground, and the building was called St.
Andrew's. Dr. Sparks delivered many stirring
sermons during his long and eventful pastorate.
He died on March 17, 1819, greatly regretted.

In the latter part of the eighteenth, and the
early years of the nineteenth, century there were
308

The Scotsman in the Churches

but few ordained ministers of the gospel in the
colonies. But those few had a tremendous work
to perform.

i Among these was another noted divine of Prince
^Edward Island, who merits special mention — the
Rev. Donald McDonald, who died as late as 1867.
He was born on January i, 1783, in Perthshire,
Scotland ; was educated at St. Andrew's Univer-
sity, and ordained in 1816. In 1824 he came
out to Cape Breton, and in 1826 arrived at the
island, the scene of his life's labours. He soon
became noted, not only as an earnest clergyman,
but as an eloquent and convincing preacher.
Probably no man ever accomplished so much
for the Scottish Church in that part of Canada
as this earnest missionary. He always took a
deep interest in the public affairs of the day, and
never forgot to deal with them in his discourses,
which were considered to be quite on a level, in
their effect, with those of Whitefield and Irving.
He was also a deep thinker and a writer of stirring
hymns. His parish extended from one end of the
island to the other, and he was universally
beloved. He died, greatly regretted, in his eighty-
fifth year, and was buried at Uigg -Murray Harbour
• Road Churchyard.

The first Presbyterian Church in Montreal was
founded on March 12, 1786. It was inaugurated
by the retired Army officers, members of the
North-West Company, and other merchants of the
city, who were all Scotsmen. They were, many
of them, veterans of the Fraser and Murray High-

309

The Scotsman in Canada

landers, who had so much to do with the conquest
of the country.

The leading spirit in the movement was a re-
markable man and the first of a very noted
Scottish-Canadian family, whose members have
been prominent in the Church and other life of
the Dominion. This leader was the Rev. John
Bethune, who was the father of Presbyterianism
in Old Upper Canada and in the city of Montreal.
He was a fine type of Scottish United Empire
Loyalist, and one who had suffered much for his
loyalty. He was born in the Isle of Skye, in
Western Scotland, in 1751, and was educated at
King's College, Aberdeen. Emigrating with his
family to South Carolina, he became, at the outbreak
of the revolution, chaplain to the Royal Militia
of that colony, which was settled by Scotsmen.
Taken prisoner, after many hardships he regained
his liberty, and arrived in Nova Scotia. In Halifax
he became one of the leading organisers of the
noted Highland Emigrant Regiment, which was
made up largely of Gaelic -speaking Highlanders
from the 78th and 42nd Regiments. On the regf-
ment being mustered in 1775 Mr. Bethune was
made chaplain, and became a Christian warrior.
His career was almost identical with that of his
future friend and fellow-missionary, Bishop Mac-
donell, of the Glengarry Highlanders.

The Highland Emigrant Regiment became the
mainstay of the defence of Quebec in 1775 against
Montgomery. In 1782 the regiment was dis-
banded, and Mr. Bethune, with many of the
310

The Scotsman in the Churches

officers, settled in Montreal, where he became one
of the leading Loyalists of the city. A man of
fine presence and much culture, he rallied around
him the best men ; and among his first efforts
was the foundation of St. Gabriel's Presbyterian
Church.

He ministered here from March, 1786, until
May, 1787, when he removed to Williamstown,
in Upper Canada, and founded there the first
Protestant Church in that province.

The British Government had granted large tracts
of land to the Loyalists and the members of the dis-
banded Scottish regiments. The 84th was, when
disbanded, settled on the banks of the St. Lawrence,
in Upper Canada ; and Mr. Bethune, as chaplain,
and as the father of many children, received a
large tract of land in Cornwall, Charlottenburg,
and Lancaster, and settled at Williamstown, so
called after Sir William Johnston. Though a large
landed proprietor, Mr. Bethune at once resumed
his ministerial work, and organised the numerous
and prosperous congregations at Williamstown,
Martinstown, Cornwall, and Lancaster. He proved
a faithful and zealous missionary ; and it is said
he baptized 2,379 persons during his ministry in
what afterwards become the county of Glengarry.
He married Veronica Wadden, a Swiss lady, and
they had six sons and three daughters, two of
the former of whom were destined to play a leading
part in the English Church in Canada.

Dr. Bethune was a co-worker in the cause of
Christianity and loyalty with Bishop Macdonell,

3"

The Scotsman in Canada

in the district of Glengarry. He made loyalty a
part of religion as one of its chief attributes. This
accounted largely for the great spirit of loyalty
evinced in times of danger by the inhabitants of
this great Scottish community. On the Loyal
Address by the inhabitants of Glengarry to Sir
Gordon Drummond of December 21, 1814, at the
close of the 1812-14 war, Mr. Bethune's name
is second, Bishop Macdonell's being first. As an
illustration of the happier times of those days, in
a misunderstanding between Mr. Bethune and his
parishioners, Bishop Macdonell was called in as
a mutually chosen arbitrator ; and he proved suc-
cessful in convincing the people that their pastor
was right. On September 7, 1800, his son,
Alexander Neil, afterwards Anglican Bishop of
Toronto, was baptized by the Rev. John Young,
of St. Gabriel's Church, Montreal. Mr. Bethune
died on September 23, 1815, greatly regretted
by the whole community. A monument was later
erected to his memory by his six sons. On one
side is the inscription : " Sacred to the memory
of the Rev. Jno. Bethune, Pastor of the congrega-
tion of the Kirk of Scotland in Glengarry. He
departed this life at Williamstown on the 23rd
September, 1815, in the 66th year of his age and
on the 44th of his ministry."

On another side is : " This monument is erected
as a work of filial affection to his memory by
his six sons, Angus, Norman, John, James,
Alexander, and Donald.'*

Like that of other strong pioneers in Canada,
312

The Scotsman in the Churches

Mr. Bethune's influence upon the country did not
cease at his death, but his memory lived after,
and he still lives in his sons and grandsons.

His eldest son, Angus, born in 1783, entered
the North-West Company. Norman, the first of
the sons born in Glengarry, became a member of
the Church at Williamstown. He and his brother
James became partners in business with Alexander
Henry.

Mr. Bethune's daughter, Christie, married in
1817 Robert Henry, a merchant in Montreal, and
his youngest daughter, Anne, married in 1815
Henry McKenzie. The careers of his two noted
sons will be given in the account of the Anglican
Church.

During all the years since the commencement
of British occupancy the growth of Presbyterianism
has kept pace with the growth of the city of Mon-
treal. Yet, up to 1786, the Scottish Presbyterians
attended the Established Church of England.

The next missionary who followed Mr. Bethune
was the Rev. John Young. He was born at Leith,
in Scotland, and was educated there. Licensed to
preach the gospel as a probationer by the Presby-
tery of Irvine in 1785, he emigrated to the State
of New York in 1787, and ministered there. In
1791 he came to Montreal and assumed the duties
of a pastor. He it was who urged the Protestant
citizens of Montreal to erect St. Gabriel's Church
for the worship of the Church of Scotland. Six
years before, in 1786, the Honourable James Cath-
cart, of Castle Hill, Inverness, Scotland, and

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TJie Scotsman in Canada

Seignior, of Berthier, built the first building dedi-
cated to Protestant worship since the British con-
quest in Lower Canada. It was called St.
Andrew's, and for two years services of the Church
of Scotland were conducted by a Scottish clergy-
man, a tutor in Mr. Cuthbert's family.

St. Gabriel's Church in Montreal, founded in
1792, was the first opened for general worship.
Since then seventeen parishes have arisen. The
names of the original founders on the deed of
purchase of the site were Adam Scott, William
Stewart, Duncan Fisher, Alexander Hanna,
Alexander Fisher, William England, William
Hunter, and John Russell. That they were all
Scotsmen is significant in connection with the
beginnings of Presbyterianism in Canada. The
building was truly Scottish and well built. It
was of solid stone, and in keeping with the
well -deserved reputation of the Scottish people as
the most reliable and finest stonemasons in the
world. Indeed, this, the first Scottish church in
Canada, is yet a perfect picture of the old Scottish
churches of the Reformation period ; and is a
worthy ecclesiastical monument to the strong, firm,
solid character of the Scotsmen at home and
abroad, the master-builders of the modern world.

Adam Scott, whose name is first on the deed,
was a prominent merchant. He died in 1818.
William Stewart, whose name appears second, was
a native of Glasgow, and also a prominent
merchant. He died in 1797, aged forty-four years.
Duncan Fisher, whose name is third, was a native

The Scotsman in the Churches

of Dunkeld, Perthshire, Scotland. He was the
leading spirit of the congregation, and the whole
community owed much to his zeal for the public
welfare. He and his brothers, Alexander, John,
and James, and a cousin, Finlay Fisher, came
to Montreal at the close of the Revolution. He
died in 1820, aged sixty-seven years. His wife
was Catherine Embury, daughter of the Rev.
Philip Embury, the noted pioneer of Methodism in
America, and a woman of unusual character. Mr.
Fisher has left many descendants prominent in
Canadian life, among them being his grandson,
the Honourable Sydney Fisher, who has been for
the last fourteen years Minister of Agriculture for
Canada.

William England was a native of Scotland.
He came to Montreal in 1789. He had a large
trade as a cooper. He died in 1822, aged eighty-
four years. Alexander Hanna was a merchant.
He was a native of Galloway, Scotland. He was
also a United Empire Loyalist.

William Hunter came with his brother to
Montreal from Kilmarnock, Scotland. They were
merchants. John Russell and his wife, Grizell
McKenzie, came from Tain, in Ross-shire. On
her husband's death his widow returned to Suther-
land, in Scotland, and married the Rev. Mr.
McKenzie, minister of Tongue.

The history of the Presbyterian Church in
Montreal has since included many noted names
of clergy and laymen. Among the former, those of
the Rev. Henry Esson, Rev. Dr. Urquhart, Rev.

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E. F. Tor ranee, Rev. Dr. Wilkes, Rev. Wm.
Rintoul, Rev. David Inglis, Rev. Wm. Somerville,
Rev. Edward Black, Rev. John Crombie, Rev.
Alexander Kemp, Rev. Dr. Mathieson, Rev. Robert
Campbell, Rev. Dr. McVicar, Rev. Alexander
Campbell, Rev. John Burn, Rev. James Fleck, Rev.
Professor John Campbell, Rev. Robt. Irvine, Prin-
cipal Story, of Glasgow University, Rev. Gavin
Lang, Rev. James Edgar Hill, Rev. John McLeod,
Rev. Dr. McGill, Rev. Dr. Snodgrass, Rev. Dr.
James Barclay, Rev. Dr. Taylor, Rev. John M.
Gibson, Rev. James S. Black, Rev. Donald Fraser,
Rev. P. D. Muir, Rev. W. M. Black, and Rev.
Dr. Baxter.

Many of the above clergy have been dis-
tinguished in clerical and collegiate life, and are
known throughout the Dominion as strong ex-
ponents of the principles and ideals of the Scottish
Church in Canada.

316

CHAPTER XXIII

THE SCOTSMAN IN THE CHURCHES

(continued)

The Churches are the dry bones of the earth,
Till God doth blow His spirit's breath upon them,
And touches them with fire.

THE history of Old and New St. Andrew's
in Toronto is likewise the chronicle of
another great centre of Presbyterianism with a
long list of names noted in Canadian history.
Many of the clergy are referred to in the chapter
on Education.

In 1821 there was a Presbyterian congregation
in York holding services in a house on Richmond
Street. The Honourable Wm. Morris, of Perth,
called a meeting of Presbyterians on March 3,
1830, to consider the building of a church. John
Ewart was in the chair, and the noted Dr. Dun-
lop, of the Canada Company, moved the resolu-
tion. The foundation-stone of St. Andrew's
Church was laid by Thomas Carfrae, jun., on
June 24, 1830. The first trustees were James F.
Smith, Thos. Carfrae, John Ewart, Hugh Carfrae,
Walter Rose, Alexander Murray, and Jacob

317

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Latham. The first minister was the Rev. Wm.
Rintoul. He was succeeded in turn by Rev. W. T.
Leach, Rev. John Barclay, Rev. D. J. Macdonell,
Rev. W. J. McLaughlan, Rev. Armstrong Black

In the year 1848 the lists of the different
branches of the Presbyterian Church were as
follows : —

In connection with the CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.
Rev. Walter Roach, Moderator, and Rev. Andrew
Bell, Synod Clerk.

Montreal Presbytery — Montreal, St. Andrew's,
Rev. Alex. Mathieson, D.D. ; Quebec, St.
Andrew's, John Cook, D.D. Other places, Duncan
Moody, Wm. Main, Jas. Anderson, Jas. C. Muir,
Wm. Simpson, John Marlin, John Davidson, James
Thorn, Alex. Wallace, Robt. McGill (Montreal, St.
Paul's).

Glengarry Presbytery — Revs. John McKenzie,
Hugh Urquhart, John Maclaurin, John Dickey, T.
McPherson, Colin Grigor, ^Eneas McLean.

Hamilton Presbytery — Revs. Wm. King, George
McClatchey, A. Bell, John Cruikshank, A.M., John
Bryning, Alex McKid.

Bathurst Presbytery — Revs. John Smith, Geo.
Romanes, Wm1. Bell, Joseph Anderson, Alex. Mann,
Thos. Fraser, G. Bell, Wrri. Bell, John McMorine,
John Robb.

Kingston Presbytery — Revs. Peter Ferguson,
Peter Macnaughton, Thos. Johnston, John Tawse,
Alexander Lewis, John McMurchy, J. Barclay,
Alexander Ross, Samuel Porter, Wm. Brown, Wm.
Barr.

The Scotsman in the Churches

9

There were many vacancies in all the Presby-
teries, including the Pastorate of Bytown.

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF CANADA.

Hamilton Presbytery— Revs. Andrew Ferrier,
D.D., George Cheyne, Mark Y. Stark, John Bayne,
Geo. Smellie, Wm. Meldrum, Wm. Graham, Alex.
McLean, — McGregor, Ralph Robb, Robt. Lind-
say, D. McKenzie, A. Mclntosh, D. Allan, Robt.
Peden, John McKinnon, Wm. McAllister.

Toronto Presbytery— -Robt. Burns, D.D., D.
McMillan, Jas. Boyd, Wm. Rintoul, Peter Gray,
Jas. Harris, Henry Esson.

Coburg Presbytery— Jas. Douglass, W. Reid,
Robt. Wallace, Alex. M. Steele.

Kingston Presbytery— Henry Gordon, W.
Hamilton, — Greig, Robt. Reid, Robt. F. Burns.

Perth Presbytery— W,. G. Johnston, Wm. Lock-
head, Andrew Melville, — Blair, Jas. Finlay, Thos.
Wardrope (Bytown), John Corbett.

Brockville Presbytery— Witi. Smart, Jas. Geggie,
Robt. Boyd, W. J. McDowell, Alex. Luke.

Montreal Presbytery — John Clagston, David
Black, Simon D. Frazer, John Frazer, Daniel
Clarke, Thos. Henry, .Wm. Leishman.

UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF CANADA.
Montreal Presbytery — Revs. Wm. Taylor,
Andrew Kennedy, Alexander Lowder, Wm. Aiken,
John Morrison.

Toronto Presbytery— Revs. John Cassie, Robt.
Thornton, Wm. Fraser, Jas. Dick, David Coutts,
Walter Scott.

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The Scotsman in Canada

Hamilton Presbytery — Thos. Christie, James
Roy, Alex. Ritchie, Wm. Barrie, Robt. Torrence,
Alex. Drummond, Geo. Fisher, David Caws,
Jas. R. Dalrymple.

London Presbytery — W. Proudfoot, Jas. Skinner,
George Murray, Alex. McKenzie, John McLellan.

Missionaries : A. Henderson, Jas. Pringle, John
Porteous, John Proudfoot.

The Presbyterian Church of to-day in Eastern
Canada is a very large body, and has many noted
divines within its communion, many of them of
Scottish extraction.

The officers for 1909-10 were : Moderator, Rev.
Samuel Lyle, D.D., of Hamilton; Clerks, Rev.
Robt. Campbell, D.D., Montreal, and Rev. John
Somerville, D.D., Toronto.

Among so many able men, where there is no
outward mark of distinction given, any selection
would be invidious. However, all Canadians are
familiar with the names of the following : The
Revs. Dr. Barclay, Montreal ; Dr. Armstrong,
Ladies' College, Ottawa ; Dr. Ramsay, Ottawa ;
Dr. Ballantyne, Toronto ; Dr. Robert Campbell,
Montreal ; Dr. Currie, Halifax ; Dr. Eakin,
Toronto ; Dr. Fleck, Montreal ; Dr. Forest,
Halifax ; Dr. Fowler, Kingston ; Prof. Fraser,
Montreal ; Dr. Gandier, Toronto ; Prof. Gordon,
Montreal ; Dr. Jordan, Kingston ; Dr. Lyle,
Hamilton ; Dr. Maclaren, Toronto ; Dr. McLean,
Goderich ; Dr. McMillan, Halifax ; Dr. McMullen,
Woodstock ; Dr. McCrae, St. John's, New
Brunswick ; Dr. Milligan, Toronto ; Dr. Wm.
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The Scotsman in the Churches

Moore, Ottawa ; Rev. J. Gibson Inkster, London.
The latter is a gifted son of the Orkneys,
and is an authority on the ancient history of
Scotland, especially that of the far north. Dr.
Murray, Toronto ; Dr. Mackay, Toronto ; Rev.
Norman McLeod, Brockville ; Rev. Robert Had-
dow, M.A., Editor of the Westminster, Toronto ;
Dr. J. A. Macdonald, Editor of the Globe,
Toronto ; Dr. Gordon (" Ralph Connor "), Winni-
peg ; Dr. Scrimgeour, Montreal ; Dr. Shearer,
Toronto ; Dr. Somerville, Toronto ; Dr. Stewart,
Halifax ; Dr. Torrance, Kingston ; Dr. Ward-
robe, Guelph ; Prof. Welsh, Montreal.

The Churches in Halifax were represented by
some noted divines of Scottish extraction. Among
them were the following : Rev. Thos. Russell,
Minister of St. Mathew's Church, 1784-86. Rev.
Andrew Brown, D.D., Minister of St. Mathew's,
1 7^ 7-95 ; wrote a history of Nova Scotia — the
manuscript is now in the British Museum. He
was the first chaplain of the North British
Society, in 1791 Scottish Garrison chaplain, and
afterwards Professor of Rhetoric at Edinburgh
University. The Rev. Archibald Gray, D.D., of
St. Mathew's Church, 1799-1822. He was second
chaplain of the North British Society. Rev. Mathew
Dripps, of St. Mathew's (assistant 1802) ; and
Rev. Donald Fraser. Rev. John Scott, M.A., for
thirty-seven years pastor of St. Mathew's, from
1827 to 1864. He was joint chaplain of the
North British Society, 1844-1863. Rev. James
Mclntosh, about 1837. Rev. John Martin, pastor

VOL, I. x 321

The Scotsman in Canada

of St. Andrew's Church, 1822-65, a joint chap-
lain North British Society, 1844-65. Rev.
Alexander Forrester, D.D., pastor of St. John's
Free Church, Halifax, 1848, Principal of Pro-
vincial Naval School, and the leader in the cause
of education; died in 1869. John Mclntosh, a
layman, who was the leader in the Free Church
movement in Nova Scotia in 1843. Rev. George
Munro Grant, of St. Mathew's, 1865, afterwards
Principal of Queen's University, joint chaplain of
the North British Society. Rev. W. Maxwell,
pastor of Chalmer's Church, 1865. Rev. Charles
Macdonald, Professor of Mathematics, Dalhousie
College, 1863-1901. The Rev. Charles M. Grant,
pastor of St. Andrew's Church, 1865-70, chap-
lain North British Society, 1869. Rev. John
Campbell, pastor of St. Andrew's Church, 1869-
1875, chaplain North British Society, 1870-75.
Rev. Allan Pollock, D.D., pastor of St. Andrew's,
New Glasgow, 1853, Professor of History, Presby-
terian College, Halifax, 1876, Principal, 1894.
Rev. Thos. Duncan. Rev. A. Simpson. Rev.
R. Laing. Rev. John Forrest, D.D., appointed
Principal Dalhousie University, 1885, in charge
of St. John's Church for several years, one of
the most noted Canadian educationalists. Rev.
D. M. Gordon, pastor of St. Andrew's Church,
Piofessor at Pine Hill Theological College, now
Principal of Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario,
an eloquent divine, and a noted educationalist and
scholar . Rev . James S . Black, pastor St . Andrew's
Church, Vice-President North British Society, 1902.
322

The Scotsman in the Churches

The following interesting letter, dated Octo-
ber 10, 1836, and written to a clergyman in
Scotland, will give an idea of Scottish Presby-
terian life and conditions in Old Upper Canada
during the first half of the nineteenth century.
It is quoted in full and is now printed for the
first time.

The writer (though the copy I have is not
signed) was Kenneth McPherson, an old-time
Scotsman of the good old school, who was for
nearly thirty years postmaster and general
merchant at Lancaster, in Glengarry County.
He had been fourteen years in Canada at the
date of the writing of the letter, having come
out with others as a follower of a Mr. Duncan
Cameron, of Thora, who had brought out quite
a Scottish colony at that date, which had settled
in that locality. Mr. McPherson's father was John
McPherson, from Badenoch, who took up land
claimed afterwards by his son, Kenneth McPherson,
married a daughter of Alexander Rose, a United
Empire Loyalist and had a large family, one of
which was the late Lieut. -Col. John McPherson,
keeper of Militia stores for Canada. Mr.
McPherson was evidently a prominent person in
the Church as well as in other matters in his
locality. The letter, which is endorsed in his own
handwriting as a copy, is as follows :-

LANCASTER,
loth October, 1836.

REV. and DEAR FRIEND.— Your communication of the 22nd
June I duly received, and would have replied to it on receipt

323

The Scotsman in Canada

were it not that I was waiting in the expectation of having some-
thing of importance to relate to you. It now appears to me that
the Lord has opened a door for you in a neighbouring parish
called Martintown, about twelve miles from here, vacant,
occasioned by the death of its pastor, the Rev. Arch. Conell, a
native of Isla in Scotland. He was a man much devoted to the
service of Christ, and was enabled by the aid of the Spirit to
bring out of his treasure things new and old ; and was one of the
brightest ornaments of the Church in this Province. I trust that
he has been instrumental in sowing the good seed in the lives of
his hearers. A few years ago he was on a tour to the south of
Scotland, where he raised by contributions from the Churches
^400 or ^500, which, with the aid of the congregation, they have
been enabled to build one of the most magnificent churches of
the kind in the Province. It is not yet quite finished, but alas !
the deceased never had the satisfaction of preaching within its
walls, but divine service is performed in it occasionally by the
clergymen of neighbouring parishes ; the original place of
worship was a temporary wooden building and was in a decayed
state. There was part of his congregation that lived in a section
of the county called the Indian Reservation, about twelve miles
distant from the parish church, to whom he preached once a
month ; but from the delicate state of his health of late and the
distance he had to ride through bad roads in the spring and fall
gave up officiating to this part of the congregation ; and I am
given to understand that about a month previous to his decease
that they had applied to the Rev. John McDonald of Urquhart
to select them a pastor, and as far as I could learn, promised him
;£8o, Canadian currency, per year together with a house and
some land. There is a church built on the spot. Doubts are
entertained by some whether a clergyman will come out on the
strength of the inducement held forth. They are in general a
well-disposed people, steady farmers ; but I am doubtful if they
can obtain any part of the Government allowances exclusively, as
whoever will become successor to the deceased will obtain it ; and
on these grounds it is supposed by some that they will have to con-
tinue dependent on the services of such successor for some time.
The Government allowance is from £60 to £64 a year payable half-
yearly, which, with the amount subscribed by the people, includ-
324

TJie Scotsman in the Churches

ing the part of the parish referred to, made up a salary of about
^200 per annum. Whether they will continue to pay the same
to another I cannot be certain ; but I should think they would
not vary much either way. They are in general good farmers.
There is a fine stone house built near the church. I am of
opinion had you been here when Mr. Conell died that they would
have taken you by the hand. The names of the neighbouring
clergymen are as follows : The Rev. John McKenzie, Williams-
town, a native of some part near yourself ; the Rev. Hugh
Urquhart, from near Inverness ; The Rev. Alex. McNaughton
from Perthshire ; and the Revd. Mr. Mclsac. The latter's place
of nativity I cannot tell. These constitute the members of the
Presbytery of Glengarry. I have the promise of one of their
number that he will endeavour to write you as soon as the people
make application. Whether or not I shall, if anything soon
transpires, communicate with you ; but I hope I shall have your
etter before they make the application stating whether we may
expect you should [you ?] have a call. They may probably apply
to the Colonial Society or the Rev. Mr. John McDonald of
Urquhart to choose a pastor for them. To these sources you can
apply if there is not a call sent direct to yourself. At all events
venture to. I can say upon the authority of some of the members
of the Presbytery that they will guarantee you a better living
than you have there, should you come. I informed members of
the congregation referred to that I was going to write you
immediately, which will perhaps be the means of causing them
to delay writing home till I hear from you. You will therefore
please to write me without delay.

The history of the Anglican Church in Canada
is also largely one of Scotsmen and Ulster
Scotsmen. But it is more than this. It shows that
the Anglican Church in early Canada owed much
to the old Church of Scotland ; for, strange to
say, many of the leading clergy of the Church
in Canada and the Maritime Provinces were

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The Scotsman in Canada

originally Presbyterians, or the sons of Presby-
terians .

The first bishop of the Anglican Church in
Canada was an Ulster Scotsman, the Right Rev.
Charles Inglis, of a noted Scottish family in Rox-
burgh and Perthshire, a branch of which had
settled in Ulster. Bishop Inglis was the third
son of the Rev. Archibald Inglis, Rector of Glen
and Kilcarr, Donegal. The Bishop was born in
1734 in Donegal. He emigrated to America, and
conducted a free school at Lancaster, Pennsyl-
vania, where many Ulster Scotsmen had settled
early in the eighteenth century. Studying for
Orders, he was ordained by the Bishop of London,
and returning to America he became a missionary
at Denver, in Delaware. In 1765 he was made
assistant of Holy Trinity Church, New York City.
He was a strong Loyalist, and, removing to
Nova Scotia at the Revolution, he was appointed
the first Bishop of that, the original Diocese of
British North America. His career is depicted
in the chapter on Universities. His son was after-
wards third Bishop of Nova Scotia.

The second Bishop of Quebec (or of both Upper
and Lower Canada) was also a Scotsman and the
member of a great Scottish House. The Hon.
and Right Rev. Charles James Stewart, who suc-
ceeded the first Bishop Mountain, was a younger
son of the Earl of Galloway. He was a man
of a singular piety and a determination to spend
his life for the furtherance of the cause of Chris-
tianity. He came to Canada as a young mis-
326

i

The Scotsman in the Churches

sionary, and subjected himself to the greatest
privations in order to carry out his ideals. He
became noted for his self-denying character and
zeal as a missionary. When he succeeded to the
Bishopric in 1826, on the death of the aged Bishop
Mountain his diocese extended from Gaspe to the
shores of Lake Huron. But he never spared him-
self, going from one extreme of this vast territory
to the other, performing his work and encouraging
the few thinly scattered clergy until his never hardy
frame broke down under the terrible strain, and
in 1837 he went home to die.

The Right Rev. John Strachan, first Bishop of
Upper Canada, and the Right Rev. Alexander Neil
Bethune, second Bishop of Toronto, with his
brother, Archdeacon Bethune, of Montreal, were
other prominent Scottish Canadians in the Anglican
Church. The two latter were sons of the Rev.
John Bethune, the venerable pioneer of Presby-
terianism in Upper Canada. Another noted
Scottish family were the Stuarts, father and
son. The Rev. John O'Kill Stuart was a United
Empire Loyalist, who came to Canada at the
revolution from the American colony of Pennsyl-
vania. He was chaplain to the forces, and the
first head of the Old Toronto Grammar School.
His son, the Rev. George O'Kill Stuart, was after-
wards Rector of Kingston and Archdeacon of
Ontario.

In the year 1827 an ecclesiastical chart was
made, showing the number of Protestant clergy
in Upper Canada. Of the Established Church

327

The Scotsman in Canada

there were thirty, eleven of whom were of Scottish
extraction, and nearly all of these had been
originally Presbyterians. They were Archdeacon
Strachan, York ; Archdeacon Stuart, Kingston ;
Rev. Thomas Campbell, Belleville ; Rev. Mr.
Burns, Richmond ; Rev. John Grier, Carrying
Place ; Rev. Wm. Macauley, Coburg ; Rev.
Samuel Armour, Peterborough ; Rev. J. Thomp-
son, Cavan ; Rev. Alexander Bethune, Grimsby ;
Rev. Mr. Green, Queenston ; Rev. Mr. Mclntosh,
Kettle Creek. Of these, Archdeacon Strachan was
educated at St. Andrew's, and the Revs. Thomas
Campbell, John Grier, and Samuel Armour at
Glasgow University. Many of these were Ulster
Scotsmen — that is, those whose families had come
from Scotland and had lived in Ulster before
emigrating again to Canada. The Rev. Thomas
Campbell was doubly of that clan, his mother
being also a Campbell of the same family as his
father. The family were a cadet branch of the
House of Argyll, and came originally from In-
veraray. The Rev. Mr. Campbell was the second
son of James Campbell, Esq., of Kilrea, and his
wife and cousin Elizabeth Campbell. The year
he died he had been appointed to a prominent
Rectory in Londonderry.

The Rev. Samuel Armour came originally from
Ayrshire, and the Rev. John Grier was of an
Antrim family that emigrated from the Scottish
borders. They were all, as was Strachan, the
Stuarts, and the Bethunes, of Presbyterian families.

History shows that the Anglican Church in
328 '

The Scotsman in the Churches

Upper Canada owes much to Presbyterianism and
Scottish education and ideals ; and, as has been
shown, most of the leading clergy in the early days
of the nineteenth century came of that stock and
belief either in Scotland or Scottish Ulster. There
is not a clan name in Scotland that is not now,
or has not been, represented in the Anglican
Church in Canada, among them being such dis-
tinguished prelates as Strachan, Inglis, Hamilton,
and Mackray. All of these men had a great influ-
ence throughout the country, and some of them
were prominent in spiritual, political, and educa-
tional affairs ; and, as has been shown elsewhere
in this volume, makers of laws and founders and
controllers of universities, as well as preachers of
the gospel and ecclesiastical dignitaries.

This was true not only of the prelates, but
also of some of the clergy, who had parishes,
or groups of parishes, under their charge almost
equal in extent to small dioceses of the present
day ; and in some cases the clergy held a great
power socially and politically. They were on the
road committees, often chairmen of the educa-
tional boards, and, in a few cases, were the leaders
on all matters in their local counties. They were,
in some instances, applied to by the Lieutenant-
Governor for an opinion when important local
positions were to be allotted. Those were the
days when a clergyman was a force in the land,
and could exert an influence for good, before the
party lay-politicians drove the Protestant Churches
out of public affairs. Since then those Churches,

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The Scotsman in Canada

while earnest and active with regard to the weal
of the individual, have failed to exert themselves
as great religious communities in the national life.

In Hugh Scobie's Almanack for 1848 there is
a list of the clergy of the United Church of
England and Ireland in Canada, and in it are
the following Scottish names : —

Diocese of Quebec. — Rev. George Mackie, D.D.,
Bishop's Commissary. Montreal, Dr. John Bethune,
Revs. W. A. Adamson, J. Ramsay, M.A., D.
Robertson, G. F. Simpson, M.A. Other places,
T. Johnston, J. J. Johnston, J. Scott, C. Reid,
G. M. Ross, J. Reid, M. A. W. McMaster, J.
Nichols, G. Milne, C. B. Fleming, J. Torrance,
E. G. Ross, Wm. Anderson, R. Anderson, A.
Balfour.

Diocese of Toronto. — Bishop Strachan ; Arch-
deacon G. O'Kill Stuart ; Archdeacon Bethune ;
Revs. John McCaul, J. G. D. McKenzie, Robt J.
McGeorge, John Gibson, John Pentland, John
Mclntyre, J. L. Alexander, Wm. McMurray, J.
Campbell Usher, Alex. Pyne, George Graham,
Adam Elliot, Donald Fraser, John Anderson, G. M.
Armstrong, James Stewart, R. F. Campbell, Wm.
Ritchie, Fredk. Mack, F. Geo. Elliot, Andrew
Jamieson, John Gunne, Dr. A. N. Bethune, Samuel
Armour, T. S. Kennedy, John Grier, Wm.
Macauley, W. Grieg, J. Antisell Allen, Harvey
Me Alpine, Mathew Ker, Henry Patton.

There are, to-day, many able and earnest clergy
of Scottish and Ulster-Scottish extraction in the
Anglican Church in Canada. Among the many
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The Scotsman in the Churcfies

names are : Bishops— Hamilton, Dunn, Mills,
Richardson, and Anderson. Archdeacons — Cody,
McKenzie, Ker, Davidson, Balfour, Richardson,
Young, McMorine, Crawford, Houston, Smith,
Forsyth, Clark, and Gilmour. Canons and Rural
Deans— Carmichael, Scott, Maclean, MacNab,
Mackay, Craig, Downie, Sage, Gunne, Sutherland,
Henderson, Davidson, Simpson, Cowie, Young, and
Machin. Professor Clark and Professor George
McKinnon Wrong.

Methodism has also, though not as much as
the other two Churches, her quota of Scotsmen
and Ulster-Scotsmen. Indeed, the two able editors
of the Christian Guardian, Rev. Dr. Creighton and
the Rev. Wm. McMullen, are of the good Ulster
stock, and were of Presbyterian families.

The finest orator, and one of the greatest divines
of the Methodist Church in Canada, was a Scots-
man, the noted Dr. Douglas, whose noble utter-
ances and apostolic appeals stirred the hearts of
all Protestant Canada. A survey of the list of
the clergy of the different Conferences will show
a large percentage of Scotsmen taking their part
in the active propaganda of this energetic and
earnest branch of Protestant Christianity in
Canada.

In the list of the Wesleyan clergy in 1848 the
following of Scottish extraction are to be found :
Rev. Mathew Richey, George Kennedy, Wm. Scott,
Thos. Ratray, Samuel Rose, Kennedy Creighton,
Geo. Ferguson, John Law, Lachlin Taylor, George
Carr, Peter Kerr, Alexander Campbell, Wm.

The Scotsman in Canada

Graham, Jonathan Scott, Alex. MacNab, Hamilton
Biggar, John Beatty, T. Hannah, Wm. McCul-
lough, Wm. McFadden, Daniel McMullen, John
Gourley, John Black, David Hardie, Cyrus C.
Allison, Jas. Armstrong, Robt. Lockhead, Michael
Baxter, Jos. W. McCallum, Wm. McGill, James
Elliot, Wm. Pattyson, D. McDowell, John
Armstrong.

Next to the Presbyterian, the Baptist Church
is undoubtedly the most Scottish in its origin of
all the Canadian Churches. In the early days
Presbyterianism and Anglicanism, by reason of
the paucity of their missionary clergy, lost
thousands of their adherents in the newly settled
districts, the former to the Methodists and the
latter to the Baptists. No Church in Canada to-
day has a more sturdy growth and a higher ideal
of Christian work and influence than the Baptist
Church has. Strong in her ideals, she holds her
own, and she includes many of our finest scholars
and divines among her preachers and teachers.
In 1848 the following Scotsmen were among the
Baptist clergy in Canada : Revs. Wm. Frazer,
Hugh Reid, R. Boyd, Wm. Dick, Robert Dick,
J. Campbell, J. King, John Edwards, S.
McEachron, A. Cleghorn, A. Gillis, John Clark,
E. Mitchell, P. McDonald, W. McDermid, Isaac
Elliot, Jas. Dick, A. Stevens, Jas. Inglis, P. L.
Davidson, D. McPhail, J. Gilmour, A. McLean,
J. Baird, D. Curry, W. Gorrie, W. Drummond, T.
Bailey, T. Mills, W. Hewson, J. Anderson, R. A.
Fyfe, C. Stewart, J. Mitchell, C. McDermand.
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The Scotsman in the Churches

The Congregational Church, which is essentially
English Presbyterianism, has had also a number
of Scotsmen among its clergy. The late Rev.
Dr. Mclntosh, of the first Congregational Church
in Ottawa, and commonly called Bishop of the
Congregational Church, was a Highlander of the
Highlanders, and one of the noblest of men. His
death was a great loss to the St. Andrew's Society
of Ottawa, of which he had been one of the most
honoured chaplains. He has been succeeded by
the Rev. G. Watt -Smith, late of Glasgow.

The Church of the Disciples of Christ, which is
a branch of the Baptist Church, has also many
adherents in Canada. It was founded by a learned
divine of the clan Campbell, who went from Scot-
land to the United States, and its original adherents
were called " Campbellites."

The subject of the Scotsman in the Canadian
Churches is one worthy of being dealt with in
a large volume. Meanwhile I hope that the very
inadequate treatment of this side of Scottish life
in Canada in the two preceding, but necessarily
brief, chapters may at least introduce the subject
to the attention of the thoughtful Canadian reader
and cause him to realise the very important part
played by Scotland and Scottish ideals in the
religious life of the Dominion.

333

CHAPTER XXIV

W. LYON MACKENZIE AND BISHOP
STRACHAN

On my attempt though Providence did frown,
His oppressed people God at length shall own ;
Another Tiand, with more successful speed,
Shall raise the remnant, bruise the serpent's head.
Though my head fall, that is no tragic story,
Since, going hence, I enter endless glory.

THE above lines constituted an epitaph written
by the ill-fated Earl of Argyll on the evening
before his execution.

It is a pathetic prophecy that the cause he died
for would not fail, though he and others were
to suffer seemingly in vain. This distinguished
nobleman, who lost his life in the cause of the
British Revolution of 1688, was the son of an
equally ill-fated father, the great Marquess of
Argyll, who also died for the same cause some
years earlier in the same century. They were
great Scotsmen, who, while of ancient lineage and
power next to that of Royalty, were in sympathy
and ideal and in close touch with the faith and
ideals of the great body of the Scottish people,
334

Mackenzie and Straehan

who had organised themselves for the triumph of
their principles under the bonds of the " Solemn
League and Covenant." Strange to say, Argyll's
distinguished grandson, the famous Duke, lived
to see all of the ideals of constitutional reform, for
which the grandfather suffered, carried out.

Scotland has many martyrs of this nature, men
who sacrificed all for the cause of the stern prin-
ciples of right and freedom as seen and felt by
the Scottish soul and mind. It seems to be a
necessary development of a portion of her history
that Scotland should produce a certain number
of men who were doomed to suffer, by a sort
of vicarious quality of spirit, for the failure of
the great mass of the community to live up to
its best ideals.

Of a similar nature to those illustrious martyrs
of the seventeenth century, though keyed in spirit,
by necessity and environment, to the ideals and
requirements of a later date, was the personality
of that most noted and most resolute, with one
single exception, of Scottish Canadians of his
period, William Lyon Mackenzie.

While he stood alone in his intense, almost fierce,
antagonism to all that was not on the side of
his ideals as a reformer, Mackenzie did not stand
alone in the community. There were other men
of commanding personality, and chief of these,
and his leading rivals, if they might be so called,
were two other strong Scotsmen, Archdeacon
Straehan and Col. (afterwards Sir Allan) MacNab.

It is but additional evidence of the general

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The Scotsman in Canada

dominance of the Scotsman in all periods of
Canadian history that the three leading spirits on
both sides of the struggle that largely occupied
the period of the first forty years of the nineteenth
century in Upper Canada were Scotsmen.

The third of this trio, MacNab, is dealt with
in another place in this work. He was a strong
and practical character, but without the peculiar
ideals which controlled, though in a different way,
the other two men. For this reason he was their
inferior. But in spite of this he was a man to
be reckoned with, and performed work for the
young colony that could have been achieved by
no other man. I have no patience with those
mere party, or sectional, writers who see no good
in the ideals and deeds of their party opponents.
The one grave weakness of the Scottish and
English peoples has ever been the curse of
extreme party bigotry. Under this defect in our
social conditions, where men are remembered only
as leaders of rival factions, history becomes dis-
torted and lacking in that frank, generous sincerity
which it should have in the best interests of the
highest good of the community. Because of this
Sir Allan MacNab stands merely for the old pre-
Confederation Toryism of the province, as repre-
sented by the much exaggerated ills of the family
compact in the pages of many writers. The whole
history of that period has yet to be properly
written. The large amount of bitter party
journalism upon the subject is neither history
nor even healthy fiction. When we do produce
336

Mackenzie and Strachan

an unbiassed account of that period all of these
men, on both sides, will stand higher in the
opinions of honest readers and students of our
history. There were then, as now, no angels on
either side. There were then, as there are, perhaps,
a few now, men beating the wind of an indifferent
public opinion for the redress of certain widely
acknowledged grievances. There were then, as
there are to an even greater extent to-day, people
in high places who were intermarried and formed a
network of official power as office-holders and con-
trollers of wealth in the community. Strange to
say, the persons who have in the last decade pro-
fessed the greatest public adhesion to the struggle
and principles of Mackenzie have been among the
worst sinners in this family compact institution
as we have it to-day.

There is no doubt, as John Morley (now Lord
Morley) had to admit lately, that often what seems
a broad and shining roadway may end in a mere
cul-de-sac. He used this expression in voicing
his disappointment at the failure of his fond ideal,
the American Republic. But it might be put in
other language in suggesting that it is easier to
hurl imprecations and preach platitudes regarding
equality and purity in opposition than it is to
practise all these virtues when a party gets into
power. It is a strange reflection on our modern
so-called representative government and now ex-
ceedingly doubtful democracy, that the Reformers
always seem to be the office-seekers and the
wicked Tories and tyrants the office-holders. This,

VOL. I. Y 337

The Scotsman in Canada

in Canada, applies equally to both parties, and
the finest place to breed political cynics is the
Gallery of the House of Commons, where the
fervent reformers of to-day or yesterday, and the
smug, smiling defenders of graft on the Treasury
benches, seem to exchange their characters by
merely crossing the House after an election.
There is no doubt that the thinking people of the
British race are more than sick of the really
dangerous insincerity of the average political party,
which is to-day quite ready to even smash all
existing stability of government for the sake of
achieving the reins of power in any country.

In spite of this very patent truth, even to-day
there are fine men on both sides of the House,
though the period does not seem to be kindly
to the development of true statesmen. Even on
the Treasury benches there are, and always have
been, strong and able men, doing, as heads of
departments, faithful and good work for the
country. Also on the Opposition side there are,
and always have been, clean, earnest men striving
to better our conditions. But on both sides it
is the man who is clean, and not the party. In
fact, it is more. It is the decent man in spite
of his party. If there is corruption on the Treasury
benches, it is because of party. If there is
hypocrisy and false clamour on the part of the
Opposition, it is because the exigencies of the
party success have supplanted the true weal of
the whole community.

Likewise was it in the days of Mackenzie,

338

Mackenzie and Strachan

Strachan, and MacNab. There was no such thing
as a perfect phalanx for good or evil on either
side. There was much to be deplored on the
side of the Tories. But it was the system, as it
is to-day, that was largely to blame. On the
whole, bad as matters were, there was then in
existence a class of men who did stand firmly
for certain principles (would that we had such
men to-day !), even though they may have some-
times exaggerated their importance. Strachan was
a stern, uncompromising' Churchman. He believed
in the State Church as the necessary complement
to the truly moral, truly stable government. He
regarded it as necessary that the Church should
have its place in the national life, and that the
clergyman, as the representative of the Church,
had his duty to perform in public life as well
as the lawyer. He believed that the University
and all education should be in close touch with
the National Church. He realised that the Church
of England was the National State Church of
England, and that as such she should control the
spirit of the University and college. He further
held that the Church, to keep up her dignity,
must be supported by the State, as it is in England.
Believing all this, he, as the chief representative
of the Church in Upper Canada, made a strong
fight to maintain for her those rights and that
status that she held under the Constitution.

That he believed and firmly held all this was
certainly no crime on his part. On the other
hand, it was, after all, but his common duty to

339

The Scotsman in Canada

his Church and his office. He should not be con-
demned for holding those views, any more than
Bishop Macdonell should be condemned for having
fought for and secured Catholic privileges along
the same lines. He should be judged, rather, by
his adherence or lack of adherence to his ideals
and his methods of securing them. On the other
hand, Lyon Mackenzie should not be condemned
for being what he was, a fierce and uncom-
promising reformer. Strachan was accused of
being over " canny " and shrewd, and of being
iwell aware of the value of this world's goods
and power. But with this went a strong sense
of proper authority and sound rule, a reverence
for loyalty to the Sovereign and Church, which
had a great effect for good upon many people
who absorbed this ideal and needed it to render
them good citizens ; and it would be better if
we had some of this influence in Canada at the
present hour. The good Bishop was a firm
administrator and a man of sound common sense,
a safe man to control society and keep it in a
good conservative reverence and respect for law
and order. Then, he also could be fiery on occa-
sion, and brave and militant and forgetful of self,
as was shown in his daring treatment of the
victorious American generals when they captured
and sacked York in April, 1813. It was almost
heroic, the uncompromising attitude of this stern
little Scotch divine, when he rebuked Chauncey,
the American leader, and his officers for their
ill-treatment of the people of Toronto, and de-
340

Mackenzie and Strachan

manded, and secured it too, proper terms for the
community.

His noted opponent, Mackenzie, has been
accused of weaknesses the very opposite to
those ascribed to Strachan. He, on the other
hand, has been accused of being both imprac-
tical and impossible as a politician and states-
man, because he was always ready to uphold
principles, whether they were popular or not. It
was said that he would not wait for the proper
time to demand a reform ; but so soon as he
realised a wrong he made it his own at once.
It can readily be understood that from the stand-
point of the keen, practical party politician, who
weighed all the chances of success or defeat for
his faction, that such a man with such a tempera-
ment would be regarded as dangerous, if not
impossible.

This kind of man,

This vague, high dreamer with his skyward gaze ;
He runs too wide, not broken to the traces,
Where ploughs the furrow of this practical world.
He mocks your hopes, your schemes ; you cannot use him
In short, not biddable to the common mind,
He smacks of lunacy.

Such, indeed, is the summing up of such a
character by the modern cynic type of man. But
for those who —

Believe in God and His eternal laws,
Founded on justice, truth and liberty,

341

The Scotsman in Canada

who believe that —

God made the dome-walls of this splendid world,
Carpet it as you may,

there is a larger, truer appreciation of Mac-
kenzie's personality. To such persons, reading,
without party or other bias, the tragedy of this
man's whole history (for it was a tragedy), William
Lyon Mackenzie's life rises above the mere personal
struggle of one man for place or existence. It
becomes rather the long-drawn out protest of a
sincere soul against the whole miserable, second-
best and cynic compromise of our age and con-
ditions. Whether in the Commons in fierce de-
clamation, or deserted and alone as he fled from
the pitiable battle of Montgomery's Farm, or in
the prison-cell at Albany, Mackenzie was always
separated by an insuperable wall from his fellow-
men ; and for the one simple reason that he was
a fierce, burning consciousness far in advance of
his own time. He was always to the end the same
personality, a lonely voice crying1 in the wilder-
ness of an unheeding and material world.

I do not justify the Rebellion. No sane man
does, or could. Mackenzie himself did not. There
is no doubt that, as he himself said afterwards,
no one more bitterly regretted it than he did. It
is only ignorance, class jealousy, and fierce faction
hatred, bent on destruction at any cost, that would
pretend to glorify any uprising against law and
order. It is always a calamity even for the
gravest reasons. Mackenzie did not make the
Rebellion. It was only a pitiable episode in
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Mackenzie and Strachan

the whole miserable condition of his day and time,
in which he was mixed up. It is true he had
his weakness, as all men have ; and his was
that he allowed himself, through his bitterness of
spirit, which at times verged on madness, to be
made use of by vile cowardly plotters who had
neither the soul nor the sincerity to openly avow
what they secretly desired.

But when all is considered, this part of his
career has been made too much of in Mackenzie's
life. Those who would immortalise him as the
head of a poor abortive rebellion, which never
at any time had the slightest chance of success,
are his worst enemies. And while they pretend
to represent him are really alien from the man's
own true spirit and ideals at his best. It will
not be until the world forgets his part in the
Rebellion that it will be able to see the true
Mackenzie at his highest and finest. When this
cloak of mere party mist is withdrawn, and the
clamour of party invective is quelled, it will be
found that he was in many respects a great man,
a great Highlander, a seer, a holder of remark-
able ideals, and a true benefactor of his kind. It
was to a great extent because of this that he was
considered to be a failure in his own day. He
was, in a sense, always in the clouds ; alone,
withdrawn. Then, added to an exceedingly wide
and clear vision as to how things should be, there
was in his nature, as a natural result, a continual
irritation at the imperfection of the life and con-
ditions about him. He saw it continually in others
and himself. This eternal weakness and the

343

The Scotsman in Canada

inability to cure or check it, immediately, bred in
his sensitive nature a whole life's unhappiness. He
had a certain kinship to Carlyle, the true poet's
irritability at the eternal compromise with evil and
imperfection and what is called the " mammon
of unrighteousness." When this is fully realised
by the student of his life, Mackenzie will be recog-
nised as more than the mere idol of a few narrow
present-day Upper Canadian zealots of a cause
that they do not even pretend to live up to. He
will then be found to be one with the whole Scottish
race, as a representative of one of its most charac-
teristic types, the martyr reformer. It is remark-
able to see here the similarity to the case of the
Earl of Argyll and his grandson, where the tragic
personality of Mackenzie is justified and comple-
mented in the personality of his already dis-
tinguished grandson, the Hon. W. Lyon Mackenzie
King, whose career of conciliation is dealt with
in another part of this volume.

But the world needs different types of men to
sustain it, or else civilisation would go to pieces.
When Darwin was studying marine biology on
board ship, and on one occasion so forgetful of
mundane affairs that he was not aware for some
time that he had been standing in a tub of water,
he was engaged in a great work for mankind.
But meanwhile some one was necessarily in com-
mand of the ship and watchful that all was safe
while the great scientist carried on his researches.

And so it was in Upper Canada ; while Mac-
kenzie was voicing ideals of government, and
suggesting reforms which have all been secured
344

Mackenzie and Strachan

since (and which, sad to say, are, many of them,
now obsolete), men like Strachan and MacNab
were needed at the helm of State. For, imperfect
as things may be, the world must be carried on
from day to day. And, seer as he was, Mackenzie
could not voice and improve all things. There
was a side to life, and a very necessary side, to
which he was, by reason of his very intense
temperament, perfectly oblivious, but to which John
Strachan was very much alive, and to which he
ministered in no small degree.

To Strachan Canada owes a debt, as regards
her culture and education, that she can never
repay. He also stood for a much-needed con-
servatism, which was the strong anchor of British
connection, and a very necessary one in a small
fringe of provinces bordering upon a large, aggres-
sive, and alien republic. He was, like Mackenzie,
small in stature ; but, like him, possessed a
strong, dominant, and fiery spirit. Strachan was
also somewhat of a poet. He wrote some very
good verses and was a fine classical scholar. But
his strong characteristic was his plain, common -
sense, conservative power of controlling a com-
munity, and his patience and determination in
carrying his point.

In some things those two remarkable little Scots-
men were much alike. In an ideal state of society
they might have worked together, and probably
in the end did respect each other's character, while
by temperament antagonistic to what each con-
sidered the other's ideals. After all, they had
much in common, and might in time have dis-

345

The Scotsman in Canada

covered that their objects were identical. But they
might each be said to represent two strong
essentials to the success of civilisation, namely,
individualism and the community ideal. Mackenzie
was in all ways a fervent apostle of the rights
of the individual ; while Strachan stood rather
for what he understood to be the good of the
whole community. Both are in the end
synonymous terms when taken rightly, as one
depends on the other. But, herein, we have not
done enough justice to men of the type of Strachan.
He, like Mackenzie, though in a calmer tempera-
ment, was equally uncompromising. In this
respect also there was something in common
between the two men. Strachan had virtually
founded King's College, now Toronto University ;
and then he lived to see it gradually lost to the
Church and all his greatest life-work seemingly
in vain. In his old age he had to start out anew
after a hopeless struggle, and found another
Church college, that of Trinity. He also lived
to see many of his cherished ideals shattered and
destroyed. He has been wrongfully regarded by
many as narrow, hard, and domineering. But he
spent his whole life in the work of his Church,
and was a great missionary of the Anglican Com-
munion in Upper Canada. Strachan's finest work
for Canada, however, was in the direction of educa-
tion ; and when our true history is written, he will
be remembered as our greatest pioneer in this
branch of our civilisation.

Mackenzie also did much for the community.
He was, in his ideas and ideals, far in advance
346

Mackenzie and Strachan

of his time. He also was deeply interested in
culture and education. He had many practical
ideas regarding the progress of the country. In
1828 he suggested a scheme for the confedera-
tion of British North America, which was very
much what was carried out afterwards. He, too,
appreciated many conservative principles. He was
a firm believer in the British Constitution. He
had really in his nature and heredity many of the
Old World ideals of good stable government and
authority. It would surprise some of his super-
ficial admirers, who have read more about him
than is true, to find in his writings such strong,
sane, conservative, old-fashioned British concep-
tions of many political and other matters. Finally,
to close this comparison of the characters of
Mackenzie and Strachan, it might be said thait,
as regards the community, Mackenzie was most
deeply interested in its improvement, and Strachan
in its stability. In this both were right, though
both were perhaps partial in their several ideals.
Realising this, we find that both were needed ;
that each performed a great work in his stead-
fast, earnest, lifelong devotion to an ideal as each
saw it. What more can any man do than this?

To both of these men Canada owes much ; and
all Canadians of Scottish extraction should feeil
a glow of pride that the two most outstanding
personalities of Old Upper Canada, the two men
who really acted for the good of the community,
were Scotsmen of such fine fibre and high ideals
of citizenship as are represented in William Lyon
Mackenzie and John Strachan.

347

CHAPTER XXV

SCOTSMEN IN PUBLIC LIFE BETWEEN
THE MACKENZIE AND MACDONALD
PERIODS, AND SINCE

Who are these all marching past

In vast procession ?
They are those of many minds

Who, good or ill,
In various kinds

Made one strong will
To build the nation.

IN the Parliaments of the United Provinces of
Upper and Lower Canada from 1840 to 1867
there were many Scotsmen.

In the Parliament opened at Kingston on
June 14, 1841, one half of the Legislative Council
or Upper House were of Scottish extraction. Their
names were : James Crooks, Adam Ferrie, Adam
Ferguson, Alexander Fraser, John Fraser, John
Hamilton, Robert S. Jamieson, John Macaulay,
John Macdonald, Peter McGill, Thomas McKay,
and William Morris. In the Lower House were
the following Scottish Canadians : Upper Canada
sent Sir Allan McNab, John Sandfield Mac
donald, J. McGill Strachan, Malcolm Cameron,
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Scotsmen in Public Life

James Morris, David Thornburn, E.G. Campbell,
John Gilchrist, Donald McDonald, Alex. McLean,
and Isaac Buchanan. Lower Canada sent John
Hamilton, Colin Robertson, Robert Christie, Henry
Black, David Burnett, John Neilson, and Michael
McCulloch. A Scotsman, the Hon. Malcolm
Cameron, moved the Address from the Throne,
and another Scotsman, the Hon. John Neilson,
answered for the French Canadians in their pro-
test against the Union. The prominent men /of
this period deserve some slight reference. John
Sandfield Macdonald is referred to elsewhere. The
Hon. Malcolm Cameron was Member for Lanark.
His father, Angus Cameron, was a sergeant in
the Army, who settled at Perth, Upper Canada,
and kept an inn. The son started life as clerk
in the distillery of the Hon. A. Graham. He was
elected to Parliament for Lanark in 1836. He
was made Inspector of Revenue, then Assistant
Commissioner of Public Works, President of the
Council, Postmaster-General, and was the first
Minister of Agriculture. He sat during twenty-
six years for several constituencies — Lanark, Kent,
Lambton, and Huron.

Sir Allan McNab's career belongs partly to
the Lyon Mackenzie and Strachan period. In
1829 he was arrested for contempt of the House
and sent to gaol ; but was in 1830 elected for
Wentworth. In 1841 he was elected for Hamilton,
which he represented until he retired in 1857.
During the Rebellion he was Speaker of the
Commons. In 1842 he led the Conservative

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The Scotsman in Canada

Opposition. In 1841 he was again Speaker ; in
1848 he again led the Opposition against the
Rebellion Losses Bill. In 1854 he became
Premier. In 1856 he retired, being succeeded in
the Upper Canadian Leadership by his brilliant
young Scottish colleague, John Alexander Mac-
donald. He returned to England in 1856. He
was created a Baronet ; returned to Canada, and
was elected to the Upper House, and was Speaker
in 1862. He died that year at his residence,
Dundurn Castle, near Hamilton. He was a man
of faults, but also of great abilities and fine
qualities. He was a leading and noted personality
in the history of the first half of the nineteenth
century in Upper Canada. With Mackenzie and
Strachan he makes the third in a strong group
of Scottish leaders in the young colony. He was
a man who was headstrong and blunt, but he
was loyal and with a single purpose, and had the
generous heart of the Highlander. He repre-
sented, with Strachan, the best type of what was
called the old-fashioned Tory in Upper Canada.

The Hon. William Morris entered Parliament
in 1820. He became a champion of the Church
of Scotland in the Clergy Reserves question.
Elected for Lanark in 1836, he was appointed the
same year to the Legislative Council. In 1837
he reorganised the Militia. As Receiver-General,
under Lord Metcalfe from 1844 to 1846, he did
good service for the country. He then became
President of the Council, and died in 1848. He
was noted for his honesty. He was born at Paisley,
350

Scotsmen in Public Life

in Scotland, in 1786. His father came to Canada,
but failing in business, became a farmer. The
Hon. Wm. Morris had a son, the Hon. Alex.
Morris, Lieutenant -Governor of Manitoba.

The Hon. James Morris, nephew of the above,
was also born in Paisley, Scotland, in 1798, entered
Parliament in 1837, and was appointed to the
Legislative Council in 1844. He was Postmaster-
General in 1858. He did much to reform the
postal service. In 1853-54 he was Speaker of the
Council. He died at Brockville in 1865.

The Hon. Adam Ferguson was a pioneer in
Upper Canada in scientific agriculture. He was
born in Edinburgh in 1783, being the son of
Neil Ferguson, Esq., of Woodhill, of a noted
Perthshire family. He founded the village of
Fergus, in Wellington County. His country resi-
dence, near Hamilton, he called Woodhill, and
he was a fine type of a class all too scarce in
Canada, the gentleman farmer. His son, Adam
Johnston Ferguson, was also prominent in
Canadian public life, and represented in turn
Waterloo and South Wellington. He was
I Receiver-General and Provincial Secretary in
I 1862. He inherited his mother's family estates,
I and added the name Blair to that of Ferguson.
I At Confederation Ferguson Blair was made a
I Senator and President of the Council in the
I Cabinet.

The Hon. John Hamilton was a son of the
I Hon. Robert Hamilton, of Queenston, who was
i born in Scotland. The Senator was born in 1801.

The Scotsman in Canada

He was made a Senator at Confederation, and
was President of the Commercial Bank. He re-
sided at Kingston, and was called the father of
the Canadian Senate.

The Hon. James Leslie, who was born at Nairn,
in Kincardineshire, in 1786, was another Scots-
man, being a son of Capt. James Leslie, of the
1 5th Foot, who was Assistant Quartermaster-
General at the taking of Quebec under Wolfe.
He was a prominent representative of Lower
Canada.

In 1841 the election in Toronto had three out
of four candidates Scotsmen. They were George
Munro, Hon. J. H. Dunn, and Isaac Buchanan.
Munro was a leading citizen of Toronto. The
Hon. Isaac Buchanan was born at Glasgow in
1810. He became a prominent Canadian
merchant and a leading Reformer of the moderate
type, and was a member of several Governments.

The Hon. Joseph Curran Morrison was born
in Ireland, but was the son of Hugh Morrison,
of Sutherlandshire, Scotland. Called to the Bar
in 1839, he became the partner of the Hon. W. H.
Blake. He was elected to West York in the
Reform interest in 1847. He became Solicitor-
General in 1854 and again in 1860. In 1862
he was raised to the Bench in the Court of Common
Pleas.

Chief Justice Sir Adam Wilson was a leading

lawyer. He was born in Edinburgh, and came

to Canada in 1830. He was the first Mayor of

Toronto elected by the people. He represented

352

Scotsmen in Public Life

North York, and from 1862 to 1864 was Solicitor-
General.

Sir John Rose, Baronet, G.C.M.G., was a native
of Aberdeen. Born in 1821 and educated at
King's College, he came to Canada and became a
member of the Montreal Bar in 1842. He entered
Parliament in 1851, and the same year became
Solicitor-General, and Commissioner of Public
Works in 1859. He served as an Imperial Com-
missioner, and in 1867 became Finance Minister.
He retired in 1869.

The Hon. James Patton was born at Prescott,
Upper Canada, in 1824. His father was Major
Andrew Patton, of St. Andrews, Fifeshire, and
the 45th Regiment. His brother was Rector of
Cornwall. He removed to Barrie, where he prac-
tised law, and became a prominent Conservative.
In 1856 he was elected to the Upper House for
the Saugeen Division. He afterwards became
Collector of Customs for Toronto.

The Hon. John Young was a native of Ayr, in
Scotland, where he was born in 1 8 1 1 . He came
to Canada, and became active in raising a regiment
to put down the 1837 Rebellion. He became a
prominent merchant and citizen of Montreal.
Representing Montreal, he became Commissioner
of Public Works in 1 85 i . He was Harbour Com-
imissioner of the port of Montreal, where he died
in 1878.

The Hon. James Ferrier, a noted merchant of
Montreal, was born in Fifeshire in 1800. A
Conservative and a Methodist, he was noted for
VOL. i. z 353

The Scotsman in Canada

his energy and single-minded effort for good. He
was appointed to the Upper House in 1867.

Hon. David Christie was born in Edinburgh in
1818. He entered Parliament in 1851 for Went-
worth, Upper Canada. Elected to the Legislative
Council in 1858, he became a Senator in 1867. He
was Secretary of State in the Mackenzie Cabinet
in 1873, then Speaker of the Senate. He accom-
plished much for Upper Canadian agriculture.

A list of some of the leading Scottish Senators
since Confederation will include some notable
personalities in the Upper Chamber.

One of the earliest was Lieut. -Col. the Hon.
Walter Hamilton Dickson, representing Niagara.
His father, a Scotsman, sat in the Upper Canadian
Legislative Council. Col. Dickson was born in
1805, and was one of the first Dominion Senators.

The Hon. George William Allan, who became
Speaker, was also a son of a former member of
the Legislative Council of Upper Canada, the Hon.
William Allan. Mr. Allan was born in 1822 in
Toronto. He held many distinguished positions
and was made one of the first Dominion Senators.
There is a portrait of him in the Senate Gallery
at Ottawa.

The Hon. David Lewis McPherson, a noted
Canadian Highlander, was born in Inverness in
1 8 1 8 . He was a successful business man, railroad
financier, and bank director. He was made
Speaker of the Senate in 1880. His portrait is
in the Senate Gallery.

The Hon. John McMurich was a member of the
old Canadian Legislative Council. He was a
354

Scotsmen in Public Life

prominent citizen of Toronto, though not a member
of the Dominion Senate. His son, William Barclay
McMurich, was twice Mayor of Toronto.

The Hon. Roderick Matheson, descended of that
old Highland family of Ross-shire and Suther-
land, was born in Ross -shire, and was a lieutenant
in the Glengarry Light Infantry in 1812. He
was called to the Senate in 1867. He died in
1872.

The Hon. John Simpson was born at Rothes,
near Elgin. His parents were among the Scottish
settlers at Perth, Upper Canada. He was a banker
and founded the Ontario Bank. He was one
of the original Dominion Senators in 1867. Of
the first two Senators for Manitoba one was a
Scotsman, the Hon. John Sutherland, of Kildonan.
His father, Alexander Sutherland, was a Scottish
soldier, who was of the Kildonan settlement in
1821.

A distinguished Senator representing British
Columbia is the Hon. William John Macdonald,
whose father was Major Alexander Macdonald, of
Skye. Senator Macdonald is of a noted family
in Western Scotland. He was born in Inverness -
shire in 1832, and emigrated to British Columbia
in 1851 as an employee of the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany. He became a prominent citizen of Victoria,
and was called to the Senate in 1871.

Another Senator for British Columbia was the
late Governor of that province, the Hon. T. R.
Mclnnes. His parents were from Inverness and
Paisley, but he was born at Lake Ainslie, Nova
Scotia, in 1.840.

355

The Scotsman in Canada

The Hon. Adam Hope was born in East Lothian,
Scotland, in 1813. He settled at St. Thomas in
1837, removing thence to London and thence to
Hamilton, where he built up a prosperous business.
He entered the Senate in 1877.

The Hon. George Alexander was born in
Banffshire in 1814, and educated at Aberdeen
University. He was a noted provincial agricul-
turist. He was called to the Senate in 1873.

The Hon. Alexander Morris was born in Perth,
Upper Canada, in 1826. He was the son of the
Hon. William Morris. His father came from
Paisley. Mr. Morris was educated at Glasgow
and McGill Universities, and studied law. He
was a distinguished writer on public questions.
He entered Parliament in 1861 and the Govern-
ment in 1869 as Minister of Inland Revenue. He
was, in succession, Chief Justice of Manitoba and
Lieutenant -Governor of that province.

The following were some prominent Commoners
of this period : Thomas Bain, Member for North
Went worth. He was born in Stirlingshire in 1834.
He became Speaker of the Commons. David
Blair, LL.D., born near Ayr in 1832, of an old
family, taught school and studied law, elected
Member for West York in 1872.

Lieut. -Col. James Brown, of Belleville, Member
for West Hastings, was born in Scotland in
1826.

Daniel B. Chisholm was a Member
Hamilton in 1872 and in 1874- He was a son
of Col. George Chisholm and grandson of Mr.
Chisholm, who came, from Inverness.
356

Scotsmen in Public Life

Robert Cunningham, elected in 1872 Member
for Marquette, was born in Ayrshire.

The Hon. Peter White, P.C., born in Edin-
burgh, and son of Peter White, Esq., of Edin-
burgh, Scotland, represented North Renfrew for
many years in the Commons. Chosen Speaker
of the Commons under the later Conservative
regime, he was one of the ablest Speakers Canada
ever had. He was highly respected by men of
all parties. His son has since represented the
same constituency.

Sir James David Edgar, son of James Edgar,
who emigrated from Keithock, Scotland, in 1840,
was born in 1841 in the Eastern Townships, Lower
Canada. He was Member for South Ontario, and
elected Speaker of the Commons in 1896 and was
knighted the same year.

Sir James Alexander Grant, K.C.M.G., Member
for Russell County, was born in Inverness -shire in
1829. Was a son of Dr. Grant. He became a
noted Canadian physician. He has had a long and
active life, and has received many honours. He
has just lately received the freedom of his own
old city of Inverness. He has been president of
many scientific and learned societies.

William Macdougall was born in Scotland in
1831 ; represented Three Rivers, Quebec, in
Parliament .

Angus Morrison, son of Hugh Morrison, and
brother of the Hon. Justice Morrison of the Ontario
Bench, represented North Simcoe from 1858 to
1863 and Niagara in 1867.

357

The Scotsman in Canada

Thomas Oliver, born in Scotland, represented
North Oxford from 1866 to 1888.

The Hon. William Patterson, Minister of
Customs for the Dominion, has represented
South Brant since 1872. He was born in
1839. His father came from Aberdeen. He has
long been one of the Liberal leaders for Ontario.

James Young represented North Brant in the
Ontario Legislature. He was born at Gait in 1835,
elected to Commons for South Walerton in 1867,
and again in 1872 and 1874.

James Findlay was Member for North Renfrew.
He succeeded a Mr. Rankin, another Scotsman.
He defeated the Hon. Peter White, who after-
wards represented the Riding and became Speaker
of the Commons and a Privy Councillor.

We have since had many noted Senators of
Scottish origin, among them the late Hon. Sir
George Drummond, Hon. David McKeen, of Nova
Scotia ; Sir George Ross, late Premier of Ontario ;
the late Senator Lauderkin, Ontario ; Hon. Robert
Mackay, Montreal ; Hon. Robert B. Angus, Mon-
treal ; Sir Richard Scott, Ottawa ; Hon. Archi-
bald Campbell, Ontario ; Hon. R. Meighan,
Montreal ; the late Hon. David McLaren, of
Perth; Hon. J. C. Edwards, Ottawa; Hon.
Robert Jaffray, Toronto ; Senator McMullen,
Ontario ; and the Hon. J. K. Kerr, K.C., of
Toronto, the present able Speaker of the Senate.

Among the Members of Parliament Scotsmen

have been represented in the different counties

by some noted Commoners, many of whom have

since gone to the Upper Chamber, to the Cabinet,

358

Scotsmen in Public Life

or other positions, and have been mentioned in
other chapters of this volume. Among the most
noted of the later Commoners was the Hon.
Justice Sutherland of the High Court of Ontario,
who was one of the most accomplished and able
Speakers of the House of Commons. He is a
fine scholar, a brilliant lecturer, and an enthu-
siastic Scotsman. Justice Sutherland is one of
the most distinguished members of the Canadian
Bench. In the present Dominion Cabinet are four
men of Scottish extraction — Hon. Sydney Fisher,
Hon. William Patterson, Hon. George P. Graham,
of Ulster-Scottish descent, and Hon. W. L.
Mackenzie King. Another prominent Commoner
is Mr. Guthrie, an able lawyer and speaker, who
is likely to enter the Cabinet. His father was
a well-known Scottish-Canadian Commoner in the
Ontario Legislature.

In New Brunswick the late Hon. Andrew G.
Blair, Minister of Railways and Canals for Canada,
was a noted example. He had been for years
Premier of New Brunswick, and was one of the
ablest Canadian administrators. In Nova Scotia
the Hon. W. A. Murray, who has been for many
years Premier of that province, is another instance
of able Maritime Scotsmen.

In Ontario the Hon. John Strathearn Hendrie,
the Hons. J. M. Gibson (the present Lieutenant-
Governor), Samuel Nelson Monteith, Arthur James
Matheson, William John Hanna, and J. G.
Mackay (leader of the Ontario Opposition), repre-
sent a host of men of Scottish or Ulster-Scottish
origin who are active in Provincial public life.

359

CHAPTER XXVI

SIR JOHN ALEXANDER MACDONALD

Out-worn without assoil,

From a great life's lengthened toil,
Laurelled with half a century's fame ; —

From the care and adulation

To the heart-throb of the nation
He hath passed to be a memory and a name.

Him of the wider vision,

Who had one hope, Elysian,
To mould a mighty Empire toward the West ;

Who through the hostile years,

'Mid the wrangling words, like spears,
Still bore this Titan vision in his breast.

"The Dead Leader."

IN treating of Canadian political life of the
period before and during the quarter-century
following Confederation, one figure stands out pre-
eminently as the dominating personality — namely,
that of the great Scottish-born statesman, the
Right Hon. Sir John Alexander Macdonald.
Though many distinguished and remarkable
leaders throng the period, among them all with
common consent, irrespective of party or other
360

Sir John Alexander Macdonald

considerations, he stands out and makes the time
particularly his own. So much is this so, that,
as in the case of Lincoln, the great American,
the history of the forty or fifty years of Canadian
struggle and development of the last half of the
nineteenth century might reasonably be called
" The History of Sir John A. Macdonald and his
Times." Few men in the annals of the Empire
have so dominated a whole period, and made it
so much their own, as is represented in the career
of this remarkable man.

The only other parallel cases are those of
Disraeli and Gladstone in Britain. But even in
those cases each had a rival in the other, whereas
Macdonald had none to challenge his long political
sway over the hearts, minds, and imaginations of
a whole people. It is not denied that he had
many contemporaries, such as Howe, Mackenzie,
Brown, Blake, and Tupper, who might have
challenged his supremacy in some respects, and
others who were his superiors as orators, jurists,
and scholars ; but in some subtle way, by jthe
very genius of an innate personality, he stood out
and was acknowledged as the great political leader,
who was so strong in the people's hearts and so
held their imaginations that they allowed him to
accomplish much, and forgave him more than they
have ever any other public man before or since.
It would be absurd to say that Maddonald had
no faults. Indeed, he was a man, like Burns, all
compounded of faults. But, as in Burns's case,
they were the large, human faults of genius. So

361

The Scotsman in Canada

that even in his weaknesses he was brought nearer
to the sympathy of his fellow-men. But this was
not all. Men of the highest ideals and the
straightest, narrowest life respected and honoured
John Alexander Macdonald, because they felt that
at core he was a man with the instincts of a
true man and a gentleman, who respected and
realised the best ideals of the British heredity and
the British community. They felt that he was, in
spite of all, a true British statesman and a loyal
servant of the Crown and the Empire. Then, he
had in himself by birth and environment, and he
appreciated it in others, that innate refinement and
love of culture which dominated his life and helped
him in influencing the community of his day.

He never claimed the power of an orator with
the wizard locks and the flashing eye, who welded
Jove's lightnings into his words. On the other
hand, he generally spoke quietly and simply what
he had to say. But when he had need to say
anything important, there was a strange power
of persuasion in his words and personality that
carried weight where often his more rhetorical
lieutenants and opponents failed. It was said of
him that he picked other men's brains. This in
a sense might be true. There is no doubt he knew
how to gather about him able followers, and that
he organised and developed their gifts for the
comtaon good. But this is a sign of the highest
genius in a leader or ruler ; and few men had this
gift more finely developed than Macdonald. To
write at length of him is a work of supereroga-
362

Sir John Alexander Macdonald

tion ; his whole distinguished career is so well
known. But, in short, he was the greatest political
leader that Canada has ever known, and one of
the few great political personalities in the history
of the Empire. He will live for ever in Canadian
history as the supreme father of Confederation.
Without being a student in any particular line of
thought, he was a man of general reading jand
culture, and never appeared at a loss for a word
or a phrase. He had a wide fund of anecdotes,
and possessed the remarkable power of keeping
silent until the moment for necessary speech arose.
He was greatly admired in Britain, where he was
considered to resemble Lord Beaconsfield. The
real lasting greatness of Sir John A. Macdonald
will be found to have its base in the fact that
he was a great Imperialist and Empire-builder.
In all of his work he never seemed to lose sight of
this idea. His was a commanding, complete, and
well-balanced greatness, which combined many
subtly blended gifts of insight, resource, and tact
with a commensurate knowledge of character. But
two even greater qualities made the man what
he was. These were a supreme intellectuality
which, without intruding itself, permeated and con-
trolled his life ; and the other was a great human
sympathy which only one other Canadian, Joseph
Howe, possessed in so great a degree.

Macdonald's Scottish origin is significant. Like
many another noted Canadian, he hailed from the
far north Highlands. His early friend, Oliver
Mowat, came of Caithness stock. Macdonald's

363

The Scotsman in Canada

immediate ancestors came from Sutherlandshire .
To my mind, there is no more beautiful part of
the world than this historical old Scottish shire,
which stretches across Scotland in the far north,
from Assint to the Dornoch Firth.

In the east of this shire lies the quaint old town
or Royal Burgh of Dornoch, with its ruined
Bishop's Palace and ancient cathedral. Near here
lies Skibo Castle, another ancient place, now the
old-world home of that famous Scotsman, Andrew
Carnegie. North of Dornoch is Dunrobin Castle,
the chief seat in the north ,of the Duke of Suther-
land ; and south of Golspie, the station at Dun-
robin, is a grim old glen or valley stretching
down the hills to the sea dalled Rogart. Here,
in the old days of the eighteenth century, v^as
the first home in the north of this particular family
of Macdonialds, who had moved north from
Western Ross and the Isles, the great home of
the Macdonald clan. Sir John had his book-plate
in all his books, with the Macdonald arms and
crest, the cross crosslet, and the galley, and the
famous motto, " Per mare per terras." But it
is not known from what special branch of the
clan his people descended. Sutherland, with
Strathnaver, was the great country of the Mackays,
who were, with the Sutherlands, the Macleods of
Assint on the west and the Sinclairs on the north-
east, the prevailing people. But into this great
region of the clans of the cat and the muzzled
bears several septs of western clans and southern
families intruded. During the Breadalbane in-
364

Sir John Alexander Macdonald

vasion of Caithness came some Campbells and
Macdonalds . There was in this Reay country
during the eighteenth century a famous Presby-
terian divine, the Rev. Murdoch Macdonald, called
the Apostle of the North, from whom some
Macdonalds of Pictou, Nova Scotia, are descended.

It must have been of this stock that Sir John's
forbears in the Mackay and Sutherland county
came or to which it had affiliation. In the thirty-
sixth year of the eighteenth century John Mac-
donald, grandfather of the great Canadian Premier,
was born. He was reared at Rogart, and early
in his youth he was put to a business in the
neighbouring town of Dornoch. He rose by
prudence and patience to a high place in the town,
ultimately becoming its Provost. He was married in
1778 to Miss Jean Macdonald, of Rogart, who was,
no doubt, his own cousin. He had a large family,
and died in 1822. His second son, Hugh Mac-
donald, was born in Rogart in 1782. He removed
to Glasgow, and acquired a more extensive busi-
ness. He married Helen Shaw, daughter of James
Shaw and his wife, Margaret Grant.

They had five children, three sons and two
daughters, all born in Glasgow ; and one of them
was the future Canadian Prime Minister. In 1820
Mr. Hugh Macdonald, finding his business affairs
unsatisfactory, emigrated to Canada and settled
in Kingston. John Alexander, the second son,
was born on January u, 1815, and was five years
old when he arrived in Canada. Though his father
was in a material sense a failure, the son was

365

The Scotsman in Canada

early equipped for his future life. Hugh Mac-
donald tried several places of residence, living for
some years on the shores of the picturesque Bay
of Quinte, in the county of Prince Edward, near
Belleville. The biography of his distinguished son
is well known to all ; his life as a student at
Kingston, his legal studies, local practice, and
subsequent political career are all recorded.

This short account of his connection with the
north of Scotland is all that is necessary for the
purpose of this volume. Sir John Alexander Mac-
donald, like his great kinsman Sir William
Alexander, was one of the few most remarkable
and outstanding personalities of a breed of men
unusually great in the history of Scotland and
the world. In his passing we know that —

A mighty heart is still,

And a great unconquered will

Has passed to meet the Conqueror all must meet.

366

CHAPTER XXVII

OTHER SCOTSMEN OF THE CONFEDERA-
TION PERIOD

" Then none were for the party t
And all were for the State " ;
That was the larger national hour
When all were truly great; —
All petty warfare vanished quite
In the weal of the people's fate.

THE public life of Sir John A. Macdonald was
associated with the careers of many other
noted men, some of them his lieutenants and others
his opponents, in Canadian political life. It is*
not hard to understand, after all that has been
shown so far in this volume, that many of these
were Scotsmen or at least men of Scottish extrac-
tion. In the list of the Canadian Fathers of
Confederation it will be found that the great
majority were of Scottish extraction.

At the Charlottetown Conference of 1864, among
the representatives from what was then Canada,
aside from the two French-Canadians, Cartier and
Langevin, all the delegates were of Scottish birth

367

The Scotsman in Canada

or extraction. They were Macdonald, Brown, Gait*
Macdougall, Campbell, and McGee. These six
men were among the most noted statesmen of
their time in Canada. The Nova Scotia con-
tingent sent to London to oppose the Union was
composed of three delegates — Joseph Howe and
two Scottish Canadians, the Hon. William Annand
and Hugh Macdonald, both distinguished men.
Nova Scotia, like Old Scotia in its union with
England, stood out for better terms ; and she got
them in a million dollars more toward the Pro-
vincial debt, with other advantages. While Howe
and Tupper were the chief political leaders, the
greater portion of the others were of Scottish
origin. Among these were Annand, Macdonald,
McLellan, Stewart, Campbell, Sir William Young,
and his brilliant brothers, George and Charles
Young.

The Quebec Conference of 1864 was composed
of thirty-three members- from the different pro-
vinces and Newfoundland. Canada sent twelve,
and of these eight were of Scottish extraction.
Nova Scotia sent five, and four were of Scottish
extraction. New Brunswick sent seven, and five
of these were of Scottish origin ; and Prince
Edward Island out of her seven delegates sent
three Scotsmen.

The names will .be interesting in this connec-
tion : Canada — Hon. J. A. Macdonald, Attorney-
General of Canada West ; Hon. George Brown,
President of Executive Council for Canada ; Hon.
Alexander T. Gait, Finance Minister ; Hon. Alex-
368

Scotsmen of the Confederation Period

ander Campbell, Commissioner of Crown Lands ;
Hon. Thomas D. McGee, Minister of Agriculture ;
Hon. William Macdougall, Provincial Secretary ;
Hon. James Cockburn, Solicitor-General. Canada
West— Hon. Oliver Mowat, Postmaster-General.
Nova Scotia— Hon. William A. Henry, Attorney-
General ; Hon. Robt. B. Dickie, Hon. Adams G.
Archibald, Hon. Jonathan McCully. New Bruns-
wick— Hon. Peter Mitchell, Provincial Secretary
and Premier ; Hon. John M. Johnson, Attorney-
General ; Hon. W. H. Steeves ; Chas. Fisher ;
Hon. J. H. Gray. Prince Edward Island — Hon.
John Hamilton Gray, Premier ; Hon. Andrew
Archibald Macdonald, Hon. Thomas Heath
Haviland.

As these men will be famous in our national
history as the fathers, or representative makers,
of Confederation, it is interesting and very signi-
cant to realise that the greater majority of these
leaders were of Scottish origin. For this reason
it will be well to give a short account of their
careers and of their connection with Scotland.
Associated with them were other noted men of
this period who should also be added to this list,
such as the Hon. Alexander Mackenzie, Sir John
Macdonald's noted opponent and leader of the
Liberal Party, and the Hon. John Sandfield Mac-
donald, the leading political genius of Old Upper
Canada of the Middle period.

The Hon. George Brown, like Sir John A.
Macdonald, was a Scotsman born, and, like his
great rival, brought the elements of Scottish life

VOL. I. AA 369

The Scotsman in Canada

and tradition into Canadian politics. He also is
so well known a personality in Canadian public
life that, unless something new be added, it is
superfluous to say anything.

Aside from all his other qualities as a public
man and his great contribution to the cause of
Confederation, George Brown will ever stand in
Canadian history as the very heart and soul of
the great old Liberal Party of Upper Canada.
When there was such a party in the golden age
of Canadian Liberalism, without doubt one man
alone stood as its acknowledged leader, and his
paper, the Globe, was its organ, and that man
was George Brown. He had in himself all ,the
true qualities, ideals, and prejudices of that strong
and important element in our people. In his day,
party did not mean merely the " ins " and the
"outs." It was a day of no compromise with
the " scarlet woman " of Opposition. There was
a strong element of the " no compromise " of
William Lyon Mackenzie abroad. And of the
staid, pious, sturdy, G/o&£ -reading, Presbyterian
Scottish Reformer George Brown was the one
accepted and ideal leader.

I am not saying that this was the only good
element in the community — far from it — or that
there was no good in the other party. But if
there was a weakness in the Conservative element,
which might have proved dangerous to the public,
it was a tendenc]^ to opportunism, which met a
stern foe in the old-time Upper Canadian Re-
formers. They were, no doubt, narrow, and what
370

Scotsmen of the Confederation Period

is termed " hide-bound/* in some respects, lack-
ing that suave spirit of easy toleration, or apparent
toleration, which may often be spelled " indiffer-
ence," which sits so gracefully on the shoulders
of some present-day politicians of both parties.
But it was a part of the Scottish angularity and
steady maintenance of Protestantism in Religion
and State that stood out for its principles. The
old-time free school and free education (free
from the Church influence), the stern keeping of
the Sabbath, the equality of man, the purity of
public life, the right of the people to rule them-
selves, already voiced in a more extreme manner
and finely accentuated by that great forerunner of
Reform principle, Lyon Mackenzie, became estab-
lished and crystallised in the Upper Canadian
Reform Party under the influence and aegis of
George Brown and his great organ the Globe.
It was said of Brown that he was too narrow an
Upper Canadian to be a true representative of
the whole Dominion. But the same might be
said of Howe, who was all for Nova Scotia. It
can be said for Brown that he was just as much
the crystallisation of the thought, ideal, and con-
ditions of the great Scottish element of Upper
Canada as was Howe of the New England element
in Nova Scotia. He was a true Upper Canadian
leader when there was a great Scottish Reform
Party to lead. Cartier was no broader than Brown
in that he stood solely and alone for Quebec and
her rights and ideals in the Dominion. It must
also be remembered that all these men belonged

371

The Scotsman in Canada

to a day when British North America was only
a bundle of provinces, anci when the idea of the
Dominion was no more than a confederation of
compromise. It is true that as a whole the Con-
federation was a good thing for all Canada. But
it must not be forgotten that in some respects,
with the exception of Quebec, every Provincial
community has suffered as the result of the Con-
federation. In the history of that period such
men as Brown, who had strong sectional and local
affiliations and prejudices, must necessarily suffer
in contrast with others who only cared for the
large general result. But Brown has never been
done justice to, and this is largely due to the
fact that he would not give up his strong principles
for the sake of passing popularity.

He was born in Edinburgh in 1 82 1 . His father

was Mr. Peter Brown, formerly a merchant and

bailie of that city, but ended his days in Toronto.

They were a family evidently of journalistic

ambitions. Peter Brown founded the British

Chronicle in New York City in 1842; but his

criticism of American institutions was not well

received. He was a strong champion of Britain,

and his " The Fame and Glory of England," an

answer to Lester's " Shame and Glory pf England,"

shows his staunch loyalty to British institutions.

George Brown removed to Toronto in 1843 ; and

on March 5th of the following year the first number

of the greatest Canadian weekly appeared. This

organ of the Reform Party has ever since con-

tinued to be the leading mouthpiece of Britisl

372

Scotsmen of the Confederation Period

Liberalism in Canada. His death at the hand
of an assassin cast a gloom over the country, and
the influence of a dominant spirit in Canadian
public life was brought to a sudden termination
on May 9, 1880. On the accession to power in
1873 of his friend the Hon. Alexander Mackenzie,
Brown had been called to the Senate. The next
year he was sent to Washington in connection
with the Reciprocity Treaty. For the rest of his
life his chief energies, outside of the Senate, were
exerted through his paper the Globe.

He had certain qualities, those of fixed devotion
to stern principles that made him impossible as
a leader of a party in a mixed community like
that of Canada after Confederation. But without
doubt he was the real successor of Lyon Mackenzie,
just as Alexander Mackenzie succeeded him. It
is a remarkable fact, and one well worth realising,
that these three noted Scottish Canadians, all born
in the Motherland, who were the natural leaders
of the Scottish Reformers of Canada, had much in
common. They were all, to a certain extent,
hampered in their success as popular leaders by
their stern idealism and hatred of compromise.
This characteristic in many ways constituted the
real power and virtue of the old Canadian
Liberalism. But it also prevented the party from
being widely accepted as the ruling force in the
founding of the Confederation and its early de-
velopment ; and this in spite of the fact that
Lyon Mackenzie and George Brown were the
earliest and most enthusiastic Conf ederationists .

373

The Scotsman in Canada

A noted Scotsman, who has been since George
Brown's day the real mainstay of the Globe, is
Senator Jaffray. He is a man of the finest ideals
and great ability and tenacity of character.
Canada owes much to Senator Jaffray for his
steady determination through many years to keep
the Globe as a high-class Canadian journal and
to maintain the best Reform principles in its
columns .

The Hon. Alexander Mackenzie, who succeeded
George Brown as actual leader of the Reform
Party, was one of the most notable personalities
in Canadian political history. He was the only
real rival to Sir John A. Macdonald, whom
as leader of the Opposition he succeeded in power
from 1873 to 1878. He was born on January 28,
1822, at Logierait, in Perthshire, Scotland ; so
that he was a true Highlander. He was educated
as a builder and contractor, and studied at Perth
and Dunkeld. Being the third of seven sons, all
of whom came to Canada, he had to shift for him-
self. In 1842 he and his elder brother, Hope
Mackenzie, afterwards Member for Lambton, came
to this country. He worked for some time as
a journeyman builder at Kingston, before finally
settling in Sarnia. In 1852 he started the
Lambton Shield, which he edited; and in 1861
succeeded his brother, entering public life as
Member for Lambton. A Whig in Scotland, he
supported Sandfield Macdonald, and strongly
favoured Confederation, but was opposed to any
coalition of party for that purpose. On the defeat
374

Scotsmen of the Confederation Period

of Brown in 1867, Mackenzie succeeded to the
leadership. In Ontario, 1871-72, he was
Treasurer in Blake's Administration of the
Local Government; and in 1873 he became
Premier of the Dominion, which position he held
for five years.

Mackenzie's name stands forth in our political
annals for sterling honesty and a desire to serve
the people faithfully. He has been ever since
spoken of as the watch-dog of the Treasury ; and
by some his ultimate defeat has been ascribed to
his too faithful guardianship of the public trust.

A noted Father of the Canadian Confederation,
who was of Scottish extraction, was the Hon.
William Macdougall. He and his father were both
born in Canada. His grandfather was a Scottish
soldier, who served in the Commissioned Depart-
ment of the British Army, and settled at Shel-
burne, Nova Scotia, after the Revolution, and
subsequently removed to Upper Canada on the
founding of the province. William Macdougall
was born on January 25, 1822, and lived to an
extreme old age. Educated at Victoria College,
he studied law, becoming an attorney in 1847.
But he also entered journalism, and edited the
Canadian Farmer, subsequently the Canadian Agri-
culturist. In 1 8 50 he founded the North American,
in opposition to the Globe, and proposed many
radical changes in elective and municipal bodies,
with other bold reforms. In 1857 his paper was
merged in the Globe, and in 1858 he entered
Parliament. In 1862 he entered the Macdonald-

375

The Scotsman in Canada

Sicotte Government. He took part in the Union
Conferences in 1866-67. He early evinced an
interest in the North-West, and had somewhat to
do with the bringing of that part of Canada into
the Dominion, and, as was fitting, became its first
Lieutenant-Governor. His unfortunate experiences
with the half-breeds is a part of our history. Of
a cool temperament and logical mind, he was a
noted debater, but was too much of a free-lance
by nature to ever stay long in party trammels,
and paid the penalty as a public man.

Sir Alexander Tilloch Gait was a distinguished
Scotsman in our politics. He and his able brother,
the Hon. Justice Gait, were noted sons of a noted
father, the famous Scottish novelist and coloniser
of Upper Canada, John Gait, founder of Goderich
and Guelph, and for whom the city of Gait was
named. Alexander Tilloch Gait was born at
Chelsea, in England, in 1817, and showed at an
early age literary proclivities, at the age of four-
teen contributing to Frasefs Magazine. At the
age of sixteen he entered the British and American
Land Company, operating in the Eastern Town-
ships of Lower Canada, and by his energy
improved its condition.

In 1839 he was elected Member for Sherbrook
as a Liberal, but opposed the Rebellion Losses
Bill, and was one of the signers of the notorious
annexation manifesto of the same year. From that
time he showed a strongly loyal spirit toward the
Empire and British connection. He later became
a Liberal -Conservative. He early showed his ability

376

Scotsmen of the Confederation Period

in finance. In 1858 Sir Edmund Head called
on him to form a Government, but he refused.
In the same year he became Inspector-General
in the Cartier-Macdonald Government. In 1864
he was again made Finance Minister. From this
on he was an active worker for Confederation,
being a member of all the Conferences. In 1865
he went to Washington in connection with a reci-
procity treaty. In 1867 he was made Finance
Minister, but the same autumn retired through
differences with the Government over financial
conditions. In 1878 he was knighted by the
Queen. He was on many international commis-
sions, and was one of the suggesters of the national
policy of Protection. He was afterwards High
Commissioner for Canada in England. He was
one of Canada's ablest financiers and debaters.
With a consummate tact he always commanded
the respect and attention of Parliament and the
public.

Two noted Scottish Canadians among the
Fathers of Confederation, who were closely con-
nected with Sir John A. Macdonald, were Sir
Oliver Mowat and Sir Alexander Campbell. Their
names are also coupled here with his, because,
like Macdonald, they were educated and started
their legal careers in what I have dared to
designate as the Aberdeen of Canada, quaint and
historical old Kingston. It is more than interesting
that there in that classic old lakeside military and
University town, called the Limestone city, three
great Scottish Canadians made their first essay

377

The Scotsman in Canada

toward public and professional success ; and that
they were associated with a fourth noted Canadian,
the Right Hon. Sir Richard Cartwright, the present
Minister of Trade and Commerce for the Dominion,
who, through his mother, is of Ulster-Scottish
extraction.

Sir Oliver Mowat, who was for years one of
the chief public leaders of Canada, being Premier
of Ontario and afterwards Minister of Justice in
the first Laurier Cabinet, was born in Kingston,
Upper Canada, in 1820, his father, a native of
Canisbay, Caithness-shire, Scotland, being a promi-
nent citizen of that place. Sir Oliver was proud
of the fact that he was a descendant of the Mowats
of Bucholie Castle, in the extreme north of the
northern shire of Caithness, in Scotland. Caith-
ness is, with Orkney, the famed Norse country
of Scotland, the land of the Sinclairs, Gunns,
Swansons, and other peoples of almost pure
Norse descent. This young Norse Scotsman
was, from the first, a student, and had
ambitions for a public career. Like Macdonald
and Campbell, he chose the legal profession. He
was also a Presbyterian, his father being one of
the founders of Queen's University and a pro-
minent member of St. Andrew's Church. Young
Mowat studied for a time in John Alexander Mac-
donald's law office. The two men had much in
common, and posesssed many similar qualities
of mind which made them both such astute
politicians. Here the similarity ended. Macdonald
was tall, and had a striking personal appearance.
378

Scotsmen of the Confederation Period

Mowat was small and of no great oratorical pr
other powers to attract the superficial observer.
But, in spite of this, there was something1 about
this little, shrewd, kindly Scotsman that made men
accept him as a leader of his fellows. He was
" canny " and a man of few words, but had great
political insight ; and as a leader of Ontario
Liberals soon made his great fellow-townsman
respect him. While a Liberal in politics, Mowat
was by instinct and ideals a good deal of a Con-
servative ; and there was a great sympathy of
ideas between him and Sir John. Mowat served
his province and the Dominion well, and was
always a staunch upholder of the Union of the
Empire. In recognition of this, and for his long
political service, he received from the late Queen
the honour of knighthood, an honour but lately
granted to his able lieutenant and successor, that
eloquent and fervid Scotsman and astute states-
man, Sir George William Ross, who is, without
doubt, one of Canada's strongest and most gifted
public men now living.

Sir Alexander Campbell, the third in the noted
political Scottish trio, was also a Kingstonian,
though he happened to be born in England, in the
year 1821. His father was Dr. James Campbell, of
the great Argyll clan, who had removed into York-
shire, whence he emigrated to Canada when his son
was only two years old. Sir Alexander's early educa-
tion was at the hands of a Presbyterian minister
at Lachine, Quebec, where his father first settled
and practised medicine. On the latter's removal

379

The Scotsman in Canada

to Kingston the future Minister and Lieut enant-
Governor attended the Royal Grammar School at
that place, which was taught by Mr. George
Baxter, a fine classical scholar and the father-
in-law of William Lyon Mackenzie. Campbell
studied law, and in 1839 became a pupil of his
great leader, with whom he remained as a student
until 1842, when he became his partner. A dis-
tinguished and successful lawyer, he entered
politics as a Conservative, becoming Member in
the Legislative Council for the Cataraqui Division.
In 1863 he became Speaker of the Council. In
1864 the Governor-General asked him to form a
Government, Sir John A. Macdonald resigning in
his favour. But he declined the honour, though
accepting office in the new Government. This
position he held in all the Coalition Governments
until Confederation, in which he took an active
part. He was the leading advocate of the move-
ment in the Upper House. He was one of the
first of those called to the Dominion Senate by
her Majesty's Proclamation in May, 1867, and
became the Conservative leader in that Chamber.
He was the first Dominion Postmaster-General,
and, six years later, the first Minister of the
Interior. He was sent to England in 1870 on
diplomatic business, which resulted in the
Washington Treaty. In 1878 he was Receiver-
General in Sir John's second Government ; but
soon after became once more Postmaster-General,
and on May 24, 1879, was created by Her Majesty
Knight Commander of St. Michael and St. George.
380

Scotsmen of the Confederation Period

He later became Lieutenant -Governor of Ontario.
Sir Alexander Campbell, during his whole life,
possessed the confidence of his great leader and
friend, to whom he proved a valued and safe
lieutenant in the Upper House. He was noted
for a courteous urbanity to political opponents,
and was very careful not to speak unless he had
something special to say. He used his power with
moderation and never was offensive to the minority.

It may be that had he entered the Commons,
he might have made a greater name as a
strong personality. But, on the other hand, he
was a power in the Upper House, and aided,
by his refinement, practical sense, and wide parlia-
mentary knowledge, in justifying the existence of
that Chamber. He was a successful financier and
also prominent in law, being Dean of the Faculty
of Law in Queen's University.

A unique personality among the Fathers of Con-
federation was that of the Hon. Thomas D'Arcy
McGee. It may be a great surprise to many that
I have dared to include this noted Celtic orator,
politician, and poet among my Canadian Scotsmen.
This volume is, however, written with but one
purpose in view — namely, to chronicle, in so far
as I can, the history of the Scottish settlements
and the lives of men of Scottish birth or extrac-
tion who have been connected with Canada ; in
short, to celebrate Scotland's connection with the
history of Canada. It has already been shown
that the number of Scottish names connected in
some way with our young country is almost count -

The Scotsman in Canada

less ; so that there is no reason to go out of the
way or to strive by straining at all sorts of argu-
ments to include men as being of Scottish origin
who are not so. But while this is so, there is
another side to this matter. This is a history
of plain fact ; and it would not be right, or doing
justice to this subject, if any one of importance
connected with Canada of Scottish extraction
were ignored or left out. It is true that thousands
of Canadians have been led to consider McGee
an Irishman pure and simple ; and it is equally
true that McGee himself always prided himself
in being Irish.

It is a fact that McGee was born in Ireland,
and so were his parents and grandparents. But
the fact that Lord Roberts was born in India
did not make him an East Indian. In this whole
matter we have to face the strict fact of a man's
stock or race. It is this fact that so many over-
look. McGee was an Irish patriot, but Lord Byron
was a Greek patriot, and the Marquess of La
Fayette fought for the American cause. In spite
of all I may say, the Irish will still claim McGee,
and perhaps with some reason ; but the fact
remains that all of his stock which is known was
Scottish and Welsh. His mother's name was
Morgan, which is certainly Welsh ; and the story
of the McGee family is soon told. There were
certain septs of the great Macdonald clan in the
Western Isles, and among these were the de-
scendants of Aodh or Hugh Macdonald, now
bearing the names of Macgee, Mackay, MacHugh,
382

Scotsmen of the Confederation Period

and Mackie. There is abundant proof of these
peoples having a common ancestry.

Many Scottish histories and State documents
could be quoted to prove this, but the following
facts are authentic. In the island of Isla the
great Macdonald chief had a council of lesser
chieftains under him. Among these was McGee
of the Rhinns of Isla, whose family and small
clan occupied the lands in the south-western part
of that island. Hill, in his famous " History of
the Macdonnells of Antrim," relates the manner
of their coming into Ulster. He says : ' The
McGees came originally from the Rhinns of Isla,
settled first in Island Magee, which has their name,
and at the time of Coll Macdonnell's marriage
their principal family was in possession of the
lands of Ballyuchan, adjoining Murloch Bay."
Hill further states that the first McGee was
Alexander, and that he married Jane Stewart,
whose father and mother were both Stewarts of
Ballintog. Now, Thomas D'Arcy, McGee's father,
though of Wexford, was from Island McGee and
of that stock ; so that this is conclusive proof
that this great Celtic scholar, poet, orator, and
patriot, who was one of the Fathers of the Canadian
Confederation, was largely a Scottish Macdonald
and Stewart in his origin. No one will deny that
he was a great Irish patriot. It would be folly
to do so. He was a son of Ireland by birth and
by education, and by religious and other affilia-
tions. He was a poet of .her griefs and her wrongs.
He wrote, perhaps, the best modern History of

383

The Scotsman in Canada

Ireland ever written. But it would be equally
false and foolish to deny the Scottish origin of
this great man. He was in truth but another
of the famous Ulster Scots who have done so much
for the Empire and humanity at large. This bit
of biography may startle some of my readers
and surprise others ; but it is the duty of a
chronicle of this sort to tell the truth and correct
any history which has been misleading.

While we are upon the subject it might be no
harm to point out certain matters in connection
with another noted Canadian family who have been
generally acknowledged as being a pride to Ireland
in Canada, that of the Blakes. The Hon. Hume
Blake, the first Chancellor of Upper Canada, and
his noted sons, Hon. Edward Hume Blake and
the Hon. Samuel Hume Blake, have made the
name noted in our history. Of this family the Hon.
Dominick Edward Hume Blake stands in the fore-
front of Canadian statesmen, jurists, and orators,
and was for a period of our history leader of the
Liberal Party in the Dominion. It is not in-
tended here to claim for this branch of the noted
Western Irish family of the Blakes of Gal way
that they are anything else than Irish since the
centuries ago when their ancestor Ap-Lake went
from Wales to that country. But it is only right
to point out that they have a connection with
Scotland through their ancestors, the Humes or
Homes, one of the great Scottish families. The
Blakes themselves, while justly proud of their
Irish origin, are equally proud of their descent
384

Scotsmen of the Confederation Period

from this noted Scottish stock. I am sure that
my readers in Canada and outside will not accuse
me of striving to make the most of my subject,
but only doing strict justice to it in pointing out
these interesting facts with regard to the real
origin of some of our Canadian families.

One of the very ablest of Scotsmen in Upper
Canada at the Confederation period was the Hon.
[ohn Sandfield Macdonald, who has been con-
sidered by many to have been the best Premier
Ontario has ever had. He was of the Macdonald

ittlement in Glengarry, and was brought up in
that famous community of Western Highlanders.

[e had from his early youth to struggle and pro-
ride for himself, and he set his hand to several
employments when a mere lad until he deter-
mined to study law. At the age of twenty Jie
entered the Cornwall Grammar School, and in
1835 ne passed his first law examinations. He
then entered the office of Mr. McLean, afterwards
Chief Justice. As a young student and practitioner
he soon attracted attention, and in a few years was
a leading authority in the province. He was born
at St. Raphael, Glengarry County, on Septem-
ber 12, 1812, the memorable year when his fellow-
clansmen of that county were doing so much to
withstand the invader from the south. His grand-
father had come to the county in 1786 among
the earliest settlers. In 1840 Sandfield Macdonald
was called to the Bar, and was immediately elected
to represent his native county in Parliament. Like
his great fellow-clansman, Sir John A. Macdonald,

VOL. I. BB 385

The Scotsman in Canada

Sandfield Macdonald's career is well known to
all Canadians. At first a Conservative, he after-
wards became a Reformer through conviction, and
carried his county with him. He appealed to his
Highland people in their beloved Gaelic and also
in English, and they followed him into the ranks
of Reform. In 1849 he became Solicitor-General-
West in the Baldwin -Lafontaine Government. In
1852 he was elected Speaker. But for a time
he was alienated from his party, of which George
Brown had become the head. In 1862 Lord
Monck called upon him to form a Government,
which was succeeded by a coalition Ministry in
1864. In 1867 he became the first Premier of
the Province of Ontario at the head of a coalition
Government. In 1871 he resigned, and died the
next year at Cornwall. He was for years in poor
health, yet through it all persevered in his career.
He was one of Canada's ablest administrators, but
was blunt and outspoken as became his Highland
blood. His brother, the Hon. Donald Alexander
Macdonald, entered Parliament in 1857 and sat
for the Dominion in 1867 and 1872, and became
Postmaster-General in the Mackenzie Government
and afterwards was Lieutenant -Governor of
Ontario .

Another group of noted legal politicians in
Upper Canada during and since the Confederation
period included two members of another noted
Scottish clan in Sir Mathew Crooks Cameron and
the Hon. John Hilliard Cameron, both noted
lawyers, and the former a distinguished jurist as
386

Scotsmen of the Confederation Period

well as a financial critic in the Legislative
Assembly.

Sir Mathew Crooks Cameron, who was always
a strong Conservative, was the son of Mr.
John M. A. Cameron, of the Canada Company,
of which John Gait was the leading spirit. He
was born in 1823 at Dundas, Upper Canada, and
received his education at Upper Canada College.
Called to the Bar in 1849, he achieved a high
reputation as a criminal lawyer. He entered
Parliament in 1861 as a supporter of the Cartier-
Macdonald Government. He was Provincial Secre-
tary in the first Ontario Government. In 1878 he
was made a Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench
and was knighted by the Queen. He possessed
a logical and large mind, and was one of the
ablest of our Canadian Judges. This brief
mention of his career must close this rough sketch
of the leading spirits of this most important period
of Canadian history, that of the Confederation.

387

CHAPTER XXVIII

i

SOME NOTED JURISTS, ADMINISTRATORS,
PHYSICIANS, AND FINANCIERS OF
SCOTTISH EXTRACTION

Others there were who, 'chance in lesser guise,
Served well their day— and passed from off the stage.
These, too, the chronicler, who is truly wise,
Will give their allotted page.

N writing a sketch of Scotsmen prominent in
_ different epochs of Canadian history, the early
period from about 1775 to 1820 is an interesting
one. During this time many men of Scottish birth
and extraction took an active part in the great
struggle for the permanency of the British Empire
on this continent. The greater number of these
have been mentioned in the long* series of chapters
on the early settlements. There were others, how-
ever, of a later date, who were active adventurers
in the New World of the Canadian provinces who
should be at least noticed in a work of this nature.
This included a class of men, such as early Lieu-
tenants-Governor, Members of Provincial Govern-
ments, and other men prominent in the life of
the colonies in the early days of the nineteenth
388

Jwists, Administrators, Physicians

century. Among such men were the following :
Peter Grant, one of the early administrators of
Upper Canada ; Sir Gordon Drumtnond, head of
the Forces and also an administrator in the same
province during the later days of the war of 1812-
1815; Alexander Henry, the discoverer and fur
trader ; Chief Justice Hay, in Lower Canada, who
advised Carleton regarding the civil foundation
of the province ; Col. John Macdonell, of Glen-
garry, the first Speaker of the Upper Canada
House of Assembly ; Lord Selkirk, who in
addition to his settlement on the Red River
made settlements in Prince Edward Island, and
was associated with enterprises in Upper Canada ;
Commander Barclay, of the British fleet on Lake
Erie in 1812-15 ; Robert Gourlay, a Scotsman,
who was the first Canadian agitator ; Samuel
Cunard, of Nova Scotia, founder of the famous
ocean line of steamships of that name ; Sir Hugh
Allan, who was later the founder of the famous
Allan Line of steamships, and founder of the great
Scottish -Canadian family who were the pioneers
of steamship traffic on the St. Lawrence. There
is another interesting group of Scotsmen connected
with Canadian shipping. It has been for years
fully established that the first steamship to cross
the Atlantic propelled entirely by steam was the
Royal William, which was built at Quebec. It
is also a fact that her commander was a Scots-
man named John McDougal, who was born in
Oban. George Black, John Saxton Campbell,
James Goudie, and Joseph William Hervey, her

389

The Scotsman in Canada

builders, were all Scotsmen. Afterwards when this
historic vessel was fitted out as a man-of-war,
her first work was to save a Scottish Highland
regiment in the action in the Bay of San Sebastian
on May 5, 1836. James Goudie, builder of the
Royal William, was the son of Mr. Goudie, the
ship architect, who constructed the British-
Canadian Navy on Lake Erie in the war of 1812.

Another class of early Canadian -Scottish
pioneers were her Judges and other professional
men. Among these were Sir William Campbell,
an early Chief Justice of Upper Canada, who was
knighted by William the Fourth. He was born
in Caithness and belonged to what was called the
Guoy Crook branch of the clan, who settled in
Caithness when the first Earl of Breadalbane in-
vaded that shire, having purchased the lands and
earldom. Campbell was at first a soldier, then
studied law in Halifax. He died in Toronto.
Another was the Hon. Thomas Scott, also a Chief
Justice of Upper Canada. Chief Justice Stuart
was a noted Judge of Quebec, and Chief Justice
Haliburton was a member of that distinguished
Nova Scotian family. Since then, in Upper
Canada, we have had Chief Justices Cameron,
Harrison, Macaulay, and Wilson.

The Hons. Thomas Gait, William Proudfoot,
and Kenneth Mackenzie were all noted Justices in
Ontario. Among county Judges, Robert Dennis-
town, of Peterborough ; Archibald Macdonald, of
Wellington ; Roland Macdonald, of Welland ;
Herbert Stone Macdonald, of Leeds and Grenville ;
390

Jurists, Administrators, Physicians

David S. McQueen, of Oxford County; Henry
McPherson, of Grey County ; Alexander Forsyth
Scott, of Peel ; William A. Ross, of Carleton
County ; Jacob Ferrand Pringle, of Stormont ;
Daniel Home Lizars, of Perth County ; and James
Shaw Sinclair, of Wentworth, have upheld Scottish
ability upon the Ontario Bench. To-day we have
such men as the Hon. Justice Mabee and McLean
on the High Court of the Railway Commissioners ;
the Hon. Mr. Justice Duff on the Supreme
Court ; and Judge McTavish and Judge Gunn
represent Carleton County.

In Quebec the Hon. Alexander Cross, Robert
Mackay, Thomas Kennedy Ramsay, and Frederick
William Torrance have been prominent members
of the Bench.

In New Brunswick the Hon. Charles Duff was
a prominent Judge, as was the late Judge James
Grey Stevens, of Charlotte County. Judge Stevens
was through his mother a descendant of a cadet
branch of the Campbells of Auchinbreck.

In Nova Scotia there have been many prominent
Judges of Scottish extraction, who have already
been mentioned in other portions of this work,
among them the late Lieutenant -Governor Fraser,
who has just died.

There is another class of men in every com-
munity who are as a class too often ignored, but
who deserve more honour and respect than any
other— namely, the members of the medical pro-
fession.

This important profession in Canada has, and

The Scotsman in Canada

has had, in its ranks a large percentage of Scots-
men ; many of whom are, and were, among its
ablest representatives. One only has to read the
list of medical professors on any University board
to note the great number of Scotsmen, or men of
Scottish extraction, who stand high in the ranks
of medicine in Canada. In the earlier days many
physicians were surgeons in the different regiments,
and a good proportion of these were Scotsmen.
We have such men as Dr. Small and Dr. Walker
of the Loyalist regiments ; later were Dr. James
Campbell, father of Sir Alexander Campbell, and
Dr. Morrison and Dr. Neilson, both of the latter
having participated in the " '37 " Rebellion in
Upper and Lower Canada.

Among noted Scottish medical men in Canada
the following names of old-time practitioners in
Upper Canada may be of interest : Dr. Joseph
Adamson, born in Dundee, 1786, practised near
Toronto, was brother of Col. the Hon. Seton
Adamson, a Member of the Legislative Council
of Upper Canada and a noted officer in the Penin-
sular War. Dr. Wm. Allison, of Glasgow, settled
at Bowansville. Dr. Charles James Stewart Askins
practised at Chatham. Dr. John Beatty, of
Coburg, was a Professor at Victoria. Dr. Norman
Bethune was born at Moose Factory, Hudson
Bay, 1822 ; was grandson of the Rev. John
Bethune, first of that noted family. He practised
at Toronto. Dr. Edward W. Armstrong prac-
tised at Tordnto. Dr. Charles Williams Buchanan,
Ulster Scotsman, settled at Brockville. Dr. David
392

Jurists, Administrators, Physicians

Burn, Toronto. Dr. James Campbell, father of
Sir Alexander Campbell, settled at Kingston. Dr.
Duncan Campbell, born in Argyllshire, 1811,
settled at Hamilton, then Toronto ; he had a son,
Dr. Lorn Colin Campbell, who died at Port
Arthur in 1885. Dr. G. W. Campbell was born
at Roseneath, Dumbartonshire, in 1 8 1 o, and settled
in Montreal. Dr. James Cathcart practised at
York. Dr. Stuart Chisholm, surgeon in the Royal
Artillery, Kingston. Dr. Robert Whichelo Clark
was born at Leith in 1 8 1 1 and practised at Whitley
and Ottawa. Dr. James Cobban, born at Aber-
deen, 1802, settled at London. Dr. George
Cooper, born at Strathaven, Lanarkshire, 1794,
settled in Belleville ; his daughter married Dr.
James Lister. Dr. Wm. Craigie, born in Aber-
deenshire, 1790, died at Hamilton. Dr. George
Gillespie Crawford, of Toronto. Dr. John
Crumble, born in Scotland, 1794, settled in Peel
County. Dr. Wm. Dougall settled at Halliwell
in 1799. Dr. William Dunlop, son of the Laird
of Kippoch, was born at Greenock about 1795,
was founder of Goderich. Dr. Wm. Durie, born
in Fifeshire, practised at Thornhill. Dr. Wm.
Ford, born near Montreal, 1807, of Lambton Mills.
Dr. John Fraser, of Argyllshire, settled at Font-
hill. Dr. Geddes, of Kingston ; Dr. John Gil-
christ, of Coburg ; Dr. Samuel Gilchrist, of Port
Hope ; Dr. James Graham, of Woodhouse ; Sir
James Grant, of Ottawa ; Dr. John Grant, of
Williamsburg ; Dr. Robt. Gunn, of Whitby ; Dr.
Robt. Douglas Hamilton, of Scarborough ; Dr.

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The Scotsman in Canada

J. Hamilton, of Niagara ; Dr. T. Hay, of Peter-
borough ; Dr. R. Kerr ; Dr. Lithgow ; Dr. Wm.
McGill ; Dr. D. E. Mclntyre ; Dr. A. McKenzie ;
Dr. R. McLean ; Dr. J. McCaulay ; Dr. Thos.
Gibson, of Ottawa, who is a gifted musician as
well as a noted physician.

Of later members of the medical profession many
are mentioned in other chapters of this work, as
many of our doctors, like our lawyers, have entered
what is called public life, and others are connected
with the Universities.

Some noted medical men who have won dis-
tinction outside of medicine are Sir James Grant,
Dr. Tait McKenzie, Dr. Andrew McPhail, and Dr.
W. H. Drummond, the Habitant poet. Dr. Frank
Ferguson, late of Nova Scotia, is now a leading
Professor in Belleyue College, New York City.

To enumerate cases of Scotsmen who have been
successful manufacturers would be equally unneces-
sary. Sufficient is it to mention the names of
Messrs. Goldie, of Gait and Hamilton ; Capt.
McCulloch, of Hamilton, the founder of the
Canadian Clubs ; and the Poisons, of the Poison
Ironworks, in Toronto, as examples of thousands
of Scottish firms throughout Canada. Among our
leading merchants Scotsmen are the greater
majority. Such merchant princes and financiers
as Sir George Drummond, Senator Mackay, and
John Macdonald and Senator Jaffray, of Toronto,
are a few remarkable names in a long roll.

Among railway men, Mackenzie and Mann and
Strathcona and Mountstephen are prominent
394

Jurists, Administrators, Physicians

examples. Of our many noted engineers, Sir
Sandford Fleming is a distinguished representa-
tive as surveyor of the Intercolonial and the
Canadian Pacific Railways.

It would be impossible to even catalogue the
roll of Scotsmen among our agriculturists. The
Hon. George Brown, Senator Gibson, and the Hon.
Sydney Fisher are noted leaders in this important
branch of our Canadian industries so far as Eastern
Canada is concerned.

In the Civil Service of the Dominion and Pro-
vinces Scotsmen have more than held their place.
The two Dominion Auditors-General have been
Scotsmen ; the first the well known honourable,
able, and faithful guardian of the country's
revenues, the late John Lorn McDougall, C.M.G. ;
the present able holder of the position is a member
of the great clan Fraser, which has given able and
famous men to the service of the Dominion. Both
of our Dominion Analysts have been Scotsmen
born. Dr. McFarlane was a well-known chemist
and an able writer on a wide range of subjects.
His successor is a native of Scotland, Dr. Anthony
McGill.

Among heads of Departments we have to-day
John Fraser, I.S.O., Auditor-General ; John
McDougald, Deputy Minister of Customs ; Robert
Miller - Coulter, C.M.G., Deputy Postmaster -
General ; James B. Hunter, Deputy Minister
of Public Works ; E. R. Cameron, K.C., Regis-
trar of the Supreme Court ; Adam Short, M.A.,
F.R.S.C., Civil Service Commissioner ; Dr.

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The Scotsman in Canada

Rutherford, C.M.G., Veterinary Director-General ;
Brigadier-Gen. Macdonald ; Archibald Blue, Chief
Census Officer; A. W. Campbell, C.E., Deputy
Minister of Railways and Canals ; and Dr. King,
Dominion Astronomer, are some of the prominent
Scotsmen in the Canadian service.

In the world of finance are Sir Edward Clouston,
Baronet, General Manager of the Bank of Mon-
treal ; Mr. George Burn, the able General
Manager of the Bank of Ottawa ; and Mr.
D. L. Finnic, the Assistant Manager ; W. H.
Beattie, a Director of the Bank of Toronto ; James
Ryrie, a Director of the Metropolitan Bank ; J. K.
Macdonald, Secretary of the Confederation Life
Association. This is a class of men who should
more and more receive public recognition in the
country. Few realise the great responsibility to
the public borne on the shoulders of these faith-
ful and hard-working servants of Canadian finance.
Far too much prominence is often awarded to
politicians who have far less real responsibility.

As has already been pointed out, the number
of men of Scottish extraction in Canada who have
done work in all walks of life is so great that
it would be impossible to pretend to include even
a small portion of them in a work of this kind.

Indeed, this is a volume dealing with communi-
ties rather than individuals. The community is,
after all, of far greater importance than the mere
individual. If the reader, by perusing the whole
or even a portion of this work, may get some
idea of many of the great pioneer Scottish com-
396

Jurists ', Administrators, Physicians

munities in Canada, he may then, perhaps, take
the trouble to study, more than he has done in
Canada in the past, the individual in his relation-
ship to the community and the family or parent
stock. If individuals have been dealt with in the
later chapters of this work, it has been largely
in connection with their importance to the com-
munity. All really important men are only so
in their value to the comrnunity and the age ;
and their biography is that of the people whom
they have served.

In closing this chapter it would be wrong to
omit the names of a few Scotsmen and men of
Scottish descent of to-day in Canada who are,
by reason of remarkable personality, unusual men
even in a community of Scottish breed.

One of these men is Sir Sandford Fleming,
Canada's most distinguished engineer, and a great
and noted Scotsman the world over. Few men
have so well spent their lives as has this wise
and faithful son of Fifeshire in the best interests
of the vast Empire which he has so well served.
Among Scotsmen over the world to-day, Sir Sand-
ford Fleming is admittedly a great man. He is
also a great Imperialist and Empire -builder. His
long and arduous work for the accomplishment of
an Empire cable and the All -Red Line would alone
constitute a lifework for one man. If we add
to this his agitation for cheaper postal and cable
rates, and for a uniform time, we must not also
forget that this great Empire -welder is also a path-
finder of Empire, and that he was the man who

397

The Scotsman in Canada

surveyed the Intercolonial and the Canadian Pacific
Railways. In this work there is but room to recog-
nise his great work for Canada and the Empire
and to point him out as a great Imperial Scotsman.

In Sir William Macdonald Canada has another
great Scotsman, a soul of a marvellous tenacity
for doing good and finding a great pleasure in
so doing. The several colleges he has founded
are an enduring monument to his deep interest
in technical education in Canada, and his splendid
benefactions to McGill University reveal a man
who realises, as few men have done, his duty to
his fellow-citizens in enabling them to make the
best of life.

Lord Strathcona, a very great Scotsman, who
has already been mentioned, is worthy of the
respect of every Canadian. But his career will
be dealt with more fully by Dr. Bryce in the
second volume of this work. He with Andrew
Carnegie, Sir Sandford Fleming, and Sir William
Macdonald make a distinguished quartette of noted
men that any race would be proud to own.

The late Sir George Drummond was also a rare
character, a man who, in a quiet, unobtrusive
way, did a great deal of good. He was a splendid
influence in the country, and carried all through
his business career a firm integrity. He was a
man of a fine intellect, with a love for literature
and the arts ; and his magnificent private collec-
tion of paintings is the finest in Canada.

Mr. Ross Robertson, of Toronto, is a Scottish
Canadian who was born in Stornoway, Isle of Lewis.
398

Jurists, Administrators, Physicians

He is a man of artistic and literary tastes who
has some fine collections of historical manuscripts,
especially his Simcoe Papers, which are very im-
portant in connection with the history of early
Upper Canada. His " Landmarks of Toronto " is
a series of volumes of great value, and the result of
much labour and research. But it is also as a philan-
thropist in a quiet way that Mr. Robertson merits
recognition by Canadians. His Hospital and Home
for Incurable Children is in itself an enduring
monument to any man.

There is a young Scottish Canadian whose
career, so far, has been very remarkable ; so re-
markable, indeed, that it calls for special notice
in a work of this nature — that of the Hon. W. Lyon
Mackenzie King, the present Minister of Labour
for Canada. If Scottish ancestry is an aid to a
man, he certainly has it on both sides of the
house. His father is Mr. John King, K.C., a well-
known barrister, and Professor at Osgoode Hall,
who is a profound and industrious writer on legal
questions ; and his paternal grandfather was an
officer in the British Army of a regiment, strange
to say, sent out to quell the Rebellion of 1837.
Mr. King's mother is the youngest daughter of
William Lyon Mackenzie. With such an ancestry,
it is no wonder that he has inherited that
remarkable force of character, intuitive, original
mind, and administrative ability, which in them-
selves are a surety of success. But he has in-
herited, what is even more important in a great
servant of the State, an unusual sympathy with

399

The Scotsman in Canada

all classes of the community, especially the vast
artny of toilers. He has, therefore, made the
Labour problem a life study and has already done
much for technical education in Canada.

A thoroughly trained scholar with a brilliant
University career at Toronto, Harvard, London,
England, and Berlin, in Germany, he has an un-
usual intellectual foundation for the career of a
Canadian statesman.

It might be said that, in the history of Canadian
politics, no man, save in the cases of Sir John A.
Macdonald and Sir Wilfrid Laurier, has so early
shown such original talent and such splendid
promise. His very manner of entrance into public
life has been unusual. He beg'an his career in
building up a new and untried department and
made it a needed institution throughout the
country, and one that is being copied in other
countries. He is the real inspirer and author of
the famous Lemieux Bill, the one great bit of
Labour legislation to-day in the world. He was
also sent on important missions to China, England,
the United States, and British Columbia ; and
this all before he was made a member of the
Cabinet or had even entered the House of
Commons. Little more need be said, save that
he is, young as he yet is, one of the most remark-
able men of Scottish blood whom Canada has
produced.

The end of this work, so far as my part of it
is concerned, is now in sight. With the chapters
on literature and art and Scottish societies it will
400

Jurists •, Administrators, Physicians

close. Now that it is finished, I see its many
defects ; but I now fully realise that the work
undertaken is one even greater in extent than I
had imagined. If what I have set down will be
of some value in awakening, among those of
Scottish descent and other students of history, an
interest in the great Scottish colony in Canada,
I will feel that my work has not been all in vain.

VOL. I. CC 401

CHAPTER XXIX

THE SCOTSMAN IN LITERATURE, JOUR-
NALISM, AND ART

ITie mountains, glens, the sea and air,
Have lent a spirit, high and rare,
Unto a singing people.

WHAT is called Canadian literature contains
many names of persons of Scottish or
Ulster-Scottish origin. Among those which repre-
sent our verse-writing are such Scottish names as
John Reade, W. H. Drumtnond, George Frederick
Cameron, Wilfred Campbell, Isabella J. Crawford,
Miss Machar, Charles Mair, Alexander McLachlan,
William McLellan, George Martin, F. G. Scott,
D. C. Scott, Philips Stewart, and T. C. Marquis.
Certainly these sound Scottish enough. Others
of our Canadian poets and writers, like W. D.
Lighthall, are also maternally of Scottish descent.
Among our most gifted women writers Miss
Dougal, Miss Duncan, Miss Jean Graham, Miss
McMurchy, Miss McMannus, and Mrs. Brown bear
names that are suggestive of the land of the
heather. As has been shown elsewhere in this
vplume, D'Arcy McGee was also of Scottish ex-
402

Literature, Journalism, and Art

traction, and, like Reade, Drumrnond, and other
Canadian poets, of Ulster-Scottish blood. Other
poets of Scottish blood who have written of Canada
in Canada and out of it are the Duke of Argyll,
Evan McColl, and Alexander McLachlan. Two
other brilliant Scottish and Ulster writers have
settled in the Canadian North-West. One of
these, Robert Service, a clever young bank clerk
from Glasgow, in Scotland, has gone out to the
Canadian Yukon and made it popular in his
" Songs of a Sourdough " ; and Moira O'Neill,
of the " Songs of the Glens of Antrim," is now
living, or was lately living, in Manitoba.

Some of our very early verse -writers were
Scottish. James Mackay, a young man from
Sutherland, son of Mackay of Kirtomy, a cadet
of the noble House of Reay, came out to Canada
early in the nineteenth century, and wrote a poem
on Quebec. A copy of this poem is now in the
Canadian Archives. Among others who essayed
the Muse was Bishop Strachan. The late Chief
Justice Haggarty's " Death of Napoleon " is a
splendid piece of work. The Rev. Dr. McGeorge
was a leading literary divine who held a charge
at Newmarket, and wrote much in verse and prose.
Evan McColl, like Heavysege, the English poet,
can hardly be called Canadian. These two men
came to Canada in the full maturity of their
powers, but their names are associated with Canada
because of their residence here. The Duke of
Argyll, who has written the finest poem upon the
subject of Quebec, might even more than these
be regarded as a Canadian poet. Hunter Duvar,

403

The Scotsman in Canada

of Prince Edward Island, and A. J. Lockhart,
Arthur Weir, and George Murray were all writers
of Canadian verse bearing Scottish names.

Among our prose writers Haliburton was one
of our greatest and most famous. He was the
founder of American humour. Sir Daniel Wilson,
a noted Scottish archaeologist, was long connected
with Canada as President of Toronto University.

Of our novelists, Norman Duncan, Miss Doug'all,
Dr. Gordon ("Ralph Connor"), W. A. Fraser,
William McLellan, Miss Mcllwraith, Mrs. Brown,
and Robert Barr are among many whose names
are sufficient to indicate their Scottish stock.

The Royal Society of Canada, founded by the
Duke of Argyll, has included from its inception
a host of noted Canadian writers of Scottish origin,
many of whom are mentioned elsewhere. Among
others such names as those of Professor Clark
and Principal Loudon are significant. The
Scottish names of Patterson, Bayne, Brymner,
Honeyman, Murray, and Williamson are those of
deceased members of the society. Prominent
members to-day are : Sir Sandford Fleming, Sir
George Ross, Sir James Grant, Professor Bryce,
Professors McCallum, Watson, McLellan, Ramsay,
Wright, Dr. J. H. Coyne, editor of the Talbot
Papers and translator and editor of Galinee's
narrative, W. D. Lighthall, K.C., Col. Cruikshank,
and Professor Wrong.

Other writers of prominence are : William
Houston, whose " Constitutional Documents," deal-
ing with education in Canada, are of great value ;
the late James Bayne, Librarian of Toronto, a
404

Literature, Journalism, and Art

great book -lover and a fine scholar ; and Mr.
Justice McLean, of the Railway Commission.

Among Canadian historians are James Hannay,
of New Brunswick ; Duncan Campbell, of Nova
Scotia ; George Stewart, David Thompson, Judge
Haliburton, McPherson, LeMoine, McGregor,
Alexander, Patterson, Munro, Stuart, Rattray,
Lindsay, Christie, Principal Grant, Dr. Bryce, and
Col. Cruikshank — all of Scottish origin. For many
years the Archivist of the Dominion was Dr.
Douglas Brymner, an able Scottish writer,
collector, and journalist .

In journalism the Scotsman from the first has
been prominent. Lyon Mackenzie was a leading
Upper Canadian journalist. Another very noted
founder of Upper Canadian journalism was Hugh
Scobie, founder and publisher of the first Reform
newspaper and of Scobie's Almanack. He was
a son of Capt. Kenneth Scobie, of Ardvar, in
Assynt, Sutherland. Capt. Scobie, a Scottish
officer, was about to emigrate to Canada, where
his rank in the Army entitled him to a large grant
of land, when he was accidentally drowned.
But his children came out and received his allow-
ance of land in their own names, and Hugh Scobie
was one of them.

George Brown was another noted journalist and
founder of the Globe. Since then Sir Hugh
Graham, of the Star ; Senator Jaffray, publisher,
and Dr. J. A. Macdonald, editor, of the
Globe; Dr. J. S. Willison, F.R.S.C., of the News;
Ross-Robertson, of the Telegram; John Dougall,
of the Witness; Hugh Seller, of the Htintington

405

The Scotsman in Canada

Gleaner; P. D. Ross, of the Ottawa Journal; Col.
Morrison, of the Citizen; David Creighton, late
of the Mail Empire; W. F. McLean, of the \World;
Newton McTavish, of the Canadian Magazine;
Wm. Houston, of the Globe; McPhail, of the
University Magazine, are but a few representa-
tives of a very long1 roll of names of Scotsmen,
publishers and editors of prominent Canadian
journals and periodicals.

In the world of art in Canada Scotsmen have
their place. Some very early artists connected
with Canada were Scotsmen. Heriot, the first
Deputy Postmaster-General of Old Canada, was
a fine artist ; and his water-colour sketches of
the Canadian scenery are very exquisite. Sproule,
another artist who was an Ulster Scotsman, has
left some very fine sketches of Montreal and the
Upper St. Lawrence. There is a fine original
oil painting of Niagara Falls in the Archives at
Ottawa, the work of Sir James Erskine. Among
Canada's most noted recent artists are many Scots-
men. We have Forbes, Bell -Smith, Forster, Wiley,
Grier, Reid, Smith, McGillvray, all leading
painters. Tait McKenzie has a wide fame as a
.sculptor ; and in music Dr. Harriss is a genius
who, by his beautiful compositions as a composer
and his tremendous energy as a director, is
becoming famous throughout the Empire. Through
his mother, Dr. Harriss is a Duff of the old clan
of the Thanes of Fife.

Much more might be said of the intellectual
side of Canadian life, but sufficient has been
pointed out to show the great Scottish influence
in our Literature, Art, History, and Journalism.
406

CHAPTER XXX

SCOTTISH SOCIETIES IN CANADA

Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind I

ONE of the most important and interesting sides
of Scottish life in Canada is that of the
many societies and associations which have their
origin and object in the fostering and commemo-
rating of Scottish patriotism and the memory of
the Old Land.

There are many of these associations scattered
throughout Canada, such as St. Andrew's Society,
the Sons of Scotland, Caledonian Societies, Clans
of Scotland, and numerous clan associations, such
as the Fraser Clan Society and the Caithness
Association of Toronto. There is also the oldest
and most solid Scottish association in Canada, the
North British Society, in Halifax, which has had
a long and honourable existence, and contains on
its roll of members nearly all of the most noted
Scotsmen in Nova Scotia.

Of all the Scottish societies in Canada the oldest,
with the one exception noted, and the most important
are the many St. Andrew's Societies, which, though

407

The Scotsman in Canada

not federated as one organisation, are prominent
in the life of all our leading cities and towns.
Nearly every Scottish community has one, though
they are not a development of the rural districts,
being rather the organisation of leading Scots-
men in the chief cities and larger towns. The
stronger St. Andrew's Societies of Eastern Canada
are those of Quebec, Toronto, Ottawa, Kingston,
Hamilton, London, Brantford, Guelph, Gait,
Brockville, Cornwall, St. John, New Bruns-
wick, and Montreal. Those in Quebec and
Montreal were the pioneer societies and were
founded in 1835.

An old society is that of Kingston, which was
founded on November 16, 1840. Article I. of
the constitution then formed read, in part, as
follows : " The name of the Society shall be the
St. Andrew's Society of the town of Kingston
and Midland District of Canada." Article II. says,
in part : " Scotchmen and the children and grand-
children and great-grandchildren of natives of
Scotland shall be admitted as resident members."
The list of officers published in 1841 included
some leading Canadians. They were : President,
the Hon. John Hamilton ; First Vice-President,
J. A. Macdonald, Esq. (afterwards the Right Hon.
Sir John A. Macdonald) ; Second Vice-President,
F. A. Harper, Esq. ; Treasurer, R. McRose, Esq. ;
Secretary, Wm. Gunn, Esq. ; Assistant Secretary,
Mr. Donald Urquhart ; Physicians, John Mclntosh,
R.A., Thomas Stratton, R.N. ; Committee of
Management, Jas. MacFarlane, Esq. ; Francis
408

Scottish Societies in Canada

Henderson, Hugh Fraser, Roderick Ross, Wm.
Mclntosh, Henry Sharp, Jas. Graham, Robt.
Mathews, Hugh Calder, John Roy, Thos. Drum-
mond, D. Christie, R. H. Rae.

The Glengarry Society was also an old one,
being older than that of Kingston. The following
document gives a list of some of the members
in 1844 :—

LANCASTER, yth Oct., 1844. — We the undersigned hereby agree
and promise to pay to Colonel Alex. Fraser, President of
the Glengarry St. Andrew's Society, or order, the sums set
opposite our respective names, being a voluntary contribution
for the purpose of paying a tribute of respect to our late President,
the late Colonel Lewis Carmichael, who died at Forres in Scotland
on the 8th day of August, last past.

The subscribers are : Alex. Fraser, Hugh

McGillis, John McV , John S. Macdoriald

(Hon. John Sandfield Macdonald), A. Cattanach,
Murdoch McPherson, K. McPherson, Murdoch
Ross, Wm. McEdward, Jas. McDonald Glen, John
Urquhart, Arch. Stewart, David Summers, John
McLellan, Esq., R. S. Macdonald, Ronald
McDonell, John Pettigall, J. E. Mclntyre, ,Wm.
McDonald, Donald McPherson, J.P., Jas. Ding-
wall, Benjamin Stewart, Duncan Mclntyre. The
amount subscribed was £25 175.

The St. Andrew's Society of Ottawa is also an
old institution. Early in the thirties of the nine-
teenth century the Scotsmen of Bytown used to
meet annually on St. Andrew's Day and celebrate
the occasion. On June 18, 1846, a meeting was

409

The Scotsman in Canada

called at the British Hotel and presided over by
Sheriff Simon Fraser. Its object was to organise
a St. Andrew's Society. The first President elected
was Wm. Stewart, Esq., and the Vice-President
Sheriff Simon Fraser. The Secretary was Robert
Harvey, jun., and the Chaplain the Rev. John
Duff. The list of officers is not given. In 1848
the officers elected were : President, Hon. Thos.
Mackay ; First Vice-President, Wm. Stewart,
Esq. Second, Robt. Harvey, jun. ; Secretary,
Peter Robertson ; Treasurer, Andrew Drummond,
Esq. ; Standing Committee, Messrs. Wm. Morris,
S. C. Kerr, J. L. Campbell, John McKinnon, and
others. In 1859 the society was reorganised, with
Sheriff Fraser as President. The sermon that year
was preached by Rev. Mr. Spence, of St. Andrew's
Church.

This society has had the honour of welcoming
many noted Governors of Scottish extraction. Its
roll of presidents, chaplains, &c., include the names
of some prominent Canadians. Among its first
members in 1846 were, with the officers, Edward
Mallock, Hon. Thomas Mackay, Dr. Christie, Jas.
Mclntosh, Danl. McLachlan, Jas. Fraser, Jas.
Peacock, Wm. Sutherland, Edward McGillivray,
Geo. R. Blyth, John Leslie, Robt. Lees, Andrew
Drummond, S. C. Kerr, Jas. Robertson, John
Fotheringham, Robt. Kenley, Donald McArthur,
Peter Robertson, J. L. Campbell, Wm. Morris,
Andrew Cuddie, Alex. Gray, John Porter, Alex.
Mclntosh, Alex. Calder, Jas. Robertson, Alex.
Scott, Francis Thompson, Donald Grant. The
410

Scottish Societies in Canada

Reception Comtnittee at the grand ball given under
the auspices of the society in honour of the arrival
of the Marquess of Lome and the Princess Louise
in 1878 comprised Mr. McLeod Stewart (Presi-
dent), Sir John A. Macdonald, Sir Alexander
Campbell, Hon. Jas. Me. Donald, Messrs. Thos.
Reynolds, Dr. Grant, Sandford Fleming, Allan
Gilmour, John Thoburn, Judge Ross, Wm. Smith,
Robt. Cassels, jun., and Col. Thos. Ross.

Other noted persons connected with the society
were : Rev. D. M. Gordon (now President of
Queen's University), Douglas Brymner, R. Cassels,
Col. Allan Gilmour, Lieut. -Col. John McPherson,
McLeod Stewart, Sir Sandford Fleming, W. D.
Hogg, K.C., J. J. McCraken, P. D. Ross, Dr.
Baptie, David McLaren, Esq., Rev. Wm. Mclntosh,
Rev. Norman McLeod, Rev. Dr. Wm. Moore, Dr.
Rutherford, C.M.G., J. W. Turniff, M.P., Alex.
Fraser, Esq. Some distinguished honorary
members were the late Duke of Sutherland
and Lord Dundonald.

For years this society has had a faithful Corre-
sponding Secretary in Mr. H. H. Ro watt, the late
President. The present Secretary is Mr. J. W.
McKenzie.

The first Burns banquet was held in January,
1910, by the society, and able addresses were
given by Sir George Ross, Dr. J. G. Rutherford,
C.M.G., the Premier, and others.

Few of the societies have compiled histories of
their work. The few are those of Halifax, Ottawa,
and St. John, New Brunswick.

411

The Scotsman in Canada

These histories are not only a valuable account
of the life of the individual society, but, as in
the case of the Halifax North British Society and
the St. John St. Andrew's Society, they are a
splendid chronicle of the chief Scotsmen of the
special community for fully a century.

The St. Andrew's Society of St. John, New
Brunswick, was founded at a meeting held in that
city on March 8, 1798, 113 years ago. The
officers elected were : President, William Pagan ;
Vice-President, William Campbell ; Treasurer,
Francis Gilbert ; Secretary, John Black. The
President was a native of Glasgow. He and his
two brothers, Robert and Thomas, were Scottish
Loyalists, and all settled in New Brunswick.
William was a member of the first Legislative
Assembly for St. John's County. He was a
prosperous merchant and one of the founders of
St. Andrew's Kirk at St. John. His brother Robert
was active in the settlement of St. Andrews and
Charlotte Counties, and also represented the latter
for years in the Assembly. John Paul, one of the
original members, was a native of Lanark, Scot-
land. He held a commission in the Royal
Artillery, and fired the first gun on the Royalist
side in the war of the Revolution. He was one
of the first Elders of St. Andrew's Kirk. William
Campbell was born in Argyllshire in 1742. He
also fought as a Loyalist in the Revolutionary
War. He was Mayor of St. John from 1795 to
1816, and one of the founders of St. Andrew's
Kirk. He was also Postmaster of the city and a
412

Scottish Societies in Canada

Commissioner in the Supreme Court. He died
in 1823. Francis Gilbert was born at Corstor-
phine, near Edinburgh. He fought in the British
Navy, and was Naval Officer for New Brunswick.
John Black was born in Aberdeen. He was one
of three brothers. The eldest, Andrew, was of
Forest Hill, in Aberdeenshire ; the other, William,
joined his brother John in business in St. John.
Dr. Robert Boyd was another early member. He,
according to a tradition, was connected with the
old noble family of that name. The Rev. George
Burns, D.D., first minister of the old Kirk of
St. Andrew's, was a member of the society. The
second President was a Colin Campbell, but which,
of several persons of that name, is doubtful. There
were four Colin Campbells resident in New Bruns-
wick. One of these came from Scotland in
November, 1784, with his wife and two sons,
Alexander and Colin. He returned to Scotland
in 1808. He owned property at St. Stephen. His
first wife was a sister of Sir Howard Douglas,
Governor of New Brunswick. His sons all had
high positions in the Army and Navy. Another
Colin came to St. John in 1783 with the Loyalists.
He was Registrar of the Court of Admiralty. A
third Colin Campbell was lieutenant of the 74th
Regiment. A fourth was collector of Customs at
St. Andrews in 1824.

In 1804 Andrew Crookshank was President of
the society. He was one of the first of a noted
family of Loyalists who have filled many important
positions in the city.

413

The Scotsman in Canada

Hugh Johnston, from Morayshire, was President
in 1813. He was a merchant and bank director,
and became Port Warden and a member of the
Legislature. The Hon. Wm. Black was President
from 1816 to 1823, with the exception of the
year 1820. He was President of the Legislative
Council of New Brunswick. He was a native of
Aberdeen and a graduate of Marishal College.
He was for a short time Administrator of the
Government of New Brunswick. He had several
sons, all noted in the province. Andrew S.
Ritchie, who was President in 1820, was of a
noted Canadian family. He represented St. John
in the Assembly. His brother was a Nova Scotia
Judge, and had three sons, who were all Supreme
Court Judges. One of these, Sir William J.
Ritchie, was Chief Justice of Canada, and for fifty-
five years was a member of St. Andrews Society.
He died in 1892 at Ottawa. In 1828 Dr. John
Boyd was Vice-President. Major-Gen. Sir Howard
Douglas was then Governor of the province.
In 1830 Dr. John Boyd was again President. His
father was Dr. John Boyd, of the Royal Medical
Staff. Dr. John, the younger, was the oldest
practitioner in St. John and was surgeon to the

Duke of Kent.

The Hon. John Robertson, President from 1837
to 1841, was born in Perthshire. He was a
successful lumber merchant and a member of the
Legislative Council. He removed to England,
where he died in 1876.

The President in 1844 was John Wilmot, ol

414

Scottish Societies in Canada

Montrose, Scotland. He came to St. John in 1818
with a good character from his minister. Here
he became a shipbuilder and an Elder of the St.
Andrew's Kirk. He was a member of the society
for sixty years, 1821-81.

In 1847 the President was John Duncan, who
hailed from Meldrum, Aberdeenshire, where he was
born in 1797. He was a well-known shipbuilder
and President of the Commercial Bank as well
as of a lot of companies. Adam Jack was made
President in 1848, 1849. He was a native of
Inverkip, near Greenock, Scotland. He was a
leading business man. One of his daughters was
the wife of Mr. John McMillan, the St. John pub-
lisher. Robert Jardine, Esq., was President in
1850-51. He was born at Girvan, Ayrshire, Scot-
land, in 1812. He was a prominent grocer and
a cattle farmer. In 1853 John M. Walker was
President. He was a son of Dr. Thomas Walker,
of Perth, Scotland, an Army surgeon. He was
a prominent druggist.

In 1856 the President was Alexander Jardine.
He was born at Girvan in Ayrshire, and was grand-
son of Sir Wm. Jardine, fifth Baronet of Apple-
girth. Mr. Jardine was a prominent merchant.
In 1858 James McFarlane was President. They
entertained that year Viscount Bury. In 1859
Vice-Admiral Sir Houston Stewart came to St
John, and the society presented him with an
address. Mr. McFarlane also presided this year
He was a native of Kilmarnock. He also was
President in 1860, when they received the Prince

415

The Scotsman in Canada

of Wales. Laughlan Donaldson was President in
1862. He claimed to be a grandson of one of
the survivors of Glencoe, who changed his name
to Donaldson and settled in Morayshire . He was a
successful merchant. Robert Keltic, Esq., a wealthy
retired merchant at Sussex, entertained the society
and its friends that year at his place, " Hillside,"
when about 2,500 persons went from St. John.
Mr. Keltie was born in Scotland. In 1867 Henry
Jack was President. His father, David W. Jack,
came from Cupar in Fifeshire. This year the
society entertained David Kennedy, the Scottish
singer, and Sir William Fairfax was present.
George Stewart was President in 1869. He was
a native of Wick in Caithness -shire, and was
father of Dr. George Stewart, F.R.S.C. The
President for 1870-71-72 was William Thompson,
a native of Dumfries. His father, John Thompson,
was a shipowner in St. John. William was for
several years Vice -Consul for Norway and Sweden.
His place was Nithbank, out of the city. The
chaplain during this period was the Rev. Dr. Neil
Mackay. He was born at Earltown in Nova Scotia,
and was educated at Pictou Academy. He was
Moderator of the Maritime Province Synod in
1889. In 1871 the society celebrated the marriage
of the Marquess of Lome. Flags were flown in
many parts of the city, and the society sent /a
wire to the Marquess wishing him and his bride
happiness, and a ball was also held. This year
Mr. Laughlan Donaldson bequeathed one-eighth
of his estate, $5,032, to the society. The Vice-
416

Scottish Societies in Canada

Presidents were Messrs. Stewart and Lindsay. In
1872 Luke Stewart was President, and the Rev.
George J. Carr Chaplain. In 1873, on May loth,
the steamer Castalia, of the Anchor Line, arrived
at St. John with 565 emigrants from the east
of Scotland. They were to be settled on the upper
waters of the river St. John, and were known
as the Kincardineshire Colony. The society gave
these immigrants a warm welcome and a good
send-off up the river to Fredericton.

Luke Stewart was born in Rothsay, Isle of Bute,
and was a leading West India merchant in St.
John, where his elder brother, David Stewart, was
also established. In 1875 tne Hon. John Robert-
son was made an honorary memjber. James
Milligan was President this year. He was born at
Thornhill in Dumfriesshire and was the son of
Robert Milligan. In 1877 occurred the terrible
fire ; and Hugh H. McLean, the Secretary, saved
the minute-books of the society. The President
was John White, a native of Largo in Fifeshire.
In 1878 the Hon. Robert Marshall was presiding.
He was born in Pictou County, Nova Scotia. His
great-grandfather, Robert Marshall, came from
Dumfries to Pictou in 1773. Dr. Patrick Robert-
son Tucker was President in 1880. His father
was James Tucker, of Dunkeld, Scotland, who came
to St. John in 1832. Alexander Campbell Jardine
was President in 1881, and was the eldest son
of Alexander Jardine, who was President in 1856.
In 1883 James Knox was President. He was
a native of Rothsay, Isle of Bute. He was a ship
VOL. I. DD 417

The Scotsman in Canada

rhandler in St. John. James Stratton was presiding
in TsS He was bom in Edinburgh His father
Charles Stratton, was a solicitor in Glasgow. He

brother of Tames, who was President m 187 5-

n 1899 a committee was formed to
a work the records of the associate, winch e-
suited in the admirable history by

C the New Brunswick branch

(The society was, however, .
'The North British Society, of Halifax was

418

Scottish Societies in Canada

McLellan, Robt. Killo, James Clark, John Eraser,
Walter Harkness, Donald Morrison, James Thomp-
son, John McCrea, AVm. Luke, and Thos.
McLellan.

The articles of the association were very strict.
The members were fined for using profane
language, for absence from meetings, and for any
other breach of the rules of the association, which
was charitable as well as social and convivial.

The history of this society, published in 1903,
contains no portraits and biographical notes of
Scotsmen connected with it since its foundation.
These included Lord Dalhousie, Sir Colin Camp-
bell, Sir Brenton Haliburton, Gen. Sir Patrick
McDougall, and many other noted North Britons.

A very numerous and strong organisation in
Canada is the Sons of Scotland Society. Its
ramifications extend from the Atlantic to the
Pacific. The association is especially strong ,in
Ontario, where there are many " Camps," as the
different lodges are called. Each Camp has a
distinctive name. Those in Ottawa are Camps
Argyll and Strathcona. The Sons of Scotland
Society has three special purposes— those of race
patriotism, and fraternity. Like all the other
national societies, it is a mutual benefit insurance
company. The admission is limited to Scotsmen
or descendants of Scotsmen who desire to become
members. Such an association might be of great
benefit in many ways were its original ideals never
lost sight of; but the great danger is that
generally these associations fail to do their duty

419

The Scotsman in Canada

in the inculcation of race-patriotism, and de-
generate into ordinary, cheap insurance benefit
associations. » If such an organisation has any
reason for existence at all, it is as a Scottish
institution and a Scottish influence in the com-
munity. It should, first of all, educate its members
never to forget their Scottish origin ; and should
make the greatness of Scottish ideals and Scottish
history the continual object of its education in
the Camps. It should never lose sight of religion,
and should not fail to inculcate loyalty to, and
reverence for, the form of Christianity developed
in Scotland. It should go further. It should
champion that religion, and not only in its public
celebrations give that religion a prominent part,
but it should stand as an association in the country
for the maintenance of Scottish Protestantism in
the same way that the Ancient Order of Hibernians
and the Knights of Colum'bus stand for what is
commonly called the national religion of Ireland.
It should do more than this, and should make
itself the champion of all Scottish ideals in the
Old Country and the New, and should show a
strong example of loyalty and patriotism for the
Empire and the Motherland. It should interest
itself in Scottish immigration to Canada, and
should see that incomers have a welcome which
would be worthy alike of the land they have left
and the land they are coming to. The Sons of Scot-
land have made themselves, by the name and
character of their organisation, trustees as regards
all these objects ; and it is to be hoped that they
420

Scottish Societies in Canada

will awake, ere it be too late, to a proper sense
of their duty and the high destiny that awaits
the organisation if this duty be carried out. Many
have thought that there should be a federation
of some sort of all Scottish societies in the interests
of Scottish matters in Canada. If this were
feasible, the Sons of Scotland would furnish the
framework of an organisation to cement the whole.

An attempt was made a few years ago to form
a central committee to organise the Scottish bodies,
and bring them into closer touch with the Old
Land, and also to endeavour to preserve in some
form the history of the Scottish immigration into
Canada. Among the ideas then mooted, the
thought of producing such a book as this became
a fixed idea in the mind of the author, and, sad
to say, it is the only idea then suggested that
has been in any manner carried into effect.

In connection with the institution of a central
committee it was also suggested that a great central
building, devoted to Scottish ideals, should be
erected at Ottawa, to be a sort of headquarters
for Scotsmen in Canada and those hailing from
the Old Land. There was also a scheme to collect
a library and found a museum of relics connected
with Scotland and the early history of Scotsmen
in this country. It is a pity that this scheme
was not carried out, as it would have been a
valuable influence in preserving the finest ideals
of a large and important portion of the Canadian
community. The scheme failed for the time being,
as such attempts often do, for several reasons ;

421

The Scotsman in Canada

perchance, am'ong them, that the time was not
altogether ripe for such a movement. Many pro-
minent Scotch Canadians, among1 them Lord
Strathcona and Sir Sandford Fleming, were
interested in the idea ; and Lord Dundonald
had it deeply at heart, while his Excellency
Lord Minto gave it his approval. Among others
who favoured the movement was Alexander Fraser,
the founder, and for many years the leading spirit,
of the Sons of Scotland in Canada, who is now
Archivist for the Province of Ontario.

Lord Dundonald, one of the Empire's greatest
soldiers and an earnest patriot, did much for the
reawakening of the Scottish spirit in Canada. His
receptions at Alexandria and Renfrew, where the
whole Scottish population turned out to do him
honour, are red-letter days in the history of Scot-
land in those parts of Canada. It is to be hoped
that the schemes of Confederation and of a central
building devoted to the Scottish-Canadian interests
may yet be accomplished.

•With all of their active life, for the greater
part of a century, the Scottish societies in Canada
have not realised the possibilities of the Scottish
community as the other national associations have.

Even St. George's Society and the Sons of
England have become a stronger influence as a
great unit than have the Scottish societies, not-
withstanding all their philanthropic efforts. The
great weakness of the Scottish people in Canada,
and the world over, has been in this direction. They
seem ever afraid to act as a community, and as
422

Scottish Societies in Canada

a community uphold their most sacred ideals, for
fear of offending some other national influence ;
a lamentable weakness in an otherwise great
people.

Let us never forget the old heredity, the old
traditions, and the beautiful old land of our
forefathers : —

We are your children, Mother,

We at your breasts have fed ;
We will not leave you, life of our life !

Dead of our olden dead !

END OF VOL. I.

423

INDEX

LORD (Governor

ABERDEEN,

260-62

Aboukir, Scottish regiments at, 15
Acadia, capture of, by Capt. Argall

67

Addington, Lord, 167-68

Agriculturists, Scottish, in Canada
395

Aldborough, list of persons settled
in, by Col. Talbot, 211-13

Alexander, Sir William, 69 et sea ;
235. 249-50

Alexander,;Sir William, the youneer
79,8o

Allen, Sir Montague, 151

Anglican Church in Canada, Scots-
men in, 325-29

Angus, Hon. A. B., 151

"Annals of Guelph," Burrows', 204
Annapolis, 80

Argyll, Duke of, seat of, at In-
veraray, 48 ; Governor of Canada,
258; -Quebec "and "Hymn for
Confederation," by, 260 ; corner-
stone of museum of McGill Uni-
versity laid by, 279; Royal
Society of Canada founded by,
404
Arisaig, first settled by Highland

Catholics, in
Artists, Scottish, in Canada, 406

BALDERSON, JAMES, 180
Balderson, Lieut.-Col., 180
Bannockburn, 48, 248
Baptist Church in Canada, Scottish

clergy in, 332
Baronets of Nova Scotia, roll of,

82-88

Bayne, James, 404
Bell, Rev. William, 178-79
Bethune, Rev. John, 161, 310-11
Blue, Archibald, 396

Boyd-Carpenter, Bishop of Ripon,
61

Brandywine, Queen's Rangers at

battle of, 126
Breton, Cape, 71

"British America," McGregor's,

124

Brown, Hon. George, 369-73
Browning, Robert, 61
Bruce Highland chiefs who fought

under, at Bannockburn, 48
Bruce Settlements, 231 et seq.;

noted Scottish residents of, 243-

46

Bryce, Dr., 169, 302, 404, 405
Burns, Robert, 22, 23, 34, 38

CABOT, JOHN, 66
Cameron, E. R., 395
Cameron, Sir Mathew Crookes, 387
425

Index

Campbell, A. W., C.E., 396
Campbell, Sir Alexander, 379-81
Campbell, Archibald, plan of, for
organising Fencible Regiments,
168

Campbell, Sir Colin, 114
Campbell, James Ernest, J.P., 245
Campbell, Thomas Francis, 246
Campbell, Rev. Dr. Robert, 179
Canada Company founded by John
Gait, 202 ; conspiracy against,
205

Carglll, Henry, M.P., 244
Cathcart, Lord (Governor), 253-54
Chateauguay, 150

Chatham, Lord, on Scottish regi-
ments, 152

Church of Disciples of Christ, 333
Civil Service, Scotsmen in, 395-96
Clan communities, remote origin

of, 47, 48

Clans, force of, and number of re-
tainers in 1745, 49-53
Clouston, Sir Edward, 396
Cobbett on Prince Edward Island,

118

Colquhoun, Dr., 300
Commission on Technical Educa-
tion, noted Scottish Canadians on,
301-302
Congregational Church, Scottish

clergy of, 332
Connaught, Duke of, 265
Cornwall, Upper Canada, 161
Coyne, Dr., historian of Talbot
settlement, 207 ; on Col. Talbot,
299 ; translator of Galinee's narra-
tive, 404
Craigie of Gairsay, last Baronet of

Nova Scotia, 78
Creighton, David, 406
426

Creighton, Dr., 331
Cruikshank, Col., 404
Cummings, Trooper Gordon, 01
Bruce, killed in Boer War, 243

DALHOUSIE COLLEGE, 294-96
Dalhousie, Lord, 114, 148; Gover

nor-General, 252
Dawson, Sir William, 160
Derry, Siege of, Scotsmen at, 60
" Discoverers, The," 90
Disraeli, 361
Don de Dieu piloted by Abraham

Martin, 134
Dorchester, Lord, United Empire

List of, 159
Dougall, John, 405
Douglas, Dr., 331
Douglas, Sir Howard, educational

work of, in New Brunswick, 125
Drummond, Sir George, 394
Dufferin, Lord (Governor), 256-58
Dunlop, Dr., 237
Dun wich, list of persons settled in,

by Col. Talbot, 211-13

EAST WILLIAMS, early Scotch

settlers in, 219-20
Education, Scotsman and, 266 et seq.
Ekfrid, settlement of, 216-17
Elgin, Lord, 238; Governor of

Canada, 254-56
Elizabeth, Queen, 56
Empire Lists, 159
"Encouragement to Colonies," by

Sir William Alexander, 73, 89
English River, 150

FALCONER, DR., President of
Toronto University, 122, 274-75
Ferguson, Dr. F., 394

Index

Fiction, Kail Yard School of, 24
Finance in Canada, Scotsmen and,

396

Fisher, Hon. Sydney, 359
Fleming, Sir Sandfield, 283, 395,

397-98
"Formosa Mackay," missionary,

228
Fort Frederick, St. John Harbour,

123

Fort Wallace settlement, 1 1 1
Franklin, Benjamin, 94, 191, 255
Franklin, Sir John, 239
Fraser Highlanders, no; list of

officers of, in 1759, 139-41
Fraser, Hon. D. C., 114

Fraser, J.,I.S.O., 395

Fraser, Col. Malcolm, extracts from
manuscript journal of, 141-45

Fraser, Mr., Chronicler of Macnab
settlement, 192

Fyfe, Rev. R. A., founder of Wood-
stock College, 291-92

GALT, H. T., 376-77

Gait, John, Scottish novelist, 201 ;
Canada Company established by,
202 ; description of Huron Coast
by, 237

Genius of the Scotsman for business,

35

George III., memorial to, lor site for
Presbyterian Church in Quebec,
147-48

Gibson, Hon. J. M., 359

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, Newfound-
land taken possession of by, 67

Gladstone, W. E., 261, 361

Glengarry Fencible Regiment, list
of officers of, in 1798, 166-67

Glengarry settlements, 152 et seq.

Globe, Toronto, 371, 373, 374
Goderich, founded by John Gait,
205; named after Lord Goderich,

237

Gody, Archdeacon, 228
Gordon, Rev. C. W. ("Ralph

Connor "), 228, 404
Gordon, General, 261
Gordon, Sir Robert, Premier

Baronet of Nova Scotia, 78, 229
Gosford, Lord (Governor-General),

252-53
Governors- Generals of Canada,

Scottish, 245-65
Graham, historian of siege of

Deny, 60

Graham, Hon. Geo. P., 359
Graham, Sir Hugh, 151, 405
Grant, Sir James, 404
Grant, Principal, 160 ; and Queen's

University, 283-86; death of,

287
Greenock, Port of, the Hector sails

from, 100, 1 02
Grey, Lord (Governor-General),

263-66
Guelph, settlement by John Gait,

20 1 ; early Scottish settlers of,

203, 204

HAGGART, HON. J. G., 180
Halifax North British Association,

"3

Hanna, W.J.,359

Hannay, James, 405

Harris, John, his connection with

Pictou settlement, 95-96
Harrison's "Scot in Ulster,"

quotation from, 58-59
Harriss, Dr., 406
Hay, Dr., 300

427

Index

Hebrews, similarity of the Scottish

people to, 31-32
Hectort sailing of, from Greenock

for Pictou, 100; suffering of

emigrants on, 103 ; arrival of,

at Pictou, 104 ; list of passengers

on, 106-109

Hendrie, Hon. J. S., 359
Highland chiefs who fought under

Bruce at Bannockburn, 48
Highland Emigrant Regiment,

defence of Quebec by, 145-46
Highland Society, New Brunswick

branch of, 418
Historians in Canada of Scottish

origin, 405

" History of Pictou," 106
Hope, the, first colony brought to

Pictou by, 96-97
Houston, W. , 404, 406
Hudson's Bay Company, officials

of, settled in Glengarry, 171
Hunter, J. B. , 395
Huron and Bruce settlements, 231

et seq.
"Hymn for Confederation," by

Duke of Argyll, 260

INGLIS, BISHOP, University of
King's College founded by, 296

Inveraray, Castle of, seat of Duke
of Argyll, 48

Ireland, North, Ulster first Scottish
settlement in, 56

JAFFRAY, SENATOR, 374, 405
James I., 34

James VI., 34, 58, 67, 249
Jarvis Street Collegiate School, 299
Journalists, Scottish, in Canada,
405-406
428

KAIL YARD SCHOOL OF FICTION,

24

Kerr, Hon.J. K., K.C.,358
King, Dr., Dominion Astronomer,

396
King, Hon. W. Lyon Mackenzie,

3OI> 359, 399-400
King's Royal Regiment of New

York, Scottish officers in, 157
Kingston, a city of Scotsmen, 283
Kipling, Rudyard, 61
Kirk, David, defeat 01 French

squadron by, 79

Kirke, Sir David (Governor), 250
Knox, 34, 38

LAIDLAW, ROBERT, 205

Lanark (Scotland), emigrating
societies formed in, 81-82 ; list of,
183-84 ; Representatives of, 188-
89

Lash-Miller, Prof., 274

Lemoine, Sir James McPherson, on
Abraham Martin and General
Murray, 136

Lighthall, W. D., K.C., 404

Lisgar, Lord, first Governor-
General under Canadian Con-
federation, 256

Literature, Scotsmen in, 402-404

Lobo settlement, 217-18

Lome, Marquess of, 210

Lyon, Rev. James, 98

Lyon's Brook, 98

MACALLUM, PROF. A. B., 274
Macdonald, Father A., parish of

St. Raphael's founded by, 162
Macdonald, Brigadier- General, 396
Macdonald, John, of Glenaladale,

116, 117

Index

Macdonald, Sir John A., 68, 154,
1 60, 280, 284 ; a dominating
personality in Canadian political
life, 360; his sway over the
political mind and imagination
of the people, 361 ; respected
and honoured by men of highest
ideals, 362; an Imperialist and
Empire-builder, 363; his Scot-
tish origin, 363-66

Macdonald, Dr. J. A., 405

Macdonald, Sir William, 122, 151,
154, 281, 398

Macdonell, Bishop, 159, 160, 165,
288-90

Macdougal, Hon. W., 375-76

Mackay, Dr. A. H., 300

Mackay, J. G., 359

Mackay, General Hugh of Scouri,
229

Mackay, Hon. Robert, 150

Mackay, Rev. W. A., " Pioneer Life
in Zorra " by, 228

Mackenzie, Hon. Alexander, 374-75

Maclaren, Ian, 25

Macnab, Sir Allan, 336, 349-50

Macnab, John M., 245

Macnab Settlement, the, 190 et
scq.

Magee, Archbishop, 6 1

Manufacturers, Scottish, 394

Martin, Abraham, 134, 135 ; Sir J.
M. Lemoine on, 136

Marvell, Poet, quoted, 122

Master of Lovat, 138-39

Matheson, A. J., 359

McClean, Justice, 405

McClean, W. F., 406

McDougald, J., 395

McGee, Hon. Thomas D'Arcy, 381-
84

McGill, Dr. Anthony, 395
McGill, James, founder of McGill

University, 276-77
McGill University, 275-82
McGillivray, Scottish township

officers in, 218
McGregor, Rev. John, historian of

Prince Edward Island, 117
McKenzie, W. Lyon, 160, 334

et seq.
McLean, Col., defence of Quebec,

by, 145-46

McLennan, Prof. J. C., 274
McMaster University, 292-93
McMaster, Hon. W., 293
McMullen, Rev. W., 331
McNeil, Alexander, M.P., 244
McNeill, John, 119
McNider, founder of Metis, 146
McTavish, Newton, 406
Medical profession in Canada,

Scotsmen in, 392-94
Meighen, Hon. James, 151
Michel, Francisque, on the connec-
tion between Scotland and France,

214
Middlesex Scottish settlements, 214

et seq.

Miller-Coulter, R., C.M.G., 395
Minto, Lord (Governor-General),

263

Monteith, S. N., 359
Mora, Scottish settlers in, 219
Morley, Lord, 337
Morris, Hon. James, 354
Morris, Hon. W., 350
Mount Allison Wesleyan College

University, 297
Mountstephen, Lord, 280
Mo watt, Oliver, 160, 284
Murray, Hon. W. H., 114

429

Index

NEW BRUNSWICK, Scotsmen in,

123-33

Newfoundland, possession of, taken
by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, 67

New Scotland, territory acquired by
Sir William Alexander, 71 ; colo-
nising of, 173

North British Society of Halifax,
418-19

North- West Trading Company, 151

Novelists, Scottish, in Canada,
404

OLIPHANT, LAWRENCE, 238
O'Neill, Moira, 403
Orr, John, first mate of the
Hector, 102

PATTERSON, REV. G., " History of
Pictou " by, 105, 106

Patterson, Hon. W., 359

Pentland, Lord, 262

Perth, Sir Walter Scott on, 172

Perth (Ontario), arrival of Scottish
emigrants at, 174; families of,
179-80

Peterson, W., C.M.G., Principal
McGill University, 281-82

Pictou Academy, 297

Picture Settlements : the sailing of
the Hope, 93-99 ; arrival of the
.Hector, 99-109

Poetry, Scottish writers of, in
Canada, 403

Presbyterian Church, strength of,
in North of Ireland, 59 ; memorial
to George III. for site for, in
Quebec, 147 ; first in Upper
Canada, 161 ; in Canada, Scots-
men in, 303 et seq.

430

Prince Edward Island, colonised by
John Madonald of Glenaladale,
116; and by Lord Selkirk,
117; Cobbett on, 118; Sir
William Macdonald a native of,

121-22

QUEBEC, defence of, by Highland
Emigrant Regiment, 145 ; Liter-
ary and Historical Society,
Scottish charter members of,
148-49 ; Confederation Confer-
ence of, 368-69

Queen's Rangers, Scotsmen in, 126 ;
Scotsmen on muster roll of 1781,
127-29; Queensbury named after,
129; officers of, 129-31

Queen's University, 282-87

RALEIGH, SIR WALTER, 90

Renfrew, emigration societies
formed in, 181-82

Regiopolis College founded by
Bishop Macdonnell, 289

Restigouche, 125

Richmond, Duke of (Governor-
General), 251

Rideau, 173

Riel Rebellion, Scotsmen from
Bruce in, 242

Ripon, Bishop of, 61

Roberts, Lord, Ulster descent of,
61

Robertson, Professor, 302

Roosevelt, ex-Prssident, 62

Ross, P. D. , 406

Ross, Sir G., 404

Ross- Robertson, " Landmarks of
Toronto " by, 399

Index

Royal family, Guelph named after,

203
Royal Society of Canada, literary

members of Scottish origin, 404
Rutherford, Dr., C.M.G., 396
Ryerson, Dr. E., 293

ST. ANDREW'S SOCIETIES: King-
ston, 408-409 ; Glengarry, 409 ;

Ottawa, 409-11 ; St. John, 412-

18
St. Francis Xarier's College, Nova

Scotia, 297
St. John, soldiers of Black Watch

settled on, 131
St. Raphael's, parish jof, founded by

Rev. A. Macdonald, 162
St. Thomas, visited by Marquess of

Lome, 210
"Scot in France," by Francisque

Michel, 137
" Scot in New France," by Sir J. M.

Lemoine, 136

" Scot in Ulster," by Harrison, 58
"Scotland," 17-20
Scotland and France, Francisque

Michel on connection between,

137

Scotsman, affinity of, to the Greek,

33
Scott, Sir Walter, 22, 23, 34, 38,

172

Scottish Pale, the, 56
Selkirk, Lord, 117, 168
Service, Robert, "Songs of a

Sourdough " by, 403
Shaw, Alexander, K.C., 243
Sinclair, Donald, 243
Short, Adam, M.A., F.R.S.C., 395
Societies, Scottish, 407
Sons of Scotland Society, 419

Spear, John, Master of the Hector,
1 02

Sproat, Lt. -Col., 243

Steenkirk, General Hugh Mackay
at, 229

Stirling, Earl of, 164

Stormont settled by United Empire
Loyalists, 170

Strachan, Bishop, 160, 161 ;
educational work of, 270-71 ;
founder of Trinity University,
273; McGill University and,
276-77 ; first Bishop of Upper
Canada, 327 ; his belief in a
State Church, 339 ; Chauncey
rebuked by, 340; character of,
contrasted with Lyon Mac-
kenzie, 345-47

Stuart of Mount Stuart, John, 119

Stuart, Archdeacon Okill, 290

Sutherland, Justice, 359

TALBOT, COL., 190, 207 ; friendship
of, with the Duke of Wellington,
208 ; Dr. Coyne on, 209 ; his
scheme of settlement, 210

Talbot Settlement, 207-13

Tolmie, John, M.P., 245

Toronto University, founded by
Dr. Strachan, 270; members of
Senate of, in 1877, 271-72;
separation of, from Anglican
Church, 272

Torrens, Sir Henry, Ulster descent
of, 61

" Tragedy of Darius," by Sir William
Alexander, 70

Truro, Nova Scotia, first settled by
Ulster Scotsmen, 62 ; list of
names of original grants of land
in, 63

431

Index

ULSTER, first Scottish settlement in
North of Ireland, 56

United Empire List, Lord Dor-
chester's, 159

United Empire Loyalists, no;
Glengarry settled by, 154; Stor-
mont settled by, 170

University of New Brunswick, 297

Upper Canada, Presbyterian life
and conditions in, 323-25

VICTORIA UNIVERSITY, 293

WASHINGTON, GEORGE, 191
Wellington, Duke of, 208
Welsh-British pedigree, 44, 45
Wemyss, Major, Queen's Rangers
under command of, at battle of
Brandy wine, 126

Wesleyan clergy of Scottish ex-
traction, 331
White, Hon. P., 357

William and Mary, addressed to,

signed by Scotsmen in Derry,

60-6 1
William III. on General Hugh

Mackay, 229-30
William IV., charter granted by,

to Quebec Literary and Historical

Society, 148

Willison, Dr. J. S., F.R.S.C., 405
Wilson, Sir Daniel, 273
Wolfe, 115, 134, 137, 248
Women writers, Scottish, 402
Woodstock College, 292
Wright, Prof. Ramsay, 274
Wrong, Prof., 404

YOUNG, PROFESSOR, 274

ZORRA, pioneer work of Angus and
William Mackay in, 223; mis-
sionary and literary influence of
community of, 227 ; clan Mackay
in, 229

UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON

432

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