[Obituary notice by Dr. George Rainey in the Glasgow Medical Journal, 1868, new ser. i. 6-13. Additional facts and dates kindly supplied by Dr. H. E. Clark, professor of anatomy and dean of the medical faculty, St. Mungo's College, Glasgow, and by Mr. W. J. Mackenzie.]
MACKENZIE, WILLIAM BELL (1806–1870), divine, son of James Mackenzie of Sheffield, was born on 7 April 1806, and was educated at the grammar school there. Both his father and mother died in 1822, and Mackenzie began to study law, but by the help of some exhibitions was enabled to enter Magdalen Hall, Oxford, on 26 June 1830, graduating B. A. 1834, and M.A. 1837. He became curate of St. James's, Bristol, in 1834, and in 1838 incumbent of St. James's, Holloway, where the poverty of his parish involved him in much hard work. Mackenzie gradually collected a large congregation; he advocated the cause of the Moravian church, and was among the first to start special services in St. Paul's Cathedral. He died at Ramsgate on 22 Nov. 1870, leaving a widow and several children. He was the author of numerous works, the most important of which are:
- 'Gleanings from the Gospel Story,' 1859.
- 'Hand-book for the Sick,' 4th edit. 1861.
- 'Married Life, its Duties, Trials, and Joys,' 1861; new edit. 1867.
- 'Saul of Tarsus; his Life and Lessons,'1864.
- 'Bible Studies for Family Reading,' 1867.
[Life by Gordon Calthrop; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715-1886; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
MACKENZIE, WILLIAM FORBES (1807–1862), of Portmore, Peeblesshire, politician, born on 18 April 1807, brother of Charles Frederick Mackenzie [q. v.], was third and eldest surviving son of Colin Mackenzie, writer to the signet in Edinburgh, deputy-keeper of the signet, and a friend of Sir Walter Scott. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Forbes [q. v.] of Pitaligo, bart. The family was descended from the Mackenzies of Balmanully, a younger branch of the Mackenzies of Gairloch, who claimed as their progenitor Hector, son of Alexander, sixth baron of Kintail. Forbes Mackenzie was educated for the law, and was called to the bar in 1827. He succeeded to the estate of Portmore on the death of his father in September 1880, and in 1881 was appointed deputy-lieutenant of the county of Peebles. He also sat in the House of Commons as member for that county from 1837 to 1841, 1&41-7, and 1847-52. During 1845-6 he was a lord of the treasury. On 9 July 1852 he was elected one of the members for Liverpool, but in the following year he was unseated on petition, and he was not again returned to parliament. His only claim to notice is as the author of the act for the regulation of public-houses in Scotland, 16 & 17 Vict. c. 67, 15 Aug. 1853, known as the Forbes Mackenzie Act, which provides for the closing of public-houses on Sundays and at ten p.m. on week days. He died suddenly while on a visit to the Glen, Peeblesshire, on 24 Sept. 1862. By his wife Helen Anne, daughter of Sir James Montgomery of Stanhope, baronet, he had a son, Colin, and a daughter, Elizabeth Helen, who died young.
[Mackenzie's Hist. of the Mackenzies; Chambers's Hist. of Peeblesshire; Forster's Members of Parliament for Scotland; Official Return of Members of Parliament; Ann. Register, 1862, p. 372.]
MACKENZIE, WILLIAM LYON (1796–1861), leader of Canadian insurgents, born at Dundee on 12 March 1795, entered while still a youth the service of a wool merchant in Dundee. In 1817 he became managing clerk to a canal company in Wiltshire; emigrated to Canada in 1820, and, after first working as an engineer, established a book-store at Queenstown in 1823. An agitation in favour of popular government in Canada was then in progress. Mackenzie soon interested himself in politics and joined the popular side. He removed to Toronto, and in May 1824 established an opposition paper, the 'Colonial Advocate.' On 8 June 1826 a tory mob broke into his office and destroyed the printing apparatus. For this outrage Mackenzie obtained 625l. damages. He rapidly made himself prominent as a liberal politician, and in 1828 was elected to the legislative assembly of Upper Canada for the county of York. He was re-elected at the general election of 1830. In the house he distinguished himself by the violence of his language; and on his describing the ministry as 'sycophants fit only to register the decrees of arbitrary power,' he was expelled the house. Being twice re-elected in 1831 he was twice re-expelled, when the government secured his final exclusion by disfranchising the county of York. In 1832 Mackenzie went to England to present to the home government a petition on behalf of his fellow-subjects, and secured the dismissal of several unpopular colonial officials. After his return to Canada, Mackenzie was chosen mayor of Toronto in May 1834. At the general election in the October following he was re-elected for the county of York, and the popular party having obtained a majority he was allowed to take his seat, and the minutes relative to his expulsion were expunged from
