Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/55

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Macdonell
49
Macdonell

cannon' (Livingstone to Melville, 4 Aug. 1691, ib., p. 1691), Still, although he declined on any account to settle with the government's intermediary, Breadalbane (ib. p. 649), he took the oath before the expiry of the period of grace on 31 Dec. 1691. On the appointment of the Glencoe commission he displayed great zeal and activity in collecting evidence against those responsible for the massacre of his kinsmen.

Glengarry alone of the Macdonalds did not sign the engagement of 7 May 1707 on behalf of the Chevalier, having resolved to be guided by the conduct of Atholl (Hooke, Correspondence, ii. 238). He was one of the highland chiefs who signed the letter to Mar promising loyalty to King George on his accession; and he was also one of the first to join Mar when he raised the standard of rebellion at Braemar, 27 Aug. 1715. At Sheriffmuir his clansmen occupied a position on the right wing. When the fall of the chief of the Clanranalds caused temporary hesitation and dismay, Glengarry, springing forward with the words ‘Revenge! Revenge! Revenge to day! Mourning to morrow!’ inspirited the battalion to a fierce onset which almost immediately put the enemy to rout. In reward for his gallant services at the battle he was created by the Chevalier a peer of parliament 9 Dec. 1716. On the suppression of the rebellion he gave in his submission to General Cadogan at Inverness. He was one of the trustees nominated in 1720 by the Chevalier, on the advice of Lockhart, for managing his affairs in Scotland. He died in 1724.

By his first wife, Anne, daughter of Hugh, lord Lovat, he had one daughter, Anne, married to Robert Mackenzie of Applecross. By his second wife, Mary, daughter of Kenneth Mackenzie, third earl of Seaforth, he had four sons: Donald Gorm, killed at Killiecrankie; John, who succeeded to the chieftaincy; Randolph of Kyles; and Alexander.

[Memoirs of Ewan Cameron, General Mackay's Memoirs, and Leven and Melville Papers (all in Bannatyne Club); Philip's Grameid (Scottish Hist. Soc.); History of the late Revolution in Scotland, 1690; Patten's and Rae's Histories of the Rebellion; Mackenzie's History of the Macdonalds, pp. 342–8; Douglas's Baronage, ed. Wood.]

T. F. H.

MACDONELL, ALEXANDER (1762–1840), first Roman catholic bishop of Upper Canada, was born on 17 July 1762 in Glen Urquhart, on the borders of Loch Ness, Inverness-shire. The Macdonells of Glengarry had remained Roman catholics, and their sons were invariably educated at foreign catholic colleges, especially at Douay (Shaw, History of Moray). Alexander was sent first to Paris, and thence to the Scots College at Valladolid, where he was ordained priest on 16 Feb. 1787. On his return to Scotland he was stationed as missionary priest in the Braes of Lochaber, where he remained four or five years. The system of converting small farms into sheep-walks about this time threw many highland peasants out of employment, but Macdonell's efforts secured for the greater part of the Macdonell clan occupation in the factories of Glasgow. A general failure of cotton manufacturers, caused by the war, led to their dismissal, and in 1794, at a meeting convened at Fort Augustus, Macdonell induced them to offer their services as soldiers to the king under the command of young Alexander Ranaldson Macdonell [q. v.], the head of the clan. Their offer was accepted, and they were formed into the 1st Glengarry fencibles, the first catholic regiment since the Reformation. Macdonell was illegally gazetted as chaplain. From 1795 to 1798 the regiment was stationed at Guernsey to guard against French invasion, and in 1798 it was ordered to Ireland, where it distinguished itself by its humanity. In 1801 it was disbanded, but Macdonell succeeded, after some difficulty, in obtaining for its men a grant of 160,000 acres of land in Canada, subsequently called Glengarry County. The government wished the men to settle in Trinidad, not thinking it possible permanently to retain Upper Canada; but Father Macdonell objected to the climate of Trinidad, and after considerable opposition from the Scottish landlords, who wished to discourage emigration, the Glengarries were safely established in Canada under the direction of their chaplain, upon whom fell the whole work of organising the colony. Macdonell devoted himself enthusiastically to missionary work and building churches, forty-eight of which were erected in Upper Canada during his lifetime. When the war with the United States broke out, Macdonell again raised a regiment of Glengarry fencibles, and their services contributed much towards the preservation of Upper Canada. Macdonell was formally thanked by the prince regent, and received an annual pension of 600l.

At the time of Macdonell's arrival there was only one Roman catholic bishop, viz. of Quebec, in the British dominions of North America. In 1817 Upper Canada was erected into an apostolical vicariate, and on 12 Jan. 1819 Macdonell was nominated bishop of Resina, in partibus infidelium, and vicar apostolic; he was consecrated on 31 Dec. 1820 in the church of the Ursuline Convent, Quebec. It was soon found necessary to change the vicariate into a regular see, and