Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/123

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
McDONALD
MacDONALD
101

of the provinces in 1867. In May of that year he was called to the senate of the Dominion. While in the legislative council he had been interested in the formation of "the separate school system." He was for several years a trustee of Queen's university.


McDONALD, Flora, Scottish heroine, b. in Milton, island of South Uist, Hebrides, in 1722; d. there, 5 March, 1790. She was the daughter of Ronald McDonald, of Milton who belonged to the McDonalds of Clanranald. Her father died when she was an infant, and her mother having married McDonald of Armadale, Skye, Flora was removed to that island. In June, 1746, while on a visit to South Uist, she met Capt. O'Neil, one of the companions of Charles Edward Stuart, then on his wanderings after his defeat at Culloden, and O'Neil proposed that Flora should take Charles with her to Skye, disguised as a woman. She refused, but, after an interview with the prince, entered warmly into the scheme. After encountering serious dangers, Flora, the prince, and an attendant reached Skye, where they were assisted by Lady McDonald, who consigned the prince to the care of her husband's factor. Soon after his arrival in Skye, the prince bade farewell to Flora at Portree, and sailed for France. The part she had taken soon became known, and she was imprisoned until the act of indemnity, in 1747. In 1750 she married Allan McDonald the younger, of Kingsburgh, and emigrating with him and their family to North Carolina, in 1774, they settled in Fayetteville. They had been preceded by many of their countrymen, after the battle of Culloden, to this region, where at one time Gaelic was spoken in six counties of the state. Afterward they removed to Cameron hill, and again to a different part of the state. On 3 July, 1775, her husband, who, though aged, was a man of energy and influence, met Martin, and concerted with him a rising of the Highlanders. He served with the loyalists as captain, and was captured at Moore's Creek, and confined at Halifax. She then obtained a passport from a Whig officer, and, at the request of her husband, sailed from Charleston to her native land in a British sloop-of-war. On the voyage home they were attacked by a French frigate of superior force, and, when capture seemed inevitable, Flora left her cabin, and stimulated the crew to renewed exertion by her acts and courage. Her arm was broken during the conflict. She landed safely in Scotland, and never again left that country. On her death-bed she requested that her body should be wrapped in one of the sheets in which the prince had slept at the house of Kingsburgh in 1746. She was remarkable for her beauty, for the ease and dignity of her manner, and her loyalty to “Prince Charlie” has been the theme of scores of Scottish poets. “Flora McDonald's Lament” is one of the Ettrick Shepherd's finest and most popular productions. Her husband survived her a few years. Five of their sons served their king in a military capacity. The accompanying picture is from a portrait that was in the possession of her last surviving son, Lieut.-Col. John McDonald, of the British army.


MacDONALD, Hugh, Canadian jurist, b. in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, 4 May, 1827. He was educated at his native place, studied law, and was admitted to the bar of Nova Scotia in 1855, and became Queen's counsel in 1872. lie was defeated when first a candidate for the provincial parliament, but was elected for Inverness in 1859, and represented it till 1862, in which year he declined the solicitor-generalship. In 1866 he was a member of a delegation that went to London to oppose the confederation of the British North American provinces, and in 1867 was elected to the Dominion parliament for Antigonish, and represented that constituency till November, 1873. IIr. MacDonald V)ecame a member of the privy council, 14 June, 1873, and was president of that body until 1 July, when he was appointed minister of militia and de- fence. On 5 Nov., 1873, he was appointed for life a judge of the superior court of Nova Scotia.


McDonald, James, physician, b. in White Plains, N. Y., 18 July, 1803 ; d. in Flushing, L. I., 5 May, 1849. He was graduated at the New York college of physicians and surgeons in 1825, and appointed the same year resident physician of the Bloomingdale insane asylum. In 1831 he was sent by the governors of the New York hospital to visit the insane asylums of Europe, with the under- standing that on his return he should have entire charge of the Bloomingdale asylum for five years. He became a visiting physician to the New York hospital in 1837, and in 1841 opened a private insane asylum at Murray hill, which he afterward removed to Flushing, L. I. He began a course of lectures on mental diseases, at the New York college of physicians and surgeons in 1842. that were probably the first of that character that were ever delivered in the United States. He published "Construction and Management of Insane Hospitals," "A Review of Ferrers on Insanity," "Puerperal Insanity," "Reports on the Condition of Blackwell Island Asylum," and contributed to the "American Journal of Insanity."


McDonald, James, Canadian jurist, b. in East River, Pictou, Nova Scotia, 1 July, 1828. His ancestors came from Scotland, and settled in Pictoti in the 18th century. He was educated at New Glasgow, admitted to the bar of Nova Scotia in 1851, and created Queen's counsel in 1867. He represented Pictou in the legislature of Nova Scotia from 1859 till 1867, and from 1871 till July, 1872, when he resigned. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the same constituency in the Canadian parliament in 1867, was elected in 1874, and served until May, 1881. Mr. McDonald was chief railway commissioner for Nova Scotia from June, 1863, till December, 1864, when he was appointed financial secretary, and held that office till the union. He was a member of the commission that was appointed to open trade relations between the West Indies, Mexico, and Brazil, and the British-American provinces (1865-'6). In October, 1878, he was appointed minister of justice, and on 20 May, 1881, chief justice of Nova Scotia.


MacDONALD, James Madison, clergyman, b. in Limerick, Me., 22 May, 1812 ; d. in Princeton, N. J., 19 April, 1876. His father. John, was a major-general of militia, and served in the war of 1812. The son was graduated at Union college in 1832, and at Yale theological seminary in 1835, and was ordained pastor of the 3d Congregational