Macaulay, James

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Geoffrey Bilson, “MACAULAY, JAMES,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/macaulay_james_6E.html
  • DCB profile:
    • Doctor, army officer, jp, and office holder; b. 1759 in Scotland; m. first 20 Nov. 1790 Elizabeth Tuck Hayter (d. 1809), and they had four sons and four daughters; m. secondly 10 Nov. 1817 Rachel Crookshank in York (Toronto); d. there 1 Jan. 1822.
    • James Macaulay joined the Queen’s Rangers as surgeon’s mate in 1779 and served with the regiment throughout the American revolution. He transferred to the 33rd Foot in 1785 and four years later was appointed surgeon of the New South Wales Regiment on the recommendation of his former commanding officer, John Graves Simcoe.
    • When Simcoe began planning his staff for the loyalist province of which he was to become lieutenant governor, he did not forget his “old Surgeon and Macaulay and his wife, a naval officer’s daughter who had become close friends with Mrs Simcoe, settled at Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake), the provincial capital, and soon were prominent members of the local society.
    • By 1796 the family had moved to the new seat of government at York where Macaulay had been granted a town lot. An assiduous collector of land grants for himself and his family, before 1800 he had received 1,600 acres as part of his military allotment, a town lot in York and 1,200 acres for his wife, and 600 acres for each of his four children.
    • But his most important acquisition was a 100-acre park lot north of the town along Lot (Queen) Street west of Yonge Street; this area, on which he would later begin to lay out lots, became known as Macaulay Town and was absorbed into the city of Toronto in 1834.
    • James Macaulay’s military career and land grants had brought him a comfortable existence and on his death he was able to leave to his children various land holdings and to his widow £2,000 in Bank of England stock. By marriage the Macaulays were related to some of the most prominent families in Upper Canada.
  • Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=4909
  • Find a Grave: Cannot locate.