MacDonell, Angus (Collachie)

  • From Dictiaonary of Canadian Biography. See full biography at: https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/macdonell_angus_5E.html
    • MACDONELL (Collachie), ANGUS, office holder, lawyer, and politician; b. in Inverness-shire, Scotland, son of Allan McDonell of Collachie and Helen MacNab; d. unmarried 7 or 8 Oct. 1804 in the wreck of the Speedy on Lake Ontario.
    • In 1773 the Collachie family was part of an emigration of about 600 Highlanders from the lands of the Clan MacDonell of Glengarry to Sir William Johnson*’s estate in the Mohawk valley of New York. After the outbreak of the American revolution the Highlanders remained loyal to the crown and in January 1776 Major-General Philip John Schuyler took Allan McDonell and five other leaders hostage to ensure the neutrality of Sir John Johnson* and his Highland tenants. Fearing arrest by the rebels, Johnson struck out for Montreal, Que., early in the summer with about 130 Highlanders and 120 others. Old Collachie escaped in May 1779 and by August he had reached the province of Quebec where he resided, first at Yamachiche and then at Quebec, until his death in 1792.
    • Unlike his brother Alexander*, Angus Macdonell does not seem to have served in a loyalist corps during the revolution. Nor was he living with his father at Quebec at the end of the war. He did, however, spend a few years about this time in Montreal and Quebec where he gained a seminary education and acquired a sound grasp of the French language. In June 1785 he was at Quebec where he had been jailed for debt. After his release Macdonell began experimenting with a new method of manufacturing pot and pearl ash and in November 1788 he applied for a patent. In April 1791 the province of Quebec passed an act which granted exclusive patent privileges to him, his brothers James and Alexander, and Christopher Carter, as well as to Samuel Hopkins, a rival inventor who also had devised an improved process. That same year Macdonell and Hopkins became partners and attempted, it appears, to market their product.
  • Son of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=4920
  • Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/163473332/angus-macdonell