Mackay, Donald

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: John C. Jackson, “MACKAY, DONALD,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/mackay_donald_6E.html
  • DCB profile:
    • Fur trader and office holder; b. 1753 in Gordonbush, Scotland; d. 26 June 1833 in Barneys River, N.S.
    • When he entered the northwest fur trade in the spring of 1779 Donald Mackay’s pugnacious character had already been formed by his service in the British army during the early campaigns of the American revolution. He left Montreal as the clerk of John Ross and, after several independent traders had combined forces at Grand Portage (near Grand Portage, Minn.), to form the North West Company he became a clerk in the new organization.
    • In September 1780 Ross and Mackay were trading at a post on the Assiniboine River above Portage la Prairie (Man.). From that post Mackay took four companions on an overland expedition to the Hidatsa villages on the upper Missouri River..
    • In 1799 Mackay returned to his home at Gordonbush and two or three years later converted his field notes into personal memoirs which recorded facts of considerable historical interest. He attempted to reenter the northern fur trade in 1806–7, but was unable to adapt to conditions and returned to Scotland.
    • According to family tradition, his country wife was killed by angry Indians, leaving him with two sons, William and Donald. He and his Scottish wife, Mary McKenzie, had several children. In 1813 he assisted Lord Selkirk in recruiting colonists for the Red River settlement (Man.), thus helping to implement his own plan to intercept the NWC on the Red River.
    • Mackay immigrated to Nova Scotia in 1822 with his Scottish wife and family and settled in present-day Pictou County. He was a colourful character and a subject of local folklore when he died in 1833. During his HBC service he had introduced his nephews Donald Sutherland and Donald McDonald to the fur trade and an incomplete count identifies 22 fighting Mackays in that business over a period of 130 years.
  • United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=12991
  • Find a Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/48697610/donald-mckay