Macpherson, Donald

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Laurie C. C. Stanley, “MACPHERSON, DONALD,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/macpherson_donald_6E.html
  • DCB profile
    • Army officer; b. c. 1755 in Inverness-shire, Scotland; he may have married Elspeth Macpherson, and they had at least one child, Allan, “Laird of Napanee”; m. 23 Jan. 1795 Ann Shaw in the parish of Laggan, Inverness-shire, and they had three sons and six daughters; d. 25 Feb. 1829 in Kingston, Upper Canada.
    • Donald Macpherson’s parentage and early life are surrounded by a haze of uncertainty, but the details of his military career are clear enough. In 1775, with the American revolution, Macpherson joined the 71st Foot. After receiving his first commission on 15 Jan. 1777 as a lieutenant with the 4th battalion of the New Jersey Volunteers, Macpherson served with this loyalist corps at Staten Island, N.Y., during 1777 and most of 1778. However, he spent the greater part of the war with the 71st Foot, from August 1778 as an ensign with the 2nd battalion, and then from 19 Oct. 1779 as a lieutenant with the 1st battalion.
    • After returning to Scotland in 1783, Macpherson refused to lapse into half-pay obscurity. He seldom lost an opportunity to resume his career of soldiering. In 1794 he recruited at “considerable expense” a company for the Loyal Cheshire Regiment and in 1798 he assembled a company of clansmen called the Cluny Volunteers. On 9 July 1803 he received the rank of captain in the 92nd Foot, and on 1 Jan. 1805 that of major in the army. In January 1806 he was transferred to an old soldier battalion, the 9th Royal Veterans.
    • When Macpherson, now reduced on full pay, returned to Kingston in 1817, he appeared to have all the props and pretensions of a prosperous, well-settled man. The “old Veteran officer,” stocky in appearance and ruddy in complexion, had an air of substance about him. The government responded generously to his memorials for land, and he had ample grants situated in Kingston itself and in the townships of Eramosa, Nassagaweya, and Melbourne.
  • United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=10098
  • Find a Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/154764750/donald-macpherson