McCaulay, John

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Robert Lochiel Fraser, “MACAULAY (McAulay), JOHN,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 8, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–.https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/macaulay_john_8E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Businessman, office holder, newspaperman, justice of the peace, militia officer, and politician; b. 17 Oct. 1792 in Kingston, Upper Canada, son of Robert Macaulay and Ann Kirby; m. first 23 Oct. 1833, in Montreal, Helen Macpherson (d. 1846), sister of David Lewis Macpherson, and they had six daughters and one son; m. secondly 1 March 1853, in Kingston, Sarah Phillis Young, and they had one daughter; d. there 10 Aug. 1857.
    • Young John Macaulay wanted for none of the advantages early Upper Canadian society could offer. His father was a loyalist and one of the earliest merchants at Cataraqui (Kingston). After his father’s death in 1800, John and his brothers, William and Robert, were raised by their mother and uncle. 
    • Within the limited political circles of Upper Canada, Macaulay quickly gained, and would long retain, a reputation as an authority on the economy and public improvement.
    • Macaulay’s name rarely, if ever, appeared in the reform critiques of the so-called “family compact.” Because he shunned the electoral world, he never acquired the prominence of Robinson, Hagerman, or Jones; because he avoided the councils for so many years, he lacked the profile of a Strachan or a Markland. Indeed, men such as William Allan, who lacked Macaulay’s political clout and presided over less important institutions, have been considered by most historians to be much more important. But Macaulay probably ranks close to Robinson and Strachan and certainly surpassed the others in terms of his ability. Possessed of an agile, analytical mind, a clear writing style, a genius for organization and administration, a conscientious temperament, and a capacity for hard work, he was an indispensable figure who forged and popularized many of the key, and enduring, policies of successive administrations from Maitland to Arthur. His early and longstanding concern with the development of a provincial strategy for economic prosperity was an embodiment of the consensus that underlay the political, social, religious, national, and geographical solitudes of Upper Canada.
  • Son of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=5135
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/188258408/john-macaulay