McGill, John

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: S. R. Mealing, “McGILL, JOHN,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/mcgill_john_6E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Army officer, office holder, and politician; b. March 1752 in Auckland, Wigton, Scotland; m. Catherine Crookshank; no surviving issue; d. 31 Dec. 1834 in Toronto, Upper Canada.
    • John McGill emigrated to Virginia in 1773. When the American revolution began he joined the short-lived Loyal Virginians as a lieutenant, then late in 1777 transferred to the Queen’s Rangers, in which corps he served as adjutant and was taken prisoner along with his commander, John Graves Simcoe. He was promoted captain before the surrender at Yorktown, Va. 
    • After the war he settled in Parrtown (Saint John, N.B.), although he was perhaps at Quebec in 1788–89 as assistant to the commissary general. One of the first two captains proposed by Simcoe for the second Queen’s Rangers in Upper Canada, he preferred the administrative post of military commissary. Setting out in February 1792 with Æneas Shaw by the Témiscouata route to join Simcoe at Quebec, he accidentally injured his leg so badly that he periodically thereafter found it painful to walk or ride. He saw no regimental service in Upper Canada; when the Rangers mustered at Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake) against an anticipated American invasion in September 1794, his duty was to escort Simcoe’s family to safety at Quebec. Eventually, on 27 April 1805, he was appointed the last lieutenant of the county of York, remaining so until his death, but reforms accompanying a new militia act of 1808 virtually ended the military duties of that office.
    • The first military list of Upper Canada named him as commissary of stores and provisions at a captain’s salary. Early in 1796 he combined that office with the new civilian post of provincial agent for purchases.
    • Yet McGill prospered in Upper Canada. As a half-pay captain he was entitled to 3,000 acres of land and as an executive councillor to 5,000 more. Before he had taken up the second allowance the rule was changed, on 1 July 1799, to give councillors 6,000 acres “including former grants.” His actual grants fell between the old and the new rules, at 7,509 acres. He can hardly be said to have abused the system, but he was adept at getting the most out of it. He obtained land in good locations, he exchanged bad lands for good, and he knew when to sell. He had 850 acres in York Township, including the 100-acre park lot where he usually lived.
  • United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=9762
  • Find A Grave : Cannot locate.