- DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Jean Morrison, “MacKAY (McKay), ALEXANDER (d. 1811),” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 5, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/mackay_alexander_5E.html
- DCB profile notes:
- Fur trader and explorer; b. c. 1770, probably in the Mohawk valley of New York, son of Donald McKay and Elspeth (Elspy) Kennedy; m. à la façon du nord Marguerite Waddens, daughter of Jean-Étienne Waddens, and they had one son, Thomas McKay, and three daughters; another woman was likely the mother of his son Alexander Ross McKay; d. c. 15 June 1811 in Clayoquot Sound (B.C.).
- Alexander MacKay participated in two momentous events in the history of North American exploration and westward expansion. As lieutenant in Alexander Mackenzie’s expedition to the Pacific Ocean on behalf of the North West Company in 1793, he was among the first Europeans to cross the breadth of the continent. In 1811, as a Pacific Fur Company partner, he became one of the founders of Astoria (Oreg.), the first English-speaking settlement on the Pacific coast.
- MacKay’s father, Donald, fought at Quebec in 1759 as a sergeant in the 78th Foot, a Highland regiment whose members contributed many sons to the NWC. Having settled in the Mohawk valley after the Seven Years’ War, the elder McKay brought his family north as United Empire Loyalists. Although they eventually made their home in the Glengarry region of Upper Canada, at Martintown, they first lived near Trois-Rivières, Lower Canada. By November 1791 three sons, Donald, William, and Alexander, were in the west as NWC clerks.
- Son of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=5506
- Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73735894/alexander-mckay
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