of Leek (1750 or 1756-Aug. 1806), clergyman. (sp. Roderic also found) Born presumably in Scotland. His father was John Macdonell of Leek, who was one of the leaders of the emigration of the settlers on the Pearl to New York colony in 1773. Roderick did not join the other members of his family on the migration to America in 1773. He studied for the priesthood at Valladolid or at Douai or at Rome. When he was ordained a Roman Catholic priest, he took the oath to serve as missionary with the condition that he might go to North America. He left in 1785 from Spithead, on the south coast of England, for Canada. Despite this point of departure, he seems to have been, in some sense, a member, if a detached one, of the large 1785 emigration group which left Scotland in 1785 for GC. He had secured permission from the British government to go to Canada as a clergyman for the Roman Catholic U E Loyalists in the St. Lawrence settlements.

     From soon after his arrival in Canada till his death, he was the priest at St. Regis, serving the Indian community there. He had a stipend of £50 a year from the Crown. While St. Regis was his place of residence, and its people his primary flock, he also provided religious services for the Roman Catholics at St. Andrew’s in Stormont County, and sometimes also for the Roman Catholics at St. Raphael’s, and even occasionally for those far away at Kingston. Lord Selkirk, who visited St. Regis in 1804, called him “a good soul.” Fr Macdonell died at his parish house in St. Regis, being found dead sitting in his chair. He was most likely buried in the St. Regis church or cemetery. However, there is uncertainly about the facts. Tradition states that the Indians stole the body and secretly buried it, to prevent it being taken from them for burial at St. Andrew’s. His parish registers at St. Regis have been published (see notes following).

     Fr Roderick Macdonell built the great stone church at St. Regis which survives. He also built the first stone church at St. Andrew’s. This splendid pioneer structure still survives, used now as a church hall. He had great success in persuading the men of the NWC to contribute money for its construction. Before the stone church was built, he conducted services in a log church at St. Andrew’s, built soon after his arrival in Canada.

     His language skills included the ability to speak the Mohawk language of the St. Regis Indians, and Gaelic. His brothers Allan , Archibald and Ranald Macdonell of Leek have lives in the present dictionary.

Harkness: index (has photographs of the two churches he built) * Scott, “M” (corrects previous genealogies) * Scott, “U” * McLean: index * Sinnsearachd 17, 33-37, 44, 75-78, 85 * Villeneuve 163-165 * Fr Ewen J. Macdonald, “Father Roderick Macdonell, Missionary at St. Regis and the Glengarry Catholics,” The Catholic Historical Review, 19:3 (Oct. 1933) 265-274 * Duncan (Darby) MacDonald in Glengarry Life 1990 (on unsolved problems about his death and burial) * Kathleen Toomey, “Emigration from the Scottish Catholic Bounds, 1770-1810 and the Role of the Clergy,” Ph. D. thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1991 (has biog. sketch) * The Parish Registers of Births Marriages Deaths of St. Regis 1784-1830, ed. Duncan (Darby) MacDonald and Anne Heisler McDonell (1989) * Glengarry News 20 July 1934, death of his great grand-nephew, Roderick B. McDonald, of St. Raphael’s