Dictionary of Glengarry Biography

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====== MacMillan, Mrs Harriet ====== 
 and her son **John (“Roman John”) MacMillan**, pioneers. Mrs Harriet MacMillan was by birth Harriet Kennedy. She was married to Duncan Ban MacMillan, who is reported to have been killed in battle. Mrs Harriet MacMillan, by this time a widow, came to Canada from Scotland about the beginning of the 19th century, probably in the McMillan emigration of 1802 headed by Allan and Archibald McMillan. With her were her sons Archibald and Miles Mor, and her eleven daughters. The family settled on Lot 27, in the 8th Concession of Lochiel Township, GC. The lot already had an owner, but Archibald was able to buy the lot in 1810. This MacMillan family was Roman Catholic. Mrs MacMillan, who lived at the end of her life with a daughter at Glen Nevis in GC, is buried in the Glen Nevis cemetery by one statement, or in St. Finnan’s cemetery by another. The many descendants of Mrs MacMillan include Fr J. G. Forbes the archbishop of Ottawa, Fr George Corbet, Fr William A. Macdonell the second bishop of Alexandria, and Duncan Donovan, Senator Donald MacMillan, and Edwin Mcdonald. Mrs MacMillan’s shawl is reproduced in colour as a most impressive endpaper illustration in the //Lochaber Emigrants// book of 1994. Though the present article accepts as probable the claim that the emigration of these McMillans was with the group of 1802, it must be noted that these MacMillans do not appear, however, in the surviving passenger lists for the ships //Friends//, //Helen// and //Jane// as presented in //Lochaber Emigrants//.

<tab>Mrs MacMillan’s son John MacMillan is said to have arrived a year or so later, when he was free from his military or naval service. His place of settlement was Finch Township. He was known as Roman John because he was a Roman Catholic among the many Protestant MacMillans of that township. The Cornwall //Freeholder// of 29 May 1891 reported the death on 21 May of Roman John McMillan of Finch, but on the grounds of the dates involved he would not have been the Roman John who was the pioneer, though he was presumably a later member of the same family.


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<fs small>//Lochinvar to Skye// 94-107 * Fleming 45-46 and general * Duncan (Darby) MacDonald, //Scotland’s Migrations to North America: a Collection of Genealogical Charts//, Part 5, 2nd edn. (1989): includes “Roman John” MacMillan family of Finch * letter of Edwin Mcdonald, of St. Andrew’s, asking help in recovering the names of Roman John’s 11 sisters, //Glengarry News// 20 July 1977 * McKenna //GN// (24 April 2002) * (another?) Roman John McMillan’s feats of mental arithmetic, //HHCT// 95
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