====== McDonell, Alexander ====== 
 (17 March 1795-1884), witness to historical continuity. (Capt. Alexander McDonell, known as Captain Gray or Captain Grey) The //Glengarry Times// (Lancaster, GC) of 1 April 1882 recorded that a recent visitor at the newspaper’s office had been Alexander McDonell, “better known as Captain Grey.” From this news item, we learn his date of birth, and that he was a veteran of the War of 1812, of the Battle of Crysler’s Farm, and of the Rebellion of 1837-1838. In the mid-1880s, Capt. Grey provided George Sandfield Macdonald with information about the early settlement of St. Raphael’s. Also, Capt. Grey was probably one of the people who gave A. M. Pope similar information a few years earlier. His title of captain presumably came from the militia. Capt. McDonell and his wife Janet McDonell (1806-1882) are buried at St. Raphael’s.

<tab>Another Alexander McDonell, who died in 1886, on Lot 30, 8th Charlottenburgh, was a brother of George (Athol) Macdonell, and had come to Canada in 1824 with his sister, “Mrs. Captain Gray.” (//Cornwall Freeholder// from Oct 1886, cited DTL, //Standard Freeholder// 28 Sept. 1957) It may be noted, also, that an Alex. Macdonald (Gray) died at North Lancaster in 1887, the spelling this time of the surname being Macdonald not Macdonell. (//Cornwall Freeholder// 2 April 1887, cited DTL, //SFH// 21 April 1945) See also the entry for [[mcdonell_donald|Capt. Donald McDonell]] (d. 1927). And (very cautiously—there may be no connection at all!) read the note on the Scots Greys in the entry for John McLennan (1826-1918), pioneer.


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<fs small>Fraser, //Gravestones//, III, 57 * McLean 106, 235
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