====== McLennan, Donald ====== 
 (c. 1785-1865), fur trader, planter, figure of GC legend. Born in Scotland, probably at Kintail, Ross-shire. Parents: Alexander McLennan and his wife Isabelle, who emigrated from Scotland on the //Neptune// in 1802 with their children (other children were to be born to this couple in Canada). The McLennan couple are said to have settled on Lot 30, 1st Concession of Kenyon Township, but be this true or not, Alexander was not the man who got the patent of this lot in 1810. At the time of emigration, Donald was reportedly 17 years old. He was on the voyage of the //Tonquin// (1810-1811) to found Astoria, having signed on as a clerk, and was one of at least five men of GC connections on this voyage. (See entries for [[mcgillis_donald|Donald McGillis]], [[mackay_alexander|Alexander]] and [[mckay_thomas|Thomas MacKay]], and [[ross_alexander|Alexander Ross]]. For the //Tonquin//, of importance in the GC story, see Glossary, present volume) More fortunate than some of his fellow travellers, Donald McLennan escaped being massacred in the calamity of the //Tonquin//, but he disappeared thereafter for a long time from the knowledge of his relatives in GC, no doubt giving rise to a belief among them that he too had been one of the victims. In fact, after some adventures he ended up as a wealthy planter and sugar mill proprietor in Java, which at that time was a Dutch colony.

<tab>The strangest part of his story deals with his brother Duncan, a GC farmer, born in Canada, who travelled to London, England, with the intention of pursuing his journey still further to Java, on the guess that a chance conversation in the Cornwall area about an otherwise unidentified McLennan living in Java referred to his brother. After combing London in vain for clues for a long time, Duncan arrived one day at the office of a business firm with Java contacts and learned there that his brother was due to arrive the very next day in England! Donald is said to have revisited GC once, the date being in 1844, just after the reunion of the brothers in London, but it was in Java that Donald died, and he is buried there near his home. There were postal contacts between the Glengarry and the Java families as late as the 1940s. He was married. (four children) He was the uncle of William F. Maclennan, and of the wife of John J. Kennedy.


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<fs small>The story of Donald McLennan and his brother Duncan, one of the strangest and most celebrated of all the GC stories, has been told a number of times: see //Cornwall Freeholder// 24 Jan. 1918; Dumbrille, //B//, Chapter 14; and Clifford MacRae, “The Man from Java,” repr. from //Ottawa Journal// in Lily Worrall, ed. //Avonmore// (1985) 22-24; the Avonmore connection is that Mrs Ernest Filion, of Avonmore, descended from Donald’s GC brother, was an avid collector of information on Donald of Java * GHS //Newsletter//, Feb. 1993 * Fraser (1959) 210, 250 * text of the letter from Java written 20 Dec. 1857 by Duncan De Clonie MacLennan to his uncle Duncan McLennan, of the 1st Concession of Kenyon, //Glengarry News// 13 March 1931
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