(died l5 May l848, aged 84), fur trader. Born at Glen Moriston, Scotland. Parents: Alexander Cameron and Margaret McDonell. He came to New York colony with his parents among the passengers in the Pearl (l773). Later, the family settled as UE Loyalists at Williamstown, GC. After a period of association with independent fur traders, Duncan entered the service of the NWC by 1796, and was made a partner about l800. He served at Nipigon, Lake Winnipeg and Rainy Lake, and was arrested and carried to England as result of clashes of the NWC with the Selkirk colony and the HBC, but was released without being tried. Duncan Cameron settled at Williamstown c. l820. In 1820 he married Margaret McLeod, born Scotland, who was the sister of Dr Roderick McLeod. One of the children of this marriage was Sir Roderick Cameron. At an earlier period, Duncan Cameron had an Indian wife and children. Duncan Cameron was elected as GC representative to the House of Assembly of Upper Canada l824 and 1825, being unseated the first time. He served altogether 1825-1828. Duncan Cameron died at his farm, called Mayfield or Glen Nevis, later known as Ossian Hall and still later Mayfield Farm, outside Williamstown on the road to Lancaster. The election manifesto of “D. Cameron” to the freeholders of GC, published in The Montreal Herald, 21 Jan. 1824, is signed at “Glennevis.”
Duncan Cameron’s Nipigon Journal and Sketch of the Customs of the Natives of the Nipigon Country were printed in L.R. Masson’s Les bourgeois de la Cie du Nord-Quest. At the Anniversary Meeting of the Highland Society of Canada, held at Cornwall, Ont., Duncan Cameron, vice president, was in the chair. (The Canadian Magazine and Literary Repository, July 1824)
Life by Jennifer S. H. Brown, Dictionary of Canadian Biography, VII * Wallace * MDict * MacGillivray & Ross 152-l53 * Scott ii, 35-36 * Fraser, Gravestones, I, 110 *Johnson 179 * Armstrong 97 * Mary Ellen Perkins, A Guide to Provincial Plaques in Ontario (1989) 260: plaque to Duncan Cameron on the grounds of St. Andrew’s Church, Williamstown * Alexander Mackenzie, History of the Camerons (Inverness, Scotland, 1884) 409-412 * Alexander Mackenzie, History of the Macleods (Inverness, Scotland, 1889) 262-264 for family of Mrs Duncan Cameron * MacLeods, ii, 482-483