(1788-12 July 1853), political figure. (Rhodes Grant says: “he was called Sheriff McMartin, the name by which he is still remembered.”) Born in Charlottenburgh Township, GC, presumably in the Martintown area. Parents: Malcolm McMartin, a U E Loyalist and formerly a lieutenant in the King's Royal Regiment of New York, and his wife Margaret McIntyre. Malcolm McMartin (d. 1828), a native of Scotland, came, it may be guessed, like so many other U E Loyalists among the founders of GC, to the American colonies in the Pearl in 1773 (his father, in any case, was on the Pearl). Malcolm acquired land in the area of present-day Martintown, and there he established and operated a gristmill, sawmill, carding mill, ashery and general store. Fulling and dyeing were also done– but perhaps in his son Alexander’s lifetime rather than Malcolm’s. The village that grew up around these enterprises was known at first at MacMartin’s Mills and later as Martintown. The son Alexander, who took over the management of his father’s Martintown enterprises, represented GC in the House of Assembly from 1812 to 1834, with the exception of the years 1824 to 1828, when Duncan Cameron, defeating McMartin at the polls, took his place. In 1834, McMartin was defeated by Col. Alexander Chisholm. Alexander McMartin served as a J P, postmaster of Martintown from 1828 (resigned Dec. 1847, and presumably did not take up the office again), commissioner of the Court of Requests, and sheriff of the Eastern District from 1838 (in effect, sheriff of what is now SDG). In 1847 he gave up his position of sheriff to stand, unsuccessfully, against John Sandfield Macdonald for the GC seat in the general election of that year.
Alexander McMartin was a Presbyterian and Presbyterian elder. In the Disruption, he adhered to the Church of Scotland, though his brother, also an elder, chose the Free Church. Alexander McMartin died in Martintown, and is buried there. He was married, on 14 Jan. 1834 to Mary Carlyle of Dumfriesshire, Scotland, who is said to have been a niece of Thomas Carlyle, the great 19th-century author. (six children) Alexander McMartin was active over many years in the GC militia, rising at last to the rank of lt.-col. In the War of 1812 he was a lieutenant and was in charge of a road-building detachment working in Stormont and GC, and he saw active duty at Beauharnois in the suppression of the Rebellion of 1837-1838. In the 1830s, a contract on the construction of the Rideau Canal having worked out badly, he had prolonged and serious financial problems, eventually surmounted through his success in land dealings. He was a member of the Highland Society of Canada. A collection of his family papers in the Ontario Archives shows that he corresponded with relatives in Scotland, which was, to judge from the surviving evidence, something rarely done by GC emigrants from Scotland, not to mention persons actually born in the new country.
His life by Allan J. MacDonald, Dictionary of Canadian Biography,VIII, 582-583 * Scott, ii, 27-28 (Scott’s evidence seems decisive re Malcolm of the present entry being of the King's Royal Regiment of New York) * Dennis Carter-Edwards, “The Mills of Martintown,” Glengarry Life No. 37 (2003), a good study of the mills, from documentary sources * Harkness; MacMillan, Kirk; Johnson: all per index * Rhodes Grant, i, 42-45, 117-120, ii, 147 * the following probably do not all refer to the same Malcolm McMartin: Second Report 385, Reid 209-210, Cruikshank King's Royal Regiment of New York 240 * “The Sheriffdom of the Eastern District Again,” attacked in long editorial about terms on which he gave up sheriffdom, Toronto Globe 13 Sept. 1848 * resigns postmastership, father dies: Archives of Ontario, Alexander McMartin Papers, Boxes 7-8, Folders I-M, and “Interesting Documents” (Rev. A. Connell letter)