of Greenfield (died 1819), leader of settlement. Born in Scotland. Parents: Angus Macdonell, of Greenfield, who was one of the Jacobite rebels wounded at Culloden, and his first wife Margaret Grant. Alexander Macdonell, the subject of the present sketch, was a close relative of his chief, and was related also to the Macdonells of Aberchalder, Collachie, Leek and Scotus of the present dictionary. He married Janet, the daughter of the Alexander Macdonell of Aberchalder who was one of the leaders of the Pearl emigration group of 1773 to New York colony. Janet died before her husband came to Canada in 1792. Five children of theirs have lives in the present dictionary: Aeneas, Alexander, John, Donald and Duncan. Another son, Hugh, died unmarried at the Scots College, Valladolid, Spain.

     Alexander Macdonell, the subject of the present sketch, led a party of emigrants to GC in 1792. His descendant J. A. Macdonell (Jack Greenfield) somewhat hesitantly wrote that “Mr. Macdonell of Greenfield, who emigrated in 1792, brought with him, I believe, a number of the people of his clan.” However, there seems no reason to doubt the reality of this emigration. McLean thinks it likely that his emigration group was combined with that led by Alexander McMillan of Glenpean. McLean believes that Macdonell’s settlers took up land mostly in what is now Lochiel Township, but that Macdonell himself settled on the 9th Concession of Charlottenburgh Township. Ewan Ross, relying presumably on tradition and on his intimate knowledge of the families close to his own home area, thought that Macdonell’s settlers took up land on the 8th and 9th Concessions of Charlottenburgh and the 7th and 8th Concessions of Lancaster Township. The names, used in earlier times, of Greenfield East Corner or Greenfield’s East Corner for what is now the flourishing village of Green Valley, and Greenfield’s Corners (on the south edge of Green Valley), evidently record the presence of this family. It may be noted that in the same area, Lot 5 in the 9th of Charlottenburgh, was granted on 5 March 1804 to Alexander’s son Duncan Macdonell of Greenfield. That lot has also been seen as Alexander’s home.

     Some miles from Green Valley, the village of Greenfield, which was long the centre of Kenyon Township government, and was and is the home of the historic Kenyon Township Hall, and which got its name in circumstances which seem not now to be exactly known, also continues the fame of this pioneer family.

     Alexander commanded the 2nd Battalion of the GC militia in the War of 1812. He was a Roman Catholic.

Macdonell, Sketches, 131-133, 184 * McLean: index * Ross, Lancaster, 32 * Harkness 50, 91, 166 * MDict 498 * genealogy: Chadwick, Macdonald & Macdonald * Mrs K. Emberg, “Glen Roy’s Story,” 4 pp. typescript, in present author’s collection * Domesday Book, also Archives of Ontario-TP, for Lot 5-9th Charlottenburgh