(3 July 1855-4 Dec. 1929), farmer, mayor. (A. D. McDonell, Alexander D. Macdonell, Sandy Duncan B’hui, Sandy Duncan (Buie); from Gaelic, buidhe, yellow) Born in Kenyon Township, GC. Parents: Duncan Macdonell and his wife Janet or Jannet Gunn. A. D. Macdonell, the subject of the present entry, was the great-nephew of Fr Alexander Macdonell, the legendary pioneer bishop of Upper Canada. When Alexandria, Ont., was incorporated as a town (announcement 1902, the incorporation was effective as of 1 Jan. 1903) A. D. Macdonell was elected by acclamation the 1st mayor of the town. The honour is said to have been a tribute to his association with the bishop, who was the principal founder of Alexandria. A. D. Macdonell was a farmer but he lived in Alexandria; his house on Kenyon Street is described as being in the shape of a cross. The Glengarry News obituary, based, we must assume, on an intimate knowledge of the man as well as the community, says, “He was brought up in the somewhat stern Christian atmosphere which even to this day has left its mark on the people of Glengarry and he learned to love, while still a youth, the Catholic religion of which throughout his lifetime he was such a staunch adherent.” The same source describes him as “engaged in the arduous profession of farming.” Another obituarist wrote, “He was a farmer, owning one of the largest properties in this district.” (Cornwall Freeholder) He died in Alexandria. He is buried in St. Finnan’s cemetery. From the evidence examined for the present biography, it does not appear that he ever married.

     He owned a portrait of his great-uncle Bishop Macdonell by Sir Martin Archer Shee (1769-1850)–a portrait mentioned in the life of the bishop in the Dictionary of National Biography as being then “in the possession of his grand-nephew, Mr. Alexander Macdonell of Alexandria.” There are handpainted copies of this portrait, but presumably this was the original. The portrait having become blackened by age, the painter Stuart McCormick was persuaded by Fr Ewen J. Macdonald to take it and clean and restore it. The portrait was left to the National Archives of Canada by the will of A. D. Macdonell’s sister, Miss Margaret Macdonell of Alexandria, a former nurse who lived with him, and it was accordingly shipped to the National Archives in Feb. 1945. (Glengarry News 2 March 1945; see also her obituary, 16 Feb. 1945)

     A. D. Macdonell’s relatives included his first cousin Ranald David Gunn (1863-10 Jan. 1922), who was senior judge of Carleton County, and was born at Barrie, Ont. Judge Gunn’s father was a Glengarrian.

Cornwall Freeholder 7 Dec. 1929, Cornwall Standard 12 Dec. 1929, Glengarry News 13 Dec. 1929 * date of birth: St. Finnan’s CRNI, II, 284 * GN supplement 1903 [5-6, 11], with portrait * McCormicks 216 * his father: see life of his uncle Fr Angus Macdonell, V.G., and notes there * incorporation of Alexandria, election of 1st mayor & council, GN 12 Dec. 1902, 9 Jan. 1903 * Ostrom 116 * portrait of bishop: reproduced, No. 29, in Facing History: Portraits from the National Archives of Canada (1993); see also Bibliography of Glengarry 177, and obituary of Stuart McCormick, GN 29 April 1992 *Judge Ranald David Gunn: Morgan (1912) 482; obituary GN 13 Jan. 1922 repr. Fraser Obits. 83