(1822-27 March 1864), lawyer. (A. J. Macdonell, Archibald John Macdonell (the younger of Greenfield); his Kingston office of recorder is often mentioned with his name as a distinction that particularly identified him) Born in Canada, possibly GC. Parents: Duncan Macdonell of Greenfield and his wife Harriet, who was the daughter of Archibald Macdonell of Leek.

     Archibald John was active in the revival in the 1840s under the auspices of John Mcdonald of Garth of the Highland Society of Canada, originally founded in 1818. Macdonell was secretary and one of the directors of the revived society. He was the author of An Account of the Highland Society of Canada, a Branch of the Highland Society of London (Montreal, Armour and Ramsay, 1844). In this booklet, he gives his name as “arch. john macdonell, (Younger of Greenfield)” and states his address and time as “Greenfield, Glengarry, 22 January, 1844.” Greenfield, in this instance, must be presumed to be not the present Glengarry village of Greenfield, but his father’s farm, Lot 5 in the 9th Concession of Charlottenburgh. In 1857, he succeeded his father as lt.-col. of the 2nd Battalion Glengarry Militia, and he held this position till his death. At the time of this appointment, he was apparently also lt.-col. of the 5th Battalion of the Frontenac Militia.

     Archibald John Macdonell was by 1854 the law partner of the future Sir John A. Macdonald, at Kingston, a position he held for the final decade of his life. He and Macdonald together got involved in investments which failed, with the result that after the death of Archibald John, the future Sir John A. was in grave financial difficulties. Archibald John held the office of recorder of Kingston. He was a director of the Commercial Bank of Canada, and also a solicitor to the bank.

     He was married at Kingston on 12 Oct. 1848 to Mary Catherine Long Innes or Long-Innes, who like himself was a descendant of Alexander Macdonell of Greenfield, the 1792 emigration leader. Her father was a lieut. in the 37th Regiment, and was afterwards employed in the topographical surveys of Ireland conducted by the geologist and civil engineer Sir Richard John Griffith.

     Archibald John Macdonell died in Philadelphia, at an age somewhat roundly stated as 40. He was buried in St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Cemetery, Kingston. The Daily British Whig (Kingston) published the following, copied here complete: “the late recorder.–All that was mortal of the much beloved and greatly lamented Archibald John Macdonell was deposited in the cold grave on Saturday. His Funeral was large, and he was followed to his last resting place by all the worth and respectability of the city, independent of the many who came from a distance to take part in the sad solemnity. A solemn Mass for the Dead was performed in the R. C. Cathedral, (to which the body was first conveyed,) and afterwards the Funeral Cortege, in carriages, proceeded to the new R. C. Cemetery, where all that remained of the best and kindest-hearted gentleman, that ever lived in Kingston, was left to await the sound of the last Trump; a sound that come when it may, will most assuredly call him to that reward which his honesty, his integrity, and his single-heartedness have most surely entitled him to expect.” In his will, made the day before he died, he named his law partner John A. Macdonald as one of his executors, but Macdonald excused himself from acting. In the will also he urged Macdonald to represent to the Trust and Loan Co. “that I have lost my life in their service.”

     He was the father of John A. Macdonell of Greenfield, and of a daughter Georgina (Mrs Duncan A. Macdonald), both long-time residents of Alexandria, GC, and of another daughter Mary Elizabeth Macdonell, who never married, and was superintendent of nurses for some years at St. Mary’s Hospital, Brooklyn, NY.

     His widow, who was present in Philadelphia when he signed his will, spent her last years in GC, dying in Alexandria on 21 Jan. 1881. The diarist Angus MacMillan recorded her death, “Mrs Archy John McDonell died in Alexandria.” She is buried at St. Raphael’s. Her obituary stated that it was the family intention to have her husband’s body removed soon to St. Raphael’s for reburial there. In his will, her son John A. in 1930 left the residue of his estate to the parish priest at St. Raphael’s, “for such purposes as he may decide in memory of my dear mother…and my beloved sister” Mary Elizabeth.

The Daily British Whig (Kingston, Ont.), 31 March, & 4, 5, & 7 April 1864 * Reid, MN, 324 * his will: Frontenac County Surrogate Court, File #203 (GS1-1226), Archives of Ontario-SC * his death appears not to have been registered in Philadelphia; or at least a death certificate there has been searched for but not been located * D. Creighton, John A. Macdonald: the Young Politician (1953) 208 * Hutchinson’s Kingston directory 1862-1863 p. 68 * history of Greenfield Macdonells in Macdonald & Macdonald and in Chadwick, * Sir John A. and the financial difficulties: Dictionary of Canadian Biography, XII, 592, 604, in life of Sir John A. * Boss 37 * his son’s biography of Bishop Macdonell, 41-49, with quotation of the 1844 booklet * Cornwall Standard 15 May 1924, 1844 booklet quoted * wife dies: Glengarry Times 29 Jan. 1881; ASC ii, 68 & 69; MacMillan diary * Mary Elizabeth: obit. of her sister, Mrs Macdonald, Standard Freeholder 17 Jan. 1934