(30 Nov. 1853-10 Nov. 1920), clergyman, second bishop of Alexandria. (Bishop Macdonell; name often found with title of His Lordship, as used for bishops in his time; W. A. Macdonell; William A. Macdonell) Born east of Grants Corners in the 4th Concession of Indian Lands, Charlottenburgh Township, GC. Parents: Donald Archibald Macdonell and his wife Elizabeth Corbet. He attended public school locally, and St. Joseph’s College, Ottawa (which later became the University of Ottawa), and the Collège de Sainte-Thérèse (for his classical studies and French language), and the Grand Seminary, Montreal. At St. Raphael’s Church, 14 Sept. 1881, he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Cleary of Kingston, the bishop of the diocese. This was nine years before the diocese of Alexandria was formed, and Fr Macdonell was about to begin a quarter-century in the ranks of the parish clergy. He served as curate to Fr C. H. Gauthier (the future archbishop) at Williamstown, then was pastor at Gananoque to 1885, at Glen Nevis 1885-1890, and at St. Andrew’s 1890-1906. At St. Finnan’s Cathedral on 24 June 1906, he was consecrated bishop of Alexandria, succeeding Fr Alexander Macdonell, who had died in 1905. His period as bishop was marked by the growth of parishes, the building of new churches and improvements in existing ones.

     He was a vigorous supporter of the temperance cause, actively intervening in the campaign to use the “local option” system to prohibit the local sale of alcoholic beverages. The Glengarry News 17 April 1908, reporting a sermon he delivered in St. Finnan’s against intemperance, said, “Reviewing the temperance crusade which had been made throughout the diocese of Alexandria, His Lordship pointed out that in the country districts there was a marked change for the better, but that such was not the case in the towns and villages. The cause of this, he attributed to the greater facility for procuring liquor in towns owing to the greater number of drinking places.”

     He died at the Hotel Dieu Hospital, Cornwall. He is buried at St. Finnan’s cemetery, Alexandria. A monument to him was a placed in St. Finnan’s cemetery in 1926. (Glengarry News 14 May & 11 June 1926) Clarence Ostrom reports that before he died his grave was dug, and that an Alexandria undertaker who wanted the commission to bury him had bought a casket and was showing it to the public.

     Macdonell was a gentle, unassuming, modest man, who was reluctant to accept the position as bishop of Alexandria. He was somewhat withdrawn by nature, of a scholarly disposition, but was a noted preacher. It was stated at the time of his death that “His love of study was ever a ruling passion.” He was devoted to the study of the Scriptures and of theology, and deeply interested in history. Modern literature he distrusted, believing it to be often shallow. He never travelled much, but is mentioned as having visited Europe in the company of Fr D. C. McRae. (See biog. of Hector C. McRae) At the end of his life, he was an active member of the committee to establish a GC war memorial. He is reported as saying, in an address shortly after the fighting began in 1914, that the “present war might be traced largely to irreligion.” The cult of brotherhood, a secular cult, had, he added, failed. (Cornwall Standard 15 Oct. 1914)

     He was succeeded by the Anglo-French Bishop Couturier. Macdonell had avoided open disputes with his French-Canadian flock, but Choquette believes that he was reluctant to sponsor French-Canadian candidates to train for the clergy. In 1910 he laid the cornerstone of the Sacred Heart Church in Alexandria. (GN 15 April 1910)

     He was the second and last bishop of the diocese to be a native son of the diocese, and second and last to have been of Scottish descent. Nor, after his time, did any bishop of the diocese intervene on behalf of the temperance cause (admittedly, by the 1920s, a dying cause).

     He was a cousin of Mgr Corbet. In 1905, some of the clergy of the diocese had supported Macdonell for the role of the next bishop and others had supported Corbet. Bishop Macdonell’s brother, Alexander John Macdonell (27 Feb. 1863-29 May 1929), was a businessman at Revelstoke, B. C., with interests in timber, hotel-keeping and mining.

Glengarry News 12 & 19 Nov. 1920, CF & Cornwall Standard 11 & 18 Nov. 1920; the GN published illustrated supplements (29 June 1906, 19 Nov. 1920) to mark his consecration and death * Sinnsearachd 1, 110-113 * Macdonald, St. Finnan’s (with portrait) * Robert Choquette, Language and Religion: a History of English-French Conflict in Ontario (1975) 225 * Robert Choquette, De la controverse à la concorde: L’Église d’Alexandria-Cornwall (1990): index * Morgan (1912) 761 * Harkness 349, 351 (with portrait) * Lochinvar to Skye 95 (ancestor) * MacGillivray & Ross: index, for temperance * Ostrom 270 * his sermons on temperance, local option, CS 4 & 11 Oct. 1907, GN 17 April 1908, 9 Dec. 1910, 29 Dec. 1913 * appeals for aid to war-torn Poland, CS 25 Nov. 1915 * Alexander John Macdonell: Parker (1912) 338 (with portrait); obituary CS 20 June 1929