(c. 1770-June 1811), fur trader. (also spelling McKay) Parents: Donald McKay and his wife Elspeth Kennedy, of the U E Loyalist Charlottenburgh Township family. Though hard evidence is lacking, we may guess on the grounds of the dates involved that young Alexander lived for a few years in GC, and at the very least, he must have visited the pioneer family home there. Alexander was in the employ of the NWC by 1791 (partner 1800). He accompanied Sir Alexander Mackenzie on his celebrated journey to the Pacific, 1793, as Mackenzie’s second-in-command. Retired from the NWC 1808, in 1810 he became a partner in J. J. Astor’s Pacific Fur Company. MacKay sailed that year in the Tonquin from New York. On the coast of Vancouver Island he was killed by Indians in the massacre which ended the voyage of the Tonquin. He was the father of Thomas McKay, and brother of William McKay, and just possibly a brother of the fur traders Donald McKay and John McKay.

His life by Jean Morrison in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Vol. V; see also DCB Vol. V p. 540 * his life in Wallace and MDict * Bibliography of Glengarry: index, for Alexander and Thomas MacKay, and Tonquin