(1765?1769?-4 March 1850), pioneer. (Capt. Alexander MacLeod, Capt. Alexander, Alexander MacLeod of Myle or Maoile) Born in Scotland. His father was Kenneth MacLeod. In 1793, with his father Kenneth and a second cousin Norman MacLeod (Big Norman), he arranged the emigration from Scotland to Canada of some 150 Highlanders (MacLeods, MacGillivrays, and others). The emigrants originally set sail from Culreagh, Glenelg, Scotland, in June 1793, but twice had to return to Scotland because of storm damage to the ship, and after a winter spent in Prince Edward Island, finally reached GC about a year after they set out. Alexander MacLeod settled on Lot 18, in the 6th Concession of Lochiel Township. It was on this lot that the MacLeod Cairn commemorating the 1793-1794 emigration was placed in 1965, on the farm of Roderick (Roddie) D. K. MacLeod (1901-1977), who was in the 5th generation of descent from the pioneer Alexander MacLeod.

     Alexander MacLeod was one of the founders of St. Columba Presbyterian Church, Kirk Hill, and he was a church elder for 29 years. He was a militia captain in the GC militia in the War of 1812. Almost certainly, it was from this connection that he received the title by which he is so commonly remembered, Capt. Alexander. It has been stated, though the claim seems doubtful, that Alexander was also a captain in the British Army before his emigration to North America. On 31 Dec. 1837 he petitioned, though unsuccessfully, for a further grant of land as the leader of an emigration group, remarking, in his petition, that others had received 1,000 acres for similar services.

     He was twice married. There is a tradition that his first wife, who died about 1793, possibly on the boat to Canada, was a sister of Fr Alexander Macdonell, the future bishop of Upper Canada. (three children) He was married, secondly, on 13 Dec. 1796 to Margaret Cameron of Williamstown, the daughter of a U E Loyalist. (eleven children) In his last years, Alexander MacLeod was partly or wholly blind. He has a truly vast number of descendants. His role as one of the founders of GC became better known than before by the publication a few decades ago of a work in which he and his fellow emigrants of 1793-1794 feature prominently, the well-known and much-consulted “MacLeod book,” as it is sometimes called. First issued as The MacLeods of Glengarry: the Genealogy of a Clan (1972), it reappeared under the same title in a revised edition, ed. Madeleine McCrimmon (1993), the two editions being cited in the notes to the present dictionary as MacLeods, i and MacLeods, ii, respectively. He was the father of Alexander MacLeod the surveyor.

MacLeods, ii, 26-29, 45 ff. &c. , with text of his petition of 1837 (which has autobiog. detail) 38 ff * Donald MacKinnon and Alick Morrison, The Macleods–The Genealogy of a Clan: Section Three: Macleod Cadet Families (1971?) 159 ff * McLean: index * MacMillan, Kirk: index * Bishop Macdonell: MacLean 124; MacLeods, i, 66, but not revised edn. * second wife (Peggy Cameron): MacLeods, i, 76-79 * cairn unveiled, Glengarry News 5 Aug. 1965 * J. and M. Ladell, Inheritance: Ontario’s Century Farms (1979) 111-114 (illustr.) *obituaries of Roderick D. K. MacLeod and his wife Nora B. McRae, Glengarry News 28 Sept. 1977, 28 Aug. 1985