(3 Feb. 1790-15 Jan. 1853), fur trader. Born in Glencoe, Scotland. He came to Canada as one of the managers of Lord Selkirk’s Red River settlement in Manitoba, and was associated there in administration as a subordinate to Miles Macdonell. Later, in 1820, Archibald McDonald joined the HBC, and he served the company over many years in places which included the U. S. Northwest and British Columbia. Leaving the fur trade in 1844, with his wife he settled in 1848 on a farm at St. Andrew’s, Que., next to the Ottawa River and near GC. He died at St. Andrew’s, at his home called Glencoe Cottage. He was neither a Glengarrian nor a GC resident, but he has some relevance to the GC story through his personal associations and his place among the numerous fur traders who settled in and near GC. He was married twice, first to Princess Raven (Sunday), whose father was a Chinook chief, and, secondly, after her death in 1824, to Jane Klyne, who was of mixed blood.

     Ranald Macdonald (1824-1894), his son by his first marriage, was an early European visitor to the closed country of Japan, and is said to have been the first English teacher in Japan. Afterwards, he lived for about 5 years at St. Andrew’s, Que., in the late 1850s, before settling in British Columbia. He died in Washington State.

     Allan Macdonald (1832-1901), Archibald’s son by the second marriage, helped to operate the family farm at St. Andrew’s, and inherited it on his father’s death. Later, he was one of the shareholders in the famous Cariboo gold mine which enriched John A. (“Cariboo”) Cameron. Afterwards, he was a businessman in Manitoba and the Northwest, serving also as a soldier and Indian agent. He died in Winnipeg.

     Archibald and his son Ranald were both authors, and as such helped tell the story of their own remarkable lives. They appear also as characters in a work of fictionalized history, Eva Emery Dye’s McDonald of Oregon: a Tale of Two Shores (1906), which contains a number of names associated with GC history. Ranald also appears in a recent novel, Peter Oliva’s The City of Yes (1999).

     Another fur trader, this one of the NWC, was also associated with the Quebec St. Andrew’s. John McDonald, called “McDonald le Grand,” born in Scotland 1782, retired from the fur trade in 1834 and died 1 Dec. of that year at St. Andrew’s. It is not known if he had GC connections. Two other John Macdonalds from the NWC are given separate entries in the present dictionary.

Lives of Archibald by Jean Murray Cole, of Ranald by David H. Wallace, and of Allan by Sarah A. Carter, in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Vols. VIII, XII, XIII resp. * Jean Murray Cole, Exile in the Wilderness: the Biography of Chief Factor Archibald McDonald (1979) * Thomas 495-496 * John McDonald le Grand: Wallace 464