(6 July 1802-7 April 1885), physician, political figure. (age at death 85 also found) He is said to have been born in GC, though his father at some period settled on a farm in Stormont County. Parents: John Roy Macdonald and his wife Anna (Nancy) MacGillis, who came to Canada in the emigration of 1786 to GC. He attended the grammar school in Cornwall, where he was a student of the Rev. Hugh Urquhart, and he had further schooling also in Montreal. From McGill, he received his medical degree in 1834, and he obtained the Upper Canada Medical Board qualification in 1835. There followed a medical practice in Cornwall that lasted some 40 years. He was also treasurer of SDG from 1845 or 1846 or 1850 to 1884 or 1885 (dates vary in sources). In addition, he held from 1863 to 1884 the combined position of clerk of the County Court, registrar of the Surrogate Court, and local registrar. He had a successful medical practice, but he probably took these positions for the same practical financial reasons that compelled other well-regarded physicians of the time–much sought out by their patients, but poorly paid by them–to seek added income through side jobs in mortgage and insurance.

     He was the Cornwall representative in the Legislature from 1852 to 1857 (first elected Nov.-Dec. 1851 for the town of Cornwall, re-elected July-Aug. 1854 for a constituency now redefined as Cornwall town and township). Politically, he has been described as a “moderate liberal. “ (Senior 124) In 1847, at the time of the arrival of the Irish Famine victims, many of them seriously ill, he and Dr Darby Bergin were in charge of an emergency hospital set up for these unfortunate newcomers at Pointe Maligne, near Cornwall. Dr McDonald served as a surgeon in the suppression of the 1837 Mackenzie rebellion. He is said eventually to have been a lt.-col. in the militia, but the documentation is uncertain. He was married at Alexandria on 5 Nov. 1844 to Caroline Séguin, (Julia Carolina, Julia Caroline) of Quebec City and Alexandria. (children: at least 5) Teaching at the convent in Alexandria, she is said to have been the first woman to teach the French language in Upper Canada. Her father’s name was L. P. Séguin. Dr McDonald was the brother of Fr Aeneas Macdonald of Montreal and of Fr John Macdonald, the celebrated “Fr John” or “Mhaister Ian” of St. Raphael’s. See also Thomas H. Bennett.

     Dr McDonald had a son called Aeneas, who may or may not have been the man of that name who practised medicine in the Cornwall area c. 1869. Lamentably, there was also an SDG counties treasurer of that name whose extradition from the U. S. for “forgery” was sought in 1888. (For the story of the treasurer, see E. W. Thomson)

Canniff 476, 568 * Pringle 45, 147(?), 211, 245, 257, 315-317 * Harkness: index * Senior: index * Forman * death notice, undated clipping, ASC ii, 77 * Symington 80-81 * marriage: St. Finnan’s CRNI, II, 502; Reid, MN, 134 (from Patriot, Toronto) * Boss 252 * obituary of his son John M., called John Doctor and Johnny Doctor, Cornwall businessman, undertaker, Standard Freeholder 30 Jan. 1935; see also DTL column on John, SFH 7 Jan. 1933, marriage Glengarry News 13 Oct. 1911, and obituary of John’s Alexandria-born widow, SFH 29 Oct. 1942