(1744?-1809?), U E Loyalist. (spelling also McCay) He fought as a youthful soldier in the British Army at Quebec in 1759, returned to North America in 1773, had a land grant in the Mohawk Valley of New York colony, served in the King's Royal Regiment of New York in the American Revolution, and was one of the Loyalist settlers of Charlottenburgh Township, GC. He was married to Elspeth (Elspy) Kennedy. It is not clear whether he was the same person as the Donald McKay, recorded on his gravestone to have died 12 Feb. 1809, aged 71, who is buried in St. Andrew’s cemetery, Williamstown. The age and date on the gravestone may have been somebody’s guess, rather than statements of known fact, but are in any case inconsistent with the evidence that the King's Royal Regiment of New York soldier was born in 1744. Donald McKay and Elspeth Kennedy were the parents of the fur traders Alexander McKay and William McKay, and were the grandparents of Thomas McKay. They were the parents also of Catherine McKay, who married Simon Fraser of Ste. Anne’s, Island of Montreal (see the entry for Simon Fraser: NWC Name) and of Christy McKay, who married Peter McArthur of Martintown. The historian W. S. Wallace thought that Donald McKay was the father of the fur trader Donald McKay. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography does not support Wallace in this claim, but suggests that the fur trader Donald McKay may have been the brother of another fur trader, John McKay.

     Donald McKay the Loyalist was the ancestor of Robert MacKay of Maxville,

Sketch of Donald’s life at beginning of lives in Dictionary of Canadian Biography of his sons Alexander, Vol. V, and William, Vol. VI * UE List 226 * Second Report 1079 * Reid 204 * LLC 675? * Cruikshank King's Royal Regiment of New York 237 (gives date of birth as 1744; includes wife) * Fraser, Gravestones, I, 123 * Pringle 387, 405 (McNiff map of 1786), 413 * Archie & Lois McDonald, I Am Mackintosh: Gilbert McIntosh 1746-1831: His Known Descendants and Related Families (1986, 1987) 134