(20 Dec. 1776-6 Nov. 1849), clergyman. Born in the neighbourhood of Campbelltown (now called Ardersier), Invernessshire, Scotland. Parents: William McKillican and his wife, whose surname was Ross. He was trained as a weaver, then attended 1799-1800 a Congregationalist seminary the Haldane brothers were financing in Glasgow. In 1802 he was ordained as a Congregationalist clergyman. He emigrated to Canada in 1816, and after a period in Lachine and Cornwall, settled at Breadalbane, Glengarry County.

     A tireless, devoted pioneer minister, he supported himself for many years primarily as a farmer at Breadalbane, while conducting religious services over a wide area. He preached to Congregationalists and other listeners at St. Andrew’s (Que.), Hawkesbury and L’Orignal along the Ottawa River, and at Martintown and at Indian Lands– Indian Lands being the name for the area of the present day Maxville and St. Elmo–and at Vankleek Hill and at his home at Breadalbane. He travelled also at times farther afield into Ontario and Quebec. When a clergyman was secured to take over the St. Andrew’s and L’Orignal congregations, William McKillican had greater opportunity to concentrate on his Martintown and Indian Lands congregations. The celebrated log Congregationalist church at St. Elmo, in the 19th Concession of Indian Lands, a revered pioneer structure, was built about 1837 during his pastorate. “Although he was for many years the faithful and self-sacrificing pastor of the Indian Lands Congregational Church, the largest of his stations and some twenty miles distant [from his Breadalbane home], he never lived there.” (MacMillan, 205) In 1863 a newspaper correspondent, describing a recent trip through GC, wrote “Three or four miles from Notfield is a settlement, once the scene of the Gospel labors of the Rev. Wm. McKillican, who, thirty or forty years ago, was abundant in labors for Christ in this part of Upper Canada. The building in which he preached still stands, but it is cast in the shade by a handsome and stately brick church in course of erection for the use of the Canada Presbyterian congregation, of which the Rev. Mr. Gordon is pastor.” (Witness 20 Aug. 1863 also stated as 22 Aug.) He preached in both English and Gaelic. Of the temperance movement, later to be so important in 19th-century Canada, he was an early advocate.

     He got the patent for Lot 6, 9th Concession of Lochiel Township, in the Breadalbane area, on 18 June 1827 (for 200 acres), and he got the patent for the adjoining Lot 5 (another 200 acres) on 28 Feb. 1843. When a difficulty arose about his claim to the land on which he first settled at Breadalbane (probably Lot 5), he is said to have walked to Toronto to negotiate with the officials about the matter.

     He was married, perhaps on 16 Jan. 1807, to Christian or Christina McNaughtan, the daughter of a merchant of Killin, Scotland. His death took place at his home at Breadalbane. (nine children) He and his wife, who survived him to die in 1858, are buried in the Breadalbane Cemetery. All the other McKillicans who have biographies in the present dictionary were their descendants (among these are their sons Daniel and Rev. John McKillican). See the entry for C. G. McKillican, this dictionary, for the family relationships. There is a fine, detailed life of the Rev. William McKillican and most interesting individual-by-individual biographies of his descendants in R. G. W. Mackilligin’s The Followers of Saint Fillan**. Mackilligin (53, also 7, 66) describes “virtually all” the information on this branch of the McKillican family as being supplied by C. Herbert McKillican.

Mackilligin 53-70 (with portrait) * MacMillan, Kirk: index (with portrait) * “The Late Mr. William M’Killican,” The Scottish Congregational Magazine, New Series, 10 (March 1850), pp. 65-74 * letter by J. T. B., dated 2 May 1843, describing William McKillican’s Indian Lands church services and the support given to him by clergymen of other denominations, from The Harbinger (undated photocopy) * recalled by his son William, Lochiel centennial article, Witness 4 Sept. 1894 (with line portraits of Rev. William and of his sons William and Rev. John) * anon. articles on him and the St. Elmo Church, Cornwall Freeholder 24 May & 26 July 1923 * F. D. Sinclair, “Early Days in Glengarry,” The Canadian Congregationalist, 19 Sept. 1923 (includes an anecdote about shipboard conditions during McKillican’s emigration to Canada) * Whyte, i, 262, ii, 224