Allan MacNab
Encyclopedia
Sir Allan Napier MacNab, 1st Baronet (19 February 1798 – 8 August 1862) was a Canadian political leader and Premier of the Province of Canada
before Canadian Confederation (1854–1856).
, Ontario, Canada, to Allan MacNab and Anne, daughter of Capt. Peter William Napier, R.N., the commissioner of the port and harbour of Quebec. When he was a year old, McNab was baptized in the Anglican church in St. Mark's Parish of Newark. His father was a lieutenant in the 71st Regiment
and the Queen's Rangers
under Lt-Col. John Graves Simcoe
. After the Queen’s Rangers were disbanded the family moved around the country in search of work and eventually settled in York (Toronto) where MacNab was educated at the Home District Grammar School.
As a fourteen year old boy he fought in the War of 1812
. He probably served at York and also certainly as the point man in the Canadian forlorn hope that headed the Anglo-Canadian assault on Fort Niagara. The 20 local men eliminated two American pickets of 20 men each with the bayonet before taking part in the final assault (Captain Kerby of the Incorporated Militia Battalion was reportedly the first man into the fort).
In 1826 MacNab moved from York (Toronto) to Hamilton, Ontario
where he established a successful law office, though it was chiefly through land speculation that he made his fortune. There was no Anglican church in Hamilton in those early days, so MacNab attended a Presbyterian church until Christ Church was established in 1835. In 1830 he was elected to represent the city in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada
, a position he held for some 27 years.
As a member of the legislature, MacNab opposed the reform movement in Upper Canada led by William Lyon Mackenzie
. When Mackenzie led the Upper Canada Rebellion
in 1837, MacNab was part of the British militia that moved against Mackenzie at Montgomery's Tavern
in Toronto on 7 December, dispersing Mackenzie's rebels in less than an hour. On 29 December, MacNab and Captain Andrew Drew of the Royal Navy commanding a party of militia, acting on information and guidance from Alexander McLeod
, attacked Mackenzie's supply ship at Navy Island. The sinking of the SS Caroline became known as the Caroline affair
.
MacNab then led a militia of his own against the rebels marching towards Toronto from London
, led by Charles Duncombe. Duncombe's men also dispersed when they learned MacNab was waiting for them. In 1838 he was knighted for his zeal in suppressing the rebellion. He served in the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
, leading the province from 1854 to 1856. He was elected to the Legislative Council
in 1860 representing Western division and served until his death.
A successful entrepreneur as well as politician, MacNab, with Glasgow merchant Peter Buchanan, was responsible for the construction of the Great Western Railway (Ontario)
.
MacNab was married twice, first to Elizabeth Brooke, who died 5 November 1826, possibly of complications following childbirth. Together they had two children. His second marriage was to Mary Stuart, who died 8 May 1846. Mary was a Catholic
, and the couple's two daughters, named Sophia Mary and Minnie, were raised as Catholics.
McNab died on 8 Aug 1862 at his home, Dundurn Castle
, in Hamilton. His deathbed conversion
to Catholicism caused a furor in the press in the following days. The Toronto Globe
and the Hamilton Spectator expressed strong doubts about the conversion, and the Anglican rector of Christ Church declared that MacNab died a Protestant. MacNab's Catholic baptism is recorded at St. Mary's Cathedral in Hamilton, at the hands of John Farrell, Bishop of Hamilton, on 7 August 1862.
When the 12th Chief of Clan Macnab died, he bequeathed all his heirlooms to Sir Allan MacNab, Bart., Prime Minister of the Province of Canada, whom he considered the next Chief. When Sir Allan’s son was killed in a shooting accident in the Dominion, the chieftain ship of Clan Macnab passed to the Macnabs of Arthurstone.
Right Honourable William Coutts Keppel, Viscount Bury, afterwards William Keppel, 7th Earl of Albemarle
, who died 1894. Sophia was the mother of Arnold Allan Cecil Keppel, 8th Earl of Albemarle (born in London. England, 1 June 1858), and of eight other children. One of her sons, Major the Honourable Derek W. G. Keppel, C.M.G., M.V.O., served an Equerry to the Prince of Wales after 1893, and was in Canada with His Royal Highness, in 1901. Residence: 53 Lowndes Square, London, S. W., England.
MacNab Street
and Sir Allan MacNab Secondary School in Hamilton, Ontario
were both named after him.
Dundurn Castle
, his stately Italianate style
home in Hamilton, is now open to the public.
Joint Premiers of the Province of Canada
Joint Premiers of the Province of Canada were the leaders of the Province of Canada, from the 1841 unification of Upper Canada and Lower Canada until Confederation in 1867....
before Canadian Confederation (1854–1856).
Biography
Allan Napier MacNab was born in NiagaraNiagara-on-the-Lake
Niagara-on-the-Lake is a Canadian town located in Southern Ontario where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario in the Niagara Region of the southern part of the province of Ontario. It is located across the Niagara river from Youngstown, New York, USA...
, Ontario, Canada, to Allan MacNab and Anne, daughter of Capt. Peter William Napier, R.N., the commissioner of the port and harbour of Quebec. When he was a year old, McNab was baptized in the Anglican church in St. Mark's Parish of Newark. His father was a lieutenant in the 71st Regiment
Highland Light Infantry
The Highland Light Infantry was a regiment of the British Army from 1881 to 1959. In 1923 the regimental title was expanded to the Highland Light Infantry ...
and the Queen's Rangers
Queen's Rangers
The Queen's Rangers was a military unit who fought on the Loyalist side during the American War of Independence. After the war they moved to Nova Scotia and disbanded, but were reformed again in Upper Canada before disbanding again, in 1802, a decade prior to the War of 1812.-French and Indian...
under Lt-Col. John Graves Simcoe
John Graves Simcoe
John Graves Simcoe was a British army officer and the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada from 1791–1796. Then frontier, this was modern-day southern Ontario and the watersheds of Georgian Bay and Lake Superior...
. After the Queen’s Rangers were disbanded the family moved around the country in search of work and eventually settled in York (Toronto) where MacNab was educated at the Home District Grammar School.
As a fourteen year old boy he fought in the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
. He probably served at York and also certainly as the point man in the Canadian forlorn hope that headed the Anglo-Canadian assault on Fort Niagara. The 20 local men eliminated two American pickets of 20 men each with the bayonet before taking part in the final assault (Captain Kerby of the Incorporated Militia Battalion was reportedly the first man into the fort).
In 1826 MacNab moved from York (Toronto) to Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
where he established a successful law office, though it was chiefly through land speculation that he made his fortune. There was no Anglican church in Hamilton in those early days, so MacNab attended a Presbyterian church until Christ Church was established in 1835. In 1830 he was elected to represent the city in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada
Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada
The Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada was created by the Constitutional Act of 1791. It was the elected legislature for the province of Upper Canada and functioned as the province's lower house in the Parliament of Upper Canada...
, a position he held for some 27 years.
As a member of the legislature, MacNab opposed the reform movement in Upper Canada led by William Lyon Mackenzie
William Lyon Mackenzie
William Lyon Mackenzie was a Scottish born American and Canadian journalist, politician, and rebellion leader. He served as the first mayor of Toronto, Upper Canada and was an important leader during the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion.-Background and early years in Scotland, 1795–1820:Mackenzie was...
. When Mackenzie led the Upper Canada Rebellion
Upper Canada Rebellion
The Upper Canada Rebellion was, along with the Lower Canada Rebellion in Lower Canada, a rebellion against the British colonial government in 1837 and 1838. Collectively they are also known as the Rebellions of 1837.-Issues:...
in 1837, MacNab was part of the British militia that moved against Mackenzie at Montgomery's Tavern
Confrontation at Montgomery's Tavern
The Battle of Montgomery's Tavern was an incident in the Upper Canada Rebellion. The abortive revolutionary insurrection inspired by William Lyon Mackenzie was crushed by British authorities and Canadian volunteer units near a tavern on Yonge Street, Toronto.The site of Montgomery's Tavern was...
in Toronto on 7 December, dispersing Mackenzie's rebels in less than an hour. On 29 December, MacNab and Captain Andrew Drew of the Royal Navy commanding a party of militia, acting on information and guidance from Alexander McLeod
Alexander McLeod
Alexander McLeod was a Scottish-Canadian who served as sheriff in Niagara, Ontario. After the Upper Canada Rebellion, he boasted that he had partaken in the 1837 Caroline Affair, the sinking of an American steamboat that had been supplying William Lyon Mackenzie's rebels with arms...
, attacked Mackenzie's supply ship at Navy Island. The sinking of the SS Caroline became known as the Caroline affair
Caroline affair
The Caroline affair was a series of events beginning in 1837 that strained relations between the United States and Britain....
.
MacNab then led a militia of his own against the rebels marching towards Toronto from London
London, Ontario
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...
, led by Charles Duncombe. Duncombe's men also dispersed when they learned MacNab was waiting for them. In 1838 he was knighted for his zeal in suppressing the rebellion. He served in the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
The Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada was the lower house of the legislature for the Province of Canada, which consisted of the former provinces of Lower Canada, then known as Canada East and later the province of Quebec, and Upper Canada, then known as Canada West and later the...
, leading the province from 1854 to 1856. He was elected to the Legislative Council
Legislative Council of the Province of Canada
The Legislative Council of the Province of Canada was the upper house for the Province of Canada, which consisted of the former provinces of Lower Canada, then known as Canada East and later the province of Quebec, and Upper Canada, then known as Canada West and later the province of Ontario...
in 1860 representing Western division and served until his death.
A successful entrepreneur as well as politician, MacNab, with Glasgow merchant Peter Buchanan, was responsible for the construction of the Great Western Railway (Ontario)
Great Western Railway (Ontario)
The Great Western Railway was a historic Canadian railway that operated in Canada West and later the province of Ontario, following Confederation...
.
MacNab was married twice, first to Elizabeth Brooke, who died 5 November 1826, possibly of complications following childbirth. Together they had two children. His second marriage was to Mary Stuart, who died 8 May 1846. Mary was a Catholic
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
, and the couple's two daughters, named Sophia Mary and Minnie, were raised as Catholics.
McNab died on 8 Aug 1862 at his home, Dundurn Castle
Dundurn Castle
Dundurn Castle is a historic neoclassical mansion on York Boulevard in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The house took three years and $175,000.00 to build, and was completed in 1835....
, in Hamilton. His deathbed conversion
Deathbed conversion
A deathbed conversion is the adoption of a particular religious faith shortly before dying. Making a conversion on one's deathbed may reflect an immediate change of belief, a desire to formalize longer-term beliefs, a desire to complete a process of conversion already underway, or a subconscious...
to Catholicism caused a furor in the press in the following days. The Toronto Globe
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
and the Hamilton Spectator expressed strong doubts about the conversion, and the Anglican rector of Christ Church declared that MacNab died a Protestant. MacNab's Catholic baptism is recorded at St. Mary's Cathedral in Hamilton, at the hands of John Farrell, Bishop of Hamilton, on 7 August 1862.
When the 12th Chief of Clan Macnab died, he bequeathed all his heirlooms to Sir Allan MacNab, Bart., Prime Minister of the Province of Canada, whom he considered the next Chief. When Sir Allan’s son was killed in a shooting accident in the Dominion, the chieftain ship of Clan Macnab passed to the Macnabs of Arthurstone.
Family
Allan MacNab married his second wife, Mary, daughter of Mr. Sheriff Stuart, of the Johnstown District, Ontario. The couple's eldest daughter Sophia, Countess of Albemarle was born at Hamilton, Ont. Sophia married, at Dundurn Castle, Hamilton, 15 November 1855, theRight Honourable William Coutts Keppel, Viscount Bury, afterwards William Keppel, 7th Earl of Albemarle
William Keppel, 7th Earl of Albemarle
William Coutts Keppel, 7th Earl of Albemarle KCMG, PC , styled Viscount Bury between 1851 and 1891, was a British soldier and politician. He served in the British Army before entering parliament in 1857...
, who died 1894. Sophia was the mother of Arnold Allan Cecil Keppel, 8th Earl of Albemarle (born in London. England, 1 June 1858), and of eight other children. One of her sons, Major the Honourable Derek W. G. Keppel, C.M.G., M.V.O., served an Equerry to the Prince of Wales after 1893, and was in Canada with His Royal Highness, in 1901. Residence: 53 Lowndes Square, London, S. W., England.
Legacies
Sir Allan is a direct ancestor of HRH The Duchess of Cornwall.MacNab Street
MacNab Street (Hamilton, Ontario)
MacNab Street, is a Lower City collector road in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It starts in the Durand neighbourhood on Markland Street, as a one-way street going north to Bold Street, where it becomes two-way for one block until Hurst Place where it's cut off by a wall for the Hunter Street railway...
and Sir Allan MacNab Secondary School in Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
were both named after him.
Dundurn Castle
Dundurn Castle
Dundurn Castle is a historic neoclassical mansion on York Boulevard in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The house took three years and $175,000.00 to build, and was completed in 1835....
, his stately Italianate style
Italianate architecture
The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...
home in Hamilton, is now open to the public.