Archibald McDonald (3 February 1790 – 15 January 1853) was chief trader for the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...

Fort Langley Fort Langley is a village community in Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada. It has a population of approximately 3,400 people. It is the home of Fort Langley National Historic Site, a former fur trade post of the Hudson's Bay Company. ...

Fort Nisqually Fort Nisqually was an important fur trading and farming post of the Hudson's Bay Company in the Puget Sound area, part of the Hudson's Bay Company's Columbia Department. It was located in what is now DuPont, Washington. Today it is a living h ...

and

Fort Colvile The trade center Fort Colvile (also Fort Colville) was built by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) at Kettle Falls on the Columbia River in 1825 and operated in the Columbia fur district of the company. Named for Andrew Colvile,Lewis, S. William. ' ...

and one-time deputy governor of the

Red River Colony The Red River Colony (or Selkirk Settlement), also known as Assiniboia, Assinboia, was a colonization project set up in 1811 by Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, on of land in British North America. This land was granted to Douglas by the Hud ...

Early life

McDonald was born in Leechkentium ( gd, Leac an Tuim),

Glen Coe Glen Coe ( gd, Gleann Comhann ) is a glen of volcanic origins, in the Highlands of Scotland. It lies in the north of the county of Argyll, close to the border with the historic province of Lochaber, within the modern council area of Highland ...

, on the south shore of Loch Leven, in

Appin Appin ( gd, An Apainn) is a coastal district of the Scottish West Highlands bounded to the west by Loch Linnhe, to the south by Loch Creran, to the east by the districts of Benderloch and Lorne, and to the north by Loch Leven. It lies north ...

, then located in the county of

Argyll Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, the last of 13 children born to parents Angus and Mary (née Rankin). His paternal grandfather, Iain (or John) McDonald, had been one of the few male survivors of the

Massacre of Glencoe The Massacre of Glencoe ( gd, Murt Ghlinne Comhann) took place in Glen Coe in the Highlands of Scotland on 13 February 1692. An estimated 30 members and associates of Clan MacDonald of Glencoe were killed by Scottish government forces, alleged ...

The Red River Colony

As a young man, McDonald became friends with Lord Selkirk, and joined the

as a clerk and agent, in part because he could act as an interpreter between the overseers of the colony, who spoke English, and the settlers, who, like him, were native

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

-speakers. He assisted in recruitment of the second group of colonists in Scotland, with the intention of departing for the New World with them in 1812. McDonald was delayed, however, under Lord Selkirk's orders, to receive further training in medicine and related subjects. In June 1813, McDonald left Scotland with a group of emigrants, arriving on the Red River one year later. In the winter of 1814–15, he was made deputy governor under

Miles Macdonell Miles MacDonell ( – 28 June 1828) was the first governor of the Red River Colony (or, Assiniboia), a 19th-century Scottish settlement located in present-day Manitoba and North Dakota. Miles Macdonell Collegiate, opened in 1952, in Winnipeg, ...

. In 1820, he joined the HBC, and after the merger with the

North West Company The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what is present-day Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario. With great weal ...

in 1821, was sent out to the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

Hudson's Bay Company

In 1828, he and Governor George Simpson traveled together from

York Factory York Factory was a settlement and Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) factory (trading post) located on the southwestern shore of Hudson Bay in northeastern Manitoba, Canada, at the mouth of the Hayes River, approximately south-southeast of Churchill. Yo ...

to the Columbia. In the same year, he was promoted to chief trader and put in charge of

, near the modern city of

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. He held that post until 1833, when he was reassigned to

. In 1835, he was assigned to

, where he was chief trader from 1833 to 1841, and chief factor until 1844. In 1848, he retired to St. Andrew's East,

Canada East Canada East (french: links=no, Canada-Est) was the northeastern portion of the United Province of Canada. Lord Durham's Report investigating the causes of the Upper and Lower Canada Rebellions recommended merging those two colonies. The new ...

, on a homestead he named "Glencoe House" after his birthplace. It was here that he died in 1853.

Personal life

In 1823, Archibald married Princess Raven (also known as Princess Sunday), daughter of Chief Comcomly of the Chinook Confederacy, but she died in 1824 giving birth to their son, Ranald. In 1825, Archibald married Jane Klyne, a daughter of

Michel Klyne Michel Klyne (2 July 1781 – 1868) was an employee of the North West Company and later the Hudson's Bay Company, serving as postmaster at Jasper House in the Rocky Mountains. Early life Klyne was born in the Province of Quebec in 1781, son ...

French Canadian French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fren ...

postmaster at

Jasper House Jasper House National Historic Site, in Jasper National Park, Alberta, is the site of a trading post on the Athabasca River that functioned in two different locations from 1813 to 1884 as a major staging and supply post for travel through the Can ...

, and Suzanne Lafrance, of a prominent

Métis The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United States. They have a shared history and culture which derives ...

family. They had thirteen children, and remained together until Archibald's death. Watson, Bruce McIntyre. ''Lives Lived West of the Divide: A Biographical Dictionary of Fur Traders Working West of the Rockies, 1793-1858.'' Kelowna, B.C.: Centre for Social, Spatial and Economic Justice of the University of British Columbia. 2010, p. 1061. .

References

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''

''Manitoba Government Archives''

The Washington Historical Quarterly, Vol. 9 No. 2: ''Archibald McDonald: Biography and Genealogy'', by William S. Lewis
{{DEFAULTSORT:McDonald, Archibald Archibald McDonald Canadian fur traders Hudson's Bay Company people Scottish emigrants to pre-Confederation Manitoba 1790 births 1853 deaths Scottish emigrants to pre-Confederation Quebec