Bishop Alexander Macdonell (born 17 July 1762, Glen Urquhart, Inchlaggan, Scotland - died 14 January 1840) was the first Roman Catholic bishop of Kingston, Upper Canada.
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Born as Alexander Mcdonell, he would also be known as Alexander Macdonell. . His early education was at Bourblach, Loch Morar. He attended the Scots Colleges at Paris and Valladolid. He was ordained a priest on 16 February 1787 at Valladolid. After that his life was spent in Lochaber and Canada.
After the eviction of his kinsmen, Father Macdonell led them to Glasgow and later formed them into the The Glengarry Fencibles regiment, of which he served as chaplain, the first Catholic chaplain in the British Army since the Reformation. When the regiment was disbanded, Rev. Macdonell appealed to the government to grant its members a tract of land in Canada, and, in 1804, 160,000 acres (650 km²) were provided in what is now Glengarry county, Canada.
In 1812 he raised another regiment, the Glengarry Light Infantry Fencibles which came to the defence of Upper Canada in the War of 1812. In 1819 he was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Upper Canada, which in 1826 was erected into a bishopric. In 1826, he was appointed to the legislative council.
He founded churches and schools and organised the settlement. In 1846 he established Regiopolis College, which offered academic and theological training to Roman Catholic youth. The original building has been part of the Hotel Dieu Hospital (Kingston) on Sydenham Street, Kingston, Ontario since 1892. [1]
Bishop Macdonell died from pneumonia in Dumfries, Scotland on 14 January 1840, aged 77.
The town of Alexandria in North Glengarry, Ontario is named after him.[2]
In 1962, a Catholic secondary school in Guelph, Ontario, Canada was renamed to Bishop Macdonell Catholic High School in his honour. A street, Macdonell Street, at the foot of Church of Our Lady Immaculate, is also named in his honour.
Macdonell Street in Kingston, Ontario is named after him.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.