Alexander MacDonell

Mgr Alexander MacDonell (1762-1840) was the first bishop of Kingston.

Born with Glen-Urguhart, on the edges of the Lake Born, in Scotland, on July 17th, 1762, it was ordered priest on February 16th, 1787. It came to Canada in 1803, and was immediately employed with the missions of Saint-Raphaël of High-Canada. In 1807, the bishop of Quebec sent letters of general vicar to him, and, on January 12th, 1819, it was named by Pie VII, bishop of Rhésine, in Mésopotamie, suffragan and auxiliary of the bishop of Quebec for the province of High-Canada.

It was devoted in the church of the Ursulines of Quebec on December 31st, 1820. High-Canada having been set up in évêché by the pope Leon XII, on February 14th, 1826, Mgr McDonell was equipped with this seat, under the title of bishop of Kingston. Mgr Thomas Weld had been appointed its coadjutor under the title of bishop of Amycles In partibus; but, this prelate having been promoted with the cardinalat, the pope Gregoire XVI named Mgr Remi Gaulin coadjutor of Kingston.

Mgr McDonell died in Drumfries, the January 14th 1840, old of 78 years and half. Its remainders, deposited in Edinburgh in the vault of Holy-Marguerite, were transported in the Cathédrale of Kingston on September 26th, 1861.

Sources

general Repertory of the Canadian clergy, by chronological order since the foundation of the colony until our days, by Mgr Cyprien Tanguay, Montreal, Eusèbe Senécal & wire, printers and publishers, 1893.

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