Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/142

118 McGILL, John, Canadian statesman, b. in Auchland, Wigtonshire, Scotland, in March, 1752 ; d. in Toronto, 31 Dec, 1884. After receiving his preparatory education, he was apprenticed to a merchant at Ayr. In 1773 he emigrated to Virginia, adhered to the royal cause in the Revolution, and in 1777 was a lieutenant in the Loyal Virginians. In 1782 he was a captain in the Queen's rangers, and in 1783, at the close of the war, went to St. John, New Brunswick, where he remained seven years. In the winter of 1792 Mr. McGill removed to Upper Canada, where he became a member of the executive council in 1796, and in 1797 of the legislative council, in which body he remained till his death. He was also inspector-general of accounts, to which office he was appointed in 1801. — His nephew. Peter, Canadian merchant, b. in Cree Bridge, Wigtonshire, Scotland, in August, 1789 ; d. in Montreal, 28 Sept., 1860, was named McCutcheon, but he afterward changed that surname to McG-ill at the request of his uncle, whose heir he became. Peter emigrated to Canada in 1809, and, settling in Montreal, became a merchant. From June, 1834, till June, 1860, he was president of the Bank of Montreal. He became a legislative councillor in 1841, was also for a time an executive councillor, and in 1847 was appointed speaker of the legislative council, which office he held till his resignation in the following year. Mr. McGill was the first chairman of the St. Lawrence and Champlain railroad company, the first that was established in Canada, from "its beginning in 1834 until the road was completed in 1838. He was mayor of Montreal from 1840 till 1842, a governor of the University of McGill college, governor of Montreal general hospital, and president of various associations. He was noted for his liberality, and probably no other citizen of Montreal did so much to advance its interests.

McGILL, John, R. C. bishop, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 4 Nov., 1809 ; d. in Richmond. Va., 14 Jan., 1872. His parents, who had come from Ireland when they were children, settled in Philadelphia before their marriage, but removed to Bardstown, Ky., in 1818. John was graduated at the College of St. Joseph in 1828, studied law, and practised with success, but afterward abandoned his profession and entered the seminary of Bardstown as a candidate for the priesthood. Here he spent two years, and was then sent to St. Mary's, Baltimore, for the completion of his theological studies. He returned to Bardstown in 1835 and was ordained priest by Bishop David on 13 June. He was placed in charge of the congregation of St. Peter's church, Lexington, and toward the end of 1836 appointed assistant pastor of the Church of St. Louis, Louisville. In the summer of 1838 he was despatched to Europe on a special mission by Bishop Chabrat. On his return to Louisville in October, in addition to his ministerial work he edited the " Catholic Advocate," in which his articles in defence of the dogmas of his church made his name known to all Roman Catholics in the United States. He also gave a series of lectures on the same subjects, which were listened to by members of every denomination. In 1848 he was appointed vicar-general by Bishop Spalding, and in October, 1850, he was nominated for the see of Richmond, and consecrated bishop on 10 Nov. He devoted himself zealously to the administration of his diocese. There were but ten churches and eight priests in it, with two orphan asylums. Bishop McGill built churches in Norfolk, Portress Monroe, Richmond, Fredericksburg, Warrenton, and Fairfax Station. He visited Rome in 1852 in order to take part in the definition of the immaculate conception, and in 1869 to join in the deliberations of the Vatican council. His diocese suffered severely during the civil war. and several of his churches were destroyed, but he gave himself up to the care of the wounded, and established an infirmary in Richmond for their benefit. After the war he built the convent of Monte Maria, and introduced A'arious sisterhoods, who established academies. He also established fourteen parochial schools for a Roman Catholic population of about 17,000. His health failed in 1871. While bishop of Richmond. Dr. McGill published a series of letters on controversial subjects addressed to Robert Ridgway, besides two compendiums of Catholic doctrine," entitled " The True Church " and " Faith the Victory." He was also author of a work criticising Macaulay's "History of England," and translated Audin's " Life of John Calvin " (Louisville, 1847).

McGILLIVRAY, Alexander, Indian chief, b. in the Creek nation in 1740; d. in Pensacola, Fla., 17 Feb., 1793. His father was Lachland McGillivray, of Dunmaglas, Scotland, his mother a half-breed Creek princess of the influential Wind family, whose father had been a French officer of Spanish descent. He had thus in his veins the blood of four nations, and in his character were some of the traits of them all. He possessed the polished urbanity of the Frenchman, the duplicity of the Spaniard, the cool sagacity of the Scotchman, and the silent subtlety, and inveterate hate of the North American Indian. He received a classical education from his father's brother, a Scotch-Presbyterian clergyman of Charleston, but on reaching manhood returned to his mother's people, among whom he was at once given the position to which he was entitled by his talents and the influence of his family. He assumed a kind of semi-barbaric pomp, being constantly attended by a numerous retinue, from whom he exacted all the deference due to royalty. He had several wives, whom he lodged in as many different &ldquo;palaces,&rdquo; at which he entertained his guests in rude magnificence. His influence was always great among his nation, but it was at first overshadowed by that of the Cherokee king, Oconostota. On the deposition of the latter, he became the autocrat of the Creeks, and their allies the Seminoles and Chickamaugas. Thus he could bring into the field not less than 10,000 warriors. He sided with the British in the Revolutionary war, and in retaliation Georgia confiscated such of his lands as lay within her limits. This excited his bitter enmity, and led a long war against the western settlers. The treaty of peace of 1783 was no sooner signed than he proposed to Arthur O'Neil, the Spanish governor of Pensacola, the treacherous policy by which Spain sought for twelve years to sever the trans-Alleghany region from the Union. Failing to bring the other southern tribes into a coalition against John Sevier on Holston and Watauga rivers, he made constant raids upon Gen. James Robertson, along Cumberland river, and the latter, with unexampled heroism, as constantly beat him back, at one time with but seventy men, and with never so many as a thousand. The U. S. government made him repeated overtures for peace, but he seriously listened to none till he was invited to New York in 1790, to hold a personal conference with Washington. Seeing in this an opportunity for display, he went, attended by twenty-eight of his principal chiefs and warriors; but he was careful before setting out to write to the Spanish governor at New Orleans that, although he should