The Glengarry Light Infantry-- Part 1

From Wikipedia.

Alexander Macdonell was much involved with this military organization. 

The Glengarry Light Infantry Fencibles  was a light infantry group raised primarily in the Glengarry District of Upper Canada shortly before the outbreak of the Anglo-American War of 1812 (another name for the War of 1812).  It was disbanded shortly after the war ended.

Many of the inhabitants of the Glengarry District  were Catholics from Glengarry, Scotland and many had already served in the Scottish Glengarry Fencibles from 1794 to 1802.  During that time, they performed duty on the Channel Islands and fought in the Irish Rebellion of 1798

The fencible unit raised in Canada would serve the same enlistment as  regular soldiers, but would only have to serve in North America.

By 1812, as war with the United States appeared more and more inevitable,  Governor General of Canada, George Prevost,  decided he'd raise the unit of his own accord, and appointed Captain George Macdonell of the 8th (King's) Regiment to raise the "Glengarry Levy."

Originally it was to have  376 members.  Recruits received a bounty of  four guineas on enlistment and were promised 100 acres at the war's conclusion.

Partly through the efforts of the unit's chaplain, Alexander Macdonell (it was composed mostly of Catholics), the unit soon exceeded 600 men.  Prevost raised the corps level to regiment and named it the  Glengarry Light Infantry Fencibles.

--Brock-Perry

Will the Real Alexander Macdonell or Alexander McDonell Sign In?

One man with two different spellings of his last name or two different men?

From Wikipedia.

Wikipedia says not to get confused with Alexander McDonell, a politician.  Will the real Alexander Macdonell or is it McDonell please stand up?

I can see where there might be some confusion between the two because of the same first name and possible spellings of their last name.

They were both emigrants from Scotland, both fought in the War of 1812 on the British side and Upper Canada Rebellion.  Alexander McDonell was born in 1786, Macdonell was born in 1762.

Both were politically involved and both also worked with immigrants.  However, the Wikipedia article did not say anything about the Catholic religion work that Macdonell did in the McDonell article.

So, Who Is Who?  Perhaps Two Different Men Then.  --Brock-Perry

Alexander Macdonell-- Part 4: Bringing Catholicism to Canada

From the Canadian Encyclopedia.

Alexander Macdonell, Roman Catholic   bishop.

Born at Fort Augustus, Glengarry, Scotland 17 July  1762. Died at Dumfries, Scotland, 14 July1840.

Ordained in 1787, he spent the next several years  in the Scottish Highlands.  In 1793, he persuaded  the British government to establish the Catholic corps, the Glengarry Regiment, of which he was the chaplain.

In 1802, the regiment was disbanded and two years later Macdonell got the British government to promise 200 acres to every soldier who emigrated to Canada.  Macdonell and a large group of Catholic settlers did just that.  They settled in what became known as Glengarry, Upper Canada.

--Brock-Perry

HMS Nimrod-- Part 5: Smugglers, a Strike and Another Gale

POSTWAR CAREER IN ROYAL NAVY

The Nimrod continued in the service of the Royal Navy after the war.  In 1819-1821, the ship captured four ships involved in smuggling.  One was the American ship Vulture.

In July 1822, the Nimrod was involved in putting down a strike of keelmen against their employers at the Port O' Tyne in England.  Her sailors were used to move the barges.

Then, the Nimrod was part of a six vessel squadron tasked with putting down smuggling on the west coast of Scotland.

LOSS AND DISPOSAL

The ship sailed from Cork on 13 January 1827 for the Clyde and ran into a gale that caused her to take in water.  The ship took refuge in Holyhead in Wales.  However,  the wind switched directions and she lost her anchor and was driven onto a ridge of rocks.

They were able to get a line to shore and all 121 aboard her were able to be rescued.  Over the next few days, they were able to get her stores off until on 12 February the ship was able to get off the rocks.  The Royal Navy judged her not worth repairing and she was sold.

From 1828 to 1851, she was involved in the merchant trade.

--Brock-Perry

Samuel C. Muir-- Part 1: From Scotland and At Fort Edwards

On May 7, I wrote about Samuel C. Muir, the Army surgeon at Fort Edwards and his Indian wife.  He was one of the early white settlers in Iowa.

From Lagenweb.

A graduate of the University of Edinburgh and surgeon in the U.S. Army.  In 1820, he married an Indian girl of the Sac Nation and was stationed at Fort Edwards.

According to the account of Stephen Watts Kearny and Henry Schoolcraft who were on a military expedition in northern Iowa in 1820, they visited the Dubuque (Iowa) mines on the morning of August 5 and stopped their six-oared keelboat at the settlement of traders and met Muir, late of the U.S. Army and his squaw and two children.

He and his men were treated politely by Dr. Muir and the traders.

--Brock-Perry

William Moodie Bell-- Part 3: Settled in Lower Canada

William Bell obtained a government pension while in Scotland for his service and returned to Canada where he may have gone into a partnership with his brother John Bell (1779-1841) and a French Canadian shipbuilder Francois Romain, at Quebec.

He later became a farmer at Little River in Lower Canada.

--Brock-Perry

William Moodie Bell, Master Shipbuilder-- Part 1

Yesterday I mentioned that one source I found said that the HMS St. Lawrence might also have been built by William Bell or possibly John Dennis.

From Geneaology

William Moodie Bell, master Shipbuilder, Born in Scotland, Amherstburg.

1777-1837.  Naval shipwright and farmer.

Born 9 January 1777 in Scotland.  Entered the employ of the Provincial Marine at Amherstburg, Upper Canada June 1799.  Designed and built ships for service on the Great Lakes.

Many of his ships were lost in the 1813 Battle of Lake Erie, after which he evacuated Amherstburg at the time of the retreat following the battle.

--Brock-Perry