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– Randy Boswell, Associate Professor,
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Thomas Mackay: The Laird of Rideau Hall and the Founding of
Ottawaexplores the life and times of Thomas Mackay, one of
the developers of Bytown, renamed Ottawa in 1853.
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Alastair Sweeny
University of Ottawa Press
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THOMAS MACKAY
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THOMAS MACKAY
The Laird of Rideau Hall and
the Founding of Ottawa
by
Alastair Sweeny
University of Ottawa Press
2022
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The University of Ottawa Press (UOP) is proud to be the oldest of the Francophone university
presses in Canada as well as the oldest bilingual university publisher in North America.
Since 1936, UOP has been enriching intellectual and cultural discourse by producing peer-
reviewed and award-winning books in the humanities and social sciences, in French and
in English.
www.press.uottawa.ca
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: Thomas Mackay : the laird of Rideau Hall and the founding of Ottawa / by Alastair
Sweeny.
Names: Sweeny, Alastair, author.
Description: Series statement: Regional studies | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20200395297 | Canadiana (ebook) 20200395483 |
ISBN 9780776636788 (softcover) |
ISBN 9780776636795 (hardcover) |
ISBN 9780776636801 (PDF) |
ISBN 9780776636818 (EPUB) |
ISBN 9780776636825 (Kindle)
Subjects LCSH: MacKay, Thomas, 1792-1855. | LCSH: Businesspeople—Ontario—
Ottawa—Biography. | LCSH: Stonemasons—Ontario—Ottawa—Biography. | LCSH:
Legislators—Ontario—Ottawa—Biography. | LCSH: Ottawa (Ont.)—Biography. |
LCSH: Ottawa (Ont.)—History—19th century. | LCSH: Ottawa (Ont.)—Buildings,
structures, etc. | LCGFT: Biographies.
Classification: LCC FC3096.26.M52 S94 2021 | DDC 971.3/8402092—dc23
Legal Deposit: First Quarter 2022 © University of Ottawa Press 2022
Library and Archives Canada All rights reserved.
Printed in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored
in a database and retrieval system, without prior
Production Team
permission.
Copy editing Susan James
Proofreading James Warren and In the case of photocopying or any other reprographic
Tanina Drvar copying, please secure licenses from:
Typesetting Nord Compo
Access Copyright
Cover design Édiscript enr.
www.accesscopyright.ca
1-800-893-5777
Cover image
1827 Mackay and Colonel By For foreign rights and permissions:
at the Ottawa Locks, painting by www.iprlicense.com
C. W. Jefferys, Library and
Archives Canada, C-073703. Modified
for cover purposes.
The University of Ottawa Press gratefully acknowledges the support extended to its publishing
list by the Government of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council,
the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Canadian Federation for the
Humanities and Social Sciences through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, and
by the University of Ottawa.
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Table of Contents
List of Figures .................................................................................. vii
Acknowledgements ........................................................................ xix
A Note on Images ........................................................................... xxi
Other Books by Alastair Sweeny .................................................. xxiii
Introduction ..................................................................................... 1
PART ONE
Lachine and the Rideau Canal
Chapter 1. Early Ottawa ........................................................... 11
Chapter 2. From Scotland to Montréal.................................... 25
Chapter 3. Wellington’s Generals ............................................ 43
Chapter 4. Enter Colonel John By ............................................ 61
Chapter 5. 1826: The Founding of Bytown ............................. 69
Chapter 6. 1827: Canal Cornerstones ....................................... 91
Chapter 7. How to Build a Canal ............................................. 107
Chapter 8. Jones Falls, Malaria, and Black Powder ............... 117
Chapter 9. The Hog’s Back Dam Disasters ............................. 125
Chapter 10. 1829: Handsome Profits ......................................... 133
Chapter 11. 1831: Finishing the Work........................................ 139
Chapter 12. 1832: Colonel By’s Recall ........................................ 151
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PART TWO
New Edinburgh and Rideau Hall
Chapter 13. Militia, Politics, and Civics, 1830–1838 ................. 163
Chapter 14. Miller Mackay, 1830–1849 ...................................... 179
Chapter 15. Rideau Hall, 1838–1853 .......................................... 193
Chapter 16. The Capital Idea, 1841–1849 ................................... 205
Chapter 17. Mackay a Legislative Councillor ........................... 213
Chapter 18. Bust and Boom, 1840–1849 ..................................... 231
Chapter 19. Annexation and Reciprocity, 1849–1854 ............... 241
PART THREE
Railway Mania
Chapter 20. The Philosophy of Railroads, 1847–1853 .............. 259
Chapter 21. The Bytown & Prescott, 1847–1853 ....................... 269
Chapter 22. The Keefers in Montréal, 1850–1859 ..................... 285
Chapter 23. The Queen Approves of Ottawa, 1853–1857 ........ 297
PART FOUR
Thomas Keefer and the Mackay Estate
Chapter 24. The Thomas Keefer Regime, 1855–1865 ............... 315
Chapter 25. The Sale of Rideau Hall ......................................... 325
Chapter 26. Keefer Develops Rockcliffe Park ........................... 341
Appendix A: Rockcliffe Arms ....................................................... 357
Appendix B: Lines on Thomas Mackay ........................................ 359
Select Bibliography ......................................................................... 365
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List of Figures
Figure 1. Thomas Mackay, 1830s .................................................... xviii
Figure 2. Hope the bookseller, 1879. .......................................... xx
Figure 3. Commercial label of nephew Thomas McKay’s
flour mill. ................................................................... 7
Figure 1.1. Montréal from St. Helen’s Island, 1830 .................. 9
Figure 1.2. Two Ottawa Chiefs Who with Others Lately Came
Down from Michillimackinac on Lake Huron to
Have a Talk with Their Great Father The King or
His Representative [likely Lord Dalhousie],
circa 1812–1820 ................................................................ 13
Figure 1.3. Algonquin Encampment at [Rideau] Falls
(Cornelius Krieghoff). .............................................. 14
Figure 1.4. Indians [Algonquins] Paying Homage to the
Spirit of the Chaudière ................................................ 15
Figure 1.5. Coteau-du-Lac Canal, 1780. ..................................... 18
Figure 1.6. Durham boats ascending the St. Lawrence ............ 19
Figure 1.7. Tiberius Wright on the family’s first timber
Raft, 1806 ....................................................................... 21
Figure 1.8. A View of the Mill and Tavern of Philemon
Wright at the Chaudière Falls, Hull, 1823 ................... 22
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viii THOMAS MACKAY
Figure 2.1. Perth, Scotland, “City of stone” ................................ 26
Figure 2.2. Clans of northern Scotland (note the town
of Thurso at the top of the map). ............................ 27
Figure 2.3. Emigrants bound for Québec ................................. 29
Figure 2.4. Molson steamboat passing Île Ste-Hélène ............. 30
Figure 2.5. Thomas Mackay, c. 1827 .......................................... 32
Figure 2.6. Major General Elias Walker Durnford,
Royal Engineers ....................................................... 34
Figure 2.7. Fort Lennox in 1886, showing barracks
and officers’ quarters ............................................... 35
Figure 2.8. Richardson and dignitaries inspecting
the Lachine Canal .................................................... 38
Figure 2.9. Entrance to Lachine Canal at Windmill Point,
Montréal, Quebec, 1826............................................ 41
Figure 2.10. The Lachine Canal; Église Notre-Dame
in the centre background ...................................... 42
Figure 3.1. Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington,
detail, by Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1829 .................... 44
Figure 3.2. H MS St. Lawrence, built at Kingston Royal
Naval Dockyard ....................................................... 46
Figure 3.3. A timber raft on the Ottawa, 1868. ......................... 50
Figure 3.4. The 4th Duke of Richmond and Lennox, 1823. ..... 51
Figure 3.5. George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie
(1770–1838), Governor-in-Chief of Canada
1819–1828 ................................................................... 55
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List of Figures ix
Figure 3.6. Fourteen voyageurs and four gentlemen
in Dalhousie’s Vice Regal canoe, 1821 .................... 58
Figure 3.7. Philemon Wright c. 1810 ........................................... 59
Figure 4.1. Lieutenant Colonel John By, 1832 ........................... 64
Figure 4.2. The First Camp Bytown, 1826, by
Lieutenant Colonel John By..................................... 65
Figure 5.1. Below the Chaudière Falls. ...................................... 69
Figure 5.2. Bytown, Nepean, and Richmond, 1830 .................. 71
Figure 5.3. Both banks of the Ottawa River and
the Chaudière Falls, 1825. ........................................ 72
Figure 5.4. Wrightstown, 1830 .................................................... 73
Figure 5.5. One of Mackay’s Union Bridge arches, built
in 1825-26, surrounded by lumber, 1880s .............. 80
Figure 5.6. The Ottawa Locks in 1869, showing part of the
quarry on the east side where Mackay was
able to extract superior seams of limestone .......... 87
Figure 5.7. Colonel By’s house, 1841 .......................................... 88
Figure 6.1. Log shanties along the canal, 1830 ......................... 92
Figure 6.2. One of Mackay’s buildings on Barrack Hill .......... 95
Figure 6.3. Rideau Canal entrance with three barracks,
1833 ............................................................................ 96
Figure 6.4. Royal Sappers and Miners at work. ....................... 97
Figure 6.5. Mackay’s Commissariat,
Ottawa’s oldest building ......................................... 98
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