Sir Allan Napier MacNab, 1st Baronet (19 February 1798 – 8 August 1862) was a Canadian political leader, land speculator and property investor, lawyer, soldier, and militia commander who served in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada twice (representing a different county – Wentworth and Hamilton – each time), the Legislative Assembly for the Province of Canada once, and served as joint Premier of the Province of Canada from 1854 to 1856. MacNab was "likely the largest land speculator in Upper Canada during his time" as mentioned both in his official biography in retrospect and in 1842 by Sir Charles Bagot.

MacNab was a member of the Family Compact in Upper Canada. He briefly shared a military regiment (the 49th Regiment of Foot) with another member (James FitzGibbon) in the War of 1812. MacNab was left out of the regiment following regimental cuts after the War of 1812, and found employment in the law office of another Family Compact member's grandfather – George D'Arcy Boulton (aka D'Arcy Boulton Sr.) (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) to Allan MacNab and Anne Napier (daughter of Captain Peter William Napier, R.N., the commissioner of the port and harbour of Quebec). When MacNab was a one year old, he was baptized in the Anglican church in St. Mark's Parish of Newark.

After his service in the War of 1812, MacNab studied law in Toronto under (at the time) Judge George D'Arcy Boulton, where MacNab "took nearly twice the average time to qualify at the bar was a result of his inadequate education and his preference for active work".

A successful entrepreneur as well as politician, MacNab, with Glasgow merchant Peter Buchanan, was responsible for the construction of the Great Western Railway of Ontario. MacNab also served on several boards, including as a board member of the Beacon Fire and Life Insurance Co. of London alongside prominent financier Thomas Clarkson.

Following an amount of "liberal credit" rewarded from the Bank of Upper Canada regarding legislative assistance given by MacNab, and his own cash reserves, MacNab sought to own land. By May 1832, MacNab owned "some 2000 acres of wild land in London, Gore, and Newcastle districts". The amount increased and by 1835 MacNab had "cornered much of the best land in the centre of expanding Hamilton". MacNab's land holdings fluctuated often, and their total value at any one time is unknown, but in a suggestion of just how massive the amounts of land and sales were, Charles Bagot stated in 1842 that MacNab was "a huge proprietor of land – perhaps the largest in the country".

Political career

thumb|180px|alt=Bust of MacNab|Bust of Sir Allan MacNab, sculpted by [[Elizabeth Bradford Holbrook.]]

MacNab represented Hamilton in Parliament from 1830 until his death in 1862, first in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada (1830–1840), then in the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada (1841–1860), and finally in the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada representing the Western Division (1860–1862). He was joint Premier of the province from 1854 to 1856.

In 1829, MacNab refused to testify before a House of Assembly committee which was investigating the hanging of an effigy of Lieutenant Governor Sir John Colborne, chaired by Reformer W. W. Baldwin. MacNab was subsequently sentenced to jail for 10 days by the House of Assembly, following apparent "prodding" from William Lyon Mackenzie. MacNab returned to the public as a "Tory martyr", and effectively utilized/exploited this image to defeat the Reformers in Wentworth County and secure the political victory for both himself and John Willson. This was the first of five expulsions, MacNab active in all of them. In the first Parliament of the new Province of Canada, he supported the principle of union, but was an opponent of the Governor General, Sydenham, and his policy of creating a government with a broad base of moderate supporters in the Assembly. He opposed the policy of the "Ultra Reformers" to implement responsible government.

MacNab only partly encompassed the Tory ideology in Canada and was not a religious elitist: MacNab supported all denominations (plus Catholics) in having an equal share to the proceeds from the clergy reserves, MacNab often attended a Presbyterian church whilst being Anglican, MacNab married a Catholic in his second marriage, and opposed Orangeman Ogle Robert Gowan partly because of how strong his Protestant stance was. Another of her sons, George Keppel, was married to Alice Keppel, a mistress of Edward VII, and great-grandmother of Queen Camilla, wife of Charles III.

Death

MacNab died at his home, Dundurn Castle, in Hamilton. His deathbed conversion to Catholicism caused a furore in the press in the following days. The Toronto Globe and The Hamilton Spectator expressed strong doubts about the conversion, and the Anglican rector of Christ Church declared that MacNab died a Protestant.

Dundurn Castle, his stately Italianate style home in Hamilton, is open to the public.

A ship was named Sir Allan MacNab and was sturdily built in Canada but was not altogether designed for speed. The master in 1855 was Captain Cherry, and the tonnage of the ship was 840, then quite large.

References

Sources

  • Donald R. Beer, Sir Allan Napier MacNab (Hamilton, Ontario, 1984)
  • Photograph: Sir Allan McNab in 1861. McCord Museum
  • Allan Napier MacNab fonds, Archives of Ontario