John Simcoe Macaulay

Colonel The Hon. John Simcoe Macaulay (October 13 1791 – December 20 1855) was a businessman and political figure in Upper Canada.

He was born in England in 1791, the son of James Macaulay and Elizabeth Tuck Hayter (a childhood friend of Elizabeth Simcoe), and came to Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake) with his family in 1792. The family settled in York (Toronto) when the capital was moved there and John attended John Strachan's school in Cornwall. In 1805, he attended the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. He became a captain in the Royal Engineers, serving with them during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1827, he became a professor of fortification at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

When he resigned in 1835, he returned to Upper Canada. In 1836, he was appointed surveyor general for the province by the new Lieutenant Governor Sir Francis Bond Head. The appointment was disputed because the candidate favoured by the Family Compact had been ignored and others did not consider Macaulay a genuine resident of the province. Head advised Macaulay to submit his resignation to the Colonial Secretary, expecting it to be refused, but it was accepted and John Macaulay, no relation, was appointed to the post instead. In 1839, he was appointed to the Legislative Council for the province. In 1841, he was elected to Toronto city council but he resigned after Henry Sherwood was elected instead of him as mayor.

In 1825 at Croydon (England), John married Anne Gee, the eldest daughter of The Hon. John Elmsley (1762-1805), Chief Justice of Upper Canada, by his wife Mary, daughter of Captain Benjamin Hallowell of Roxbury, Commissioner of Customs for the Port of Boston. Mrs Anne Gee Macaulay was the niece of Admiral Sir Benjamin Hallowell-Carew (1760-1834) K.C.B., G.C.B., who inherited Beddington Park in Surrey from his cousin, served on HMS Victory and was with Nelson in command of the 'Swiftsure' at the Battle of the Nile.

In 1845, having sold his considerable property in Toronto (derived from his and his father's patronage to Lieutenant Governors Sir Francis Bond Head and Sir John Graves Simcoe), creating a handsome retirement fund for himself, John Macaulay retired to England. He and his family took up residence at Rede Court, Kent, where he died in 1855. He was survived by four sons and four of his five daughters. He was the elder brother of Colonel The Hon. Sir James Buchanan Macaulay (1793-1859).

External links

* [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=4037 Biography at the "Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online"]