Lieutenant Governor
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The Honourable Andrew Archibald Macdonald
Lieutenant Governor from 1 August 1884 to 2 September 1889
Andrew Archibald Macdonald was the seventeenth Lieutenant Governor of
Prince Edward Island since the creation of the Colony in 1763. Andrew
Archibald Macdonald was descended from the Clanronald branch of the
Macdonalds of the Isles, the son of Hugh and Catherine Macdonald of
Panmure and grandson of Andrew Macdonald who purchased a large tract of
land in the province and, with his family and retainers, emigrated from
Inverness-shire, Scotland and settled at Three Rivers, P.E.I., in 1806
where he and his sons carried on an extensive mercantile business for
many years.
Andrew Macdonald was born in Three Rivers on 14 February 1829. He was educated
at a county grammar school and by private tutor and became a merchant and
shipowner. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island
from 1853 to 1858. In 1863, he married Elizabeth, the third daughter of the
late Hon. Thomas Owen (formerly Provincial Postmaster General) and they had four
sons. He was the U.S. Consular Agent at Three Rivers from 1849 to 1870. He
sat as representative for Georgetown in the House of Assembly from 1854 until
1870. When the Legislative Council became elective in 1863, he was returned as
a representative of 2nd Kings District in the Legislative Council and again
reelected in 1867. He continued as a member of that body until June 1873 when
he was appointed Postmaster General of the Province. He was Postmaster at
Charlottetown until 1 August 1884 as well as Post Office Inspector for the
Province from 1880 until his appointment as Lieutenant Governor for the province
of Prince Edward Island on 1 August 1884. He was one of the delegates to the
Charlottetown Conference on the Union of the Lower Provinces in 1864 and in
September of the same year, a delegate to the Quebec Conference which succeeded
it and arranged the basis of union for all the B.N.A. Colonies. He was a
delegate to the International Convention at Portland, U.S., in 1868 and a member
of the Board of Education from 1867 to 1870, a public trustee under the Land
Purchase Act (1875) and Chief of the Caledonia Club.
Andrew Macdonald was a member of the Executive Council from 1867 to 1872 and
again from 18 April 1872 until Confederation. He was leader of the Government
Party in Legislative Council for some years. He first returned as a
representative of the Liberal Party in carrying out Responsible Government and
extended Franchise. When the Conservative section of the party joined the
Liberal section of the Conservative Party, he united with them in perfecting the
Free Education Act, the Land Purchase Act, the Railway Act, Confederation and
other progressive measures.
In 1891 Mr. MacDonald was appointed to the Senate of Canada and he remained in the Senate until his
death in Ottawa on 21 march 1912.
Photograph courtesy of PEI Public Archives and Records Office, Reference Number 2320/60-18
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