before setting out or on the voyage. However, it appears that the young man was not among them. Nor did he catch the disease after his arrival in Canada, where it was introduced by the Carrick when it docked at the quarantine station below Quebec on 8 June 1832. That Joseph did not contract the disease is surprising because Montreal that summer was in the grip of a cholera epidemic. No matter where he went in the demoralized town, Joseph would not have been able to escape the mournful sound of the incessantly tolling death bell or the spectacle of coffin displays and posted advertisements for cheap funerals. He would probably even have come across whole streets that had been depopulated either by death or by the flight of panic-stricken inhabitants to country villages. It was certainly not an auspicious beginning for a stranger in a new land, as his brother, John, realized when he wrote to Joseph from Roster on 20 February 1833:
I write you these lines in hopes of hearing from you and of your state and to let you know of our state. We have received 2 letters from you the one sent to Aberdeen we found first which gave us great relief to hear of you being in life, and health in the place where the Lord cut down so many by Death, we would write you sooner if not your father was poorly a long time but he is now getting better, and myself is still the same, all the rest in good health and the whole of them lamenting you to be in a wild savage country, and that you might do well enough near your own parents besides being among such as you mentioned, you have left the place where there is hardly any example and your expence will ballance the outcome of your trade.5
Probably no other letter better illustrates two leitmotivs that run through the Mackay family history and Cairine Wilson’s adult years: a deep religious faith and an interest in sound business practice. Joseph himself certainly exemplified these traits. However, unlike his dour brother, he was of a sunny, optimistic nature. Despite John’s forebodings and entreaties to return to Caithness, Joseph stayed on in the New World, setting up as a tailor and merchant on Montreal’s Notre Dame Street, not far from the busy harbour. It was to this address that his concerned father, William, wrote on 24 October 1834:
Dr. [Dear] Child we are something tedious concerning the great expence of your houses and trade and that we could not fully understand what are you selling out to make up your expence you know also that our wishes and desires is not in the least abating for seeing you in this Country if you would be permitted, but we refair it to your Makers providence and to your own mind as wishing it to be guided by him and we trust that yourself hath made up your mind as considering a measure of both kingdoms.
...P.S. We are regrating that you did not enlarge more how do you spend the Sabath or is there a sound preacher among you all.6
Clearly, the “Dr. Child” had joined the burgeoning ranks of other Scots, who were then carving out a commanding position in the economic life of Canada. Nowhere was the leadership of these men in the Canadian business world more conspicuous than in Montreal, a city where Scots not only dominated business but also played a prominent role in the founding of institutions, the building of churches and the launching of commercial organizations. Although he could not have known it in 1832, Joseph too would eventually become a prominent member of this group of self-made tycoons.
Joseph Mackay, Great-Uncle of Cairine Wilson.
No doubt impressed by his brother Joseph’s rising fortunes, Edward Mackay emigrated to Canada in 1840 and, after spending six months in Kingston, Ontario, settled in Montreal where he became a clerk in Joseph’s wholesale drygoods firm. By 1850, he had demonstrated such industry and business acumen that Joseph took him on as a partner, the firm becoming known in May of that year as Joseph Mackay and Brother. The business grew so quickly that in December 1866 it was reported that the previous year’s sales had been well in excess of one million dollars and that the two bachelor brothers were “wealthy.”7
By then, Joseph had anticipated a trend on the part of the fashionable in Montreal by moving his place of residence from St. Antoine Street, not far from the harbour, north towards the slopes of Mount Royal. There, on Sherbrooke Street at the corner of Redpath, just below the mountain, he had purchased several lots from the estate of the late S.G. Smith and had proceeded in 1857 to build a stone mansion, which he named Kildonan Hall after his birthplace in Sutherlandshire.8 Before it was razed in 1930 to make way for the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul, Kildonan, as it was known, was one of the most striking on a wide avenue of impressive mansions. As the historian and journalist, Edgar Andrew Collard, has observed, Joseph Mackay’s residence would have been imposing even if it had been situated near the sidewalk. But what really made it stand out was its siting in large shady grounds that resembled those of a magnificent country estate.9 Near the southeast corner of the property — adjoining a finely worked wrought-iron fence — stood two stone gateposts, which flanked a curving driveway that swept up to a pillared front porch. To the right of the house, as you faced it, was a porte-cochere, to the left, a large conservatory, which featured the prized marble statue, “Diana,” one of several legacies that Joseph earmarked for his niece, Henrietta Gordon, who lived with her uncles at Kildonan until she died in 1883, shortly after the death of Edward. Still later, after Senator Robert Mackay’s death, the statue would find its way into Cairine Wilson’s possession.
Like most large neo-classical houses designed for the very affluent in Victorian Canada, Kildonan had high ceilings and a square floor plan. Opening off the front door was a spacious, but dark, entrance hall graced by a wide, sweeping, staircase. Overlooking this — and bearing mute testimony to Joseph’s Scottish origins — was an impressive stained glass window depicting Sir Walter Scott’s narrative poem, “The Lay of the Last Minstrel.”10
Kildonan was not only architecturally imposing — with its Italianate touches and large size — it was also richly furnished with art work and heavy furniture, much of which had been purchased by Joseph on his overseas buying trips. The result was an exceedingly gloomy house that bespoke a certain Scottish dourness and fervency of purpose.
Another Montreal landmark closely identified with Joseph Mackay was the Mackay Institution for Protestant Deaf-Mutes, located on the west side of Decarie Road, now Decarie Boulevard. The Montreal merchant first became involved with handicapped children in 1874 when a struggling institution, known as the Protestant Institution for Deaf-Mutes and for the Blind, approached him for financial assistance. A kind man, who was keenly interested in the welfare of the deaf child, Mackay became a governor of the institution and then, in 1876, when larger premises were urgently required, he donated both the property on Decarie Road and a four-storey building where classes could be held. He also assumed the presidency of the school, which in 1878 was renamed the Mackay Institution for Protestant Deaf-Mutes in his honour.11
In a speech on the occasion of the laying of the building’s cornerstone Joseph Mackay waxed eloquent with the hope that “for years and generations to come the Institution may, through Divine favour, prove a source of manifold blessings to the afflicted classes whose good it seeks, and may never lack warm-hearted and generous friends and wise and godly instructors to carry on the work.”12 The wealthy Montreal merchant would have been gratified to know that members of succeeding generations of Mackays, Cairine Wilson among them, would play a leading role in the school’s affairs.
“Kildonan.” Mackay family home on Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal. This site is currently occupied by St Andrew’s and St Paul’s Presbyterian Church. Its church hall is called Kildonan Hall after the original house.
In addition to the role that he played in the Mackay Institution for Protestant Deaf-Mutes, Joseph could also take great satisfaction and pride in the contributions that he was making to his church. A devout Presbyterian, who was deeply conscious of the obligations of God’s blessings, Joseph gave generously to the church.
