The Honourable Andrew Archibald Macdonald

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 Clanranald 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