Archibald McNab

Archibald McNab

Archibald McNab, 17th chief of Clan Macnab (b in Perthshire, Scot c 1781; d at Lannion, France 12 Aug 1860). McNab came to Upper Canada in 1822 to flee his creditors in Scotland. His settlement scheme was approved Nov 1823 and he was given land on the Madawaska River. The township was surveyed and called McNab in 1824 and he brought about 15 families from Scotland in 1825 who, with others recruited in Canada, settled the township on terms laid down by McNab.

For the next 15 years he plundered these people and pursued them in the courts. He was supported at first by his politically well-placed friends in Toronto and at Perth, but his position, unassailable in the 1830s, was wholly undermined in the 1840s by his excessive greed. Ultimately he was driven from the township by the determination of the settlers to work together and to petition the councils of Upper Canada and Canada West.

He lived in Hamilton until at least 1851, before leaving Canada and dying in exile in France. With 4 children and a wife abandoned in Scotland, he fathered at least one illegitimate child in McNab Township, and another upon his return to England in the 1850s.