The Glenaladale Settlers and St. Margaret’s Parish
From Scotland to Scotchfort, and onward to the communities whose families shaped the parish.
On this page
The Glenaladale migration belongs in St Margaret’s history because the journey did not end at Scotchfort. Parish accounts describe settlers moving east, helping establish the communities around Naufrage and Big Pond.
These movements connect the parish to a wider story of Highland migration, Catholic religious life, landholding, and family networks. They also remind us to distinguish a community’s settlement tradition from proof of an individual ancestor’s voyage.
The voyage of the Alexander in 1772
John MacDonald of Glenaladale organized a settlement venture during a period of economic and social change in the Highlands. Working with Scottish Catholic Church leaders, he helped arrange passage and support for emigrants unable to meet the full cost themselves. His project included provision for the settlers’ religious, educational, and practical needs.1
About 210 settlers sailed on the Alexander in May 1772. The travelling party was led by his brother Donald and accompanied by Father James MacDonald. They arrived the following month at Lot 36, at the place subsequently known as Scotchfort.2
Glenaladale’s role continued beyond organizing passage. The venture required supplies and farm implements, and his sister Helen helped manage the estate during his absences. This was a settlement undertaking whose effects extended through later migration and family connections.1
From Scotchfort to Naufrage and Big Pond
Roddie J. MacDonald’s 1982 parish history describes five or six families or individuals moving east to Naufrage soon after the Scotchfort landing. It names John MacCormack, Donald MacCormack, Roderick MacDonald, Roderick MacIntosh, and Angus MacIntyre.3
The same account describes another movement through Savage Harbour to Big Pond. It places this further movement within the years following the initial landing.3
These are names preserved in a later parish account. McQuaid’s Chapter 1 compares differing interpretations of the earliest settlers and questions some identifications using their ages. Some people named in the tradition may have been children in 1772. The list should therefore not be treated as a verified roster of adult household heads.4
From scattered households to a parish community
The parish history records Mass being offered in homes before a church was built, including homes at Naufrage. It names Father James MacDonald, Angus Bernard MacEachern, and Father Augustine MacDonald, Glenaladale’s brother, among the clergy serving these early communities.3
It describes a small log church built near the shore in 1803, with parishioners contributing labour and materials. This provides a tangible link between settlement and parish formation: households became a community able to sustain shared worship and build a church.3
The families remembered in the Pioneer Cemetery belong to that evolving community and its later generations. A connection to the migration does not mean that every early settler was buried there, or that the parish already existed in its later form when the Alexander arrived.
A new home within the Island’s land system
The settlement also formed part of PEI’s proprietary land system. Glenaladale was a landowner whose undertaking depended on tenants establishing farms. Parks Canada places both his settlement work and his disputes with colonial authorities within that system.1
This adds another dimension to the migration story. Crossing the Atlantic opened opportunities, but settlers still had to secure land, build livelihoods, and sustain their households. The later Land Question belongs to this wider history; it should not be collapsed into a single dispute or a single family’s experience.
Following the families across generations
The original Alexander passenger list does not survive. Rev. James Lawson’s reconstruction draws on correspondence, agreements, and other records, identifying the evidence behind particular names. It is a research guide rather than a complete surviving manifest.5
For example, Lawson transcribes Donald McIntosh’s name in an agreement dated 24 June 1772. The parish history names Roderick MacIntosh at Naufrage. Those references are useful leads, but they do not by themselves prove that Donald was Roderick’s father.3, 5
Shared surnames can help direct research, but a documented chain of relationships is needed to connect a passenger to a later parish family. Spelling also varies across sources. The strongest family stories bring together named people, dates, places, and supporting records while preserving uncertainty where the evidence remains incomplete.
Sources and further reading
- Parks Canada, Captain John MacDonald of Glenaladale 1742–1810, historical backgrounder.
- Dictionary of Canadian Biography, MacDONALD OF GLENALADALE, JOHN.
- Roddie J. MacDonald, History of St Margaret’s Parish up to 1982, transcribed by Fran MacDonald MacPhail. A retrospective parish account.
- Jenny O’Hanley McQuaid, Genealogy of St Margaret’s Parish (2022), Chapter 1, especially page 6, reviewed from the project’s supplied scans.
- Rev. James Lawson, The Passengers on the Alexander, reconstruction dated 10 December 1990, reproduced by Island Register.
Prepared using the project’s earlier Glenaladale history, with the settlement account checked against the references above and the Chapter 1 review. Traditional identifications are attributed to their source rather than presented as established genealogy.