Macdonald_Panel_proof2 Macdonald was well-connected in the colony. • His sister Magdalen was the wife of Sir William McGillivray, senior partner of the North West Company. • His brother John Macdonald of Garth was a well-known fur trader in the same company. • His sister Helen was the wife of Sir Archibald Campbell, one time Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick. Macdonald devoted most of his time to his farm, his various business interests and his family of 12 children. But he also found time to serve as a member of the House of Assembly and a magistrate. Having moderate reform views Macdonald experienced both the popularity of being elected to the Assembly and, on occasion, the discouragement of being shouted down by his fellow citizens. In addition to his involvement in the Militia, Macdonald was a director of both the Northumberland Agricultural Society and the Cobourg Harbour Company. When the Macdonalds �rst moved into their farm house it was a small frame dwelling built by the pioneer Ash family. Archibald and Catherine enlarged it considerably until It was a �ve-bay two-storey frame house with a hipped roof. Located at the mouth of Factory Creek, the house eventually fell victim to erosion by Lake Ontario's waves and was slowly washed away. Catherine Boswell Macdonald