Sir Allan Napier MacNab, 1st Baronet (19 February 1798 – 8 August 1862) was a Canadian political leader, politician, land speculator and property investor/builder, lawyer, soldier, and militia commander who served in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada twice (representing a different county - Wentworth and Hamilton - each time), the Legislative Assembly for the Province of Canada once, and served as joint Premier of the Province of Canada from 1854 to 1856. MacNab was "likely the largest land speculator in Upper Canada during his time" as mentioned both in his official biography in retrospect and in 1842 by Sir Charles Bagot.
MacNab is perhaps best known either for his relation to Queen Camilla, the current Queen of Canada (one of MacNab's grandchildren married Alice Keppel, great-grandmother of Camilla) or for the construction of an extremely opulent and influential neoclassical mansion in Hamilton, Ontario called Dundurn Castle. MacNab was both the castle's first and only baronet, and Queen Camilla is the current Royal Patron of her extended antecedent's "castle" currently.
MacNab was an "Elite Member" of the Family Compact in Upper Canada. He briefly shared a military regiment (the 49th Regiment of Foot) with another elite member (James FitzGibbon) in the War of 1812. MacNab would be left out of the regiment following regimental cuts after the War of 1812, and would find employment in the law office of another Family Compact members grandfather - George D'Arcy Boulton (aka D'Arcy Boulton Sr.)
Early life
He was born in Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) to Allan MacNab and Anne Napier (daughter of Captain Peter William Napier, R.N., the commissioner of the port and harbour of Quebec). When MacNab was a one year old, he was baptized in the Anglican church in St. Mark's Parish of Newark. His father was a lieutenant in the 71st Regiment and the Queen's Rangers under Lt-Col. John Graves Simcoe. After the Queen's Rangers were disbanded, the family moved around the country in search of work and eventually settled in York (now Toronto), where MacNab was educated at the Home District Grammar School.
Military career
War of 1812
As a fourteen-year-old boy, he fought in the War of 1812. He probably served at the Battle of York and certainly as the point man in the Canadian forlorn hope that headed the Anglo-Canadian assault on Fort Niagara. The 20 local men eliminated two American pickets of 20 men each with the bayonet before taking part in the final assault. Captain Kerby, of the Incorporated Militia Battalion, was reportedly the first man into the fort.
Upper Canada Rebellion, 1837
Before the Rebellion broke out, MacNab both argued for increased American immigration as "they are a useful and enterprising people and if admitted would be of great advantage to the country" in 1837. Again before the Rebellion, MacNab was appointed as Lieutenant-Colonel of the 4th Regiment of the Gore militia in May 1830, partly through the influence of the Chisholm family of Oakville.
MacNab opposed the reform movement in Upper Canada that was led by William Lyon Mackenzie. When Mackenzie led the Upper Canada Rebellion in 1837, MacNab was part of the force of British regular troops and Upper Canada militia that moved against Mackenzie at Montgomery's Tavern in Toronto on 7 December, dispersing Mackenzie's rebels in less than an hour.
MacNab in turn for the victory at Montgomery's Tavern would be awarded sole command of troops sent to London District by Lieutenant Governor Sir Francis Bond Head and led a militia of his own against the rebels marching towards Toronto from London, led by Charles Duncombe. Duncombe's men also dispersed when they learned that MacNab was waiting for them, but the quality of MacNab's leadership was nonetheless regarded as "mixed". There were "extreme problems" in communication, procuring supplies, and controlling the volunteers, along with MacNab ignoring basic operational procedures. MacNab was given 250 troops but there would ultimately be some 1500 men assembled total, as MacNab argued "as early as December 14".