(1767?-23 July 1848), fur trader. (date of death 30 July also found) Born at Muneraghie, Invernessshire, Scotland. Parents: Donald McGillis and his wife Mary McDonell. He came to America with his parents in 1773, presumably on the Pearl, and came to GC with his U E Loyalist parents. McGillis, who entered the North West Company 1790 (partner 1801), served the company at places which included Fort Dauphin, Fond du Lac, Fort William, Michipicoten and Lesser Slave Lake. He was one of the North West Company partners arrested by Lord Selkirk at Fort William in 1816, and was tried at York but acquitted. Retired in 1816 from the fur trade, he bought Sir John Johnson’s Manor House and other property at Williamstown about 1818, and he resided there till his death. As the owner of the Williamstown property, he was known as the Laird McGillis. He had seven children by an Indian wife. Since he is described as having sent her back to the West after he settled at Williamstown, we may harshly guess that he repudiated her, and that he did not merely accept a desire on her part to return to a familiar countryside, but the motives, complex as they may have been in this long-ago matter, can hardly be illuminated today. He never remarried, and all his seven children predeceased him. None of his children at their deaths left any children of their own. He died at Williamstown, and is buried in St. Mary’s Church there beneath his memorial tablet. He was one of the benefactors of the Williamstown parish, and contributed land for the church, presbytery and cemetery. Roman Catholic. He belonged to the Highland Society of Canada. He was the brother of Angus McGillis; for his other relations among the McGillises, see the entry for his father. Hugh McGillis left his Williamstown property to his nephew John McGillis. Hugh McGillis’ niece Amelia McGillis was married to John Mcdonald of Garth.

Wallace (this is the main source; the entry in MDict is substantially the same as that in Wallace). W. S. Wallace states that he depended heavily for his information on F. D. McLennan of Cornwall, who was related to this McGillis family * History of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church Williamstown, Ontario: 1847-1997 (1997) 1-11 (with photograph of his burial plaque, which dates his death 30 July) * Fraser, Gravestones, I, 23 * Harkness 403, 405 * Pringle 343 (Hugh and John McGillis active in meeting, 1835, at Cornwall, to urge annexation of Montreal to Upper Canada) * Second Report, Part II, 1087 * David G. Anderson, “Indian Wives of the Glengarry Nor’Westers,” Glengarry Life No. 32 (1993) * his purchase of manor House, GHS Newsletter June 2000