Alexander Macdonell, a Scottish immigrant to Canada became the first Roman Catholic bishop in Upper Canada and could be called the midwife of that denomination in the province of Ontario for he nurtured it and helped it grow into a strong united force. He had been a chaplain in the War of 1812 and he had been appointed as a member of the Legislative Council of Upper Canada. He was a supporter of the Family Compact group in spite of its weaknesses because it was the most reliably loyal group of politicians in the colony.

William Lyon Mackenzie wrote of Macdonell that "he could be of incalcuable advantage in promoting the projected union for the overthrow of liberal opinions....[though] we don't advise him to go down to Cavan [to] join the Orange Lodges, and give his popularity a fresh touch" - Colonial Advocate, August 02, 1832. Macdonell had been stationed in Ireland during the rebellion of 1798 as a chaplain of a Highland fencible unit and so was well acquainted with the Irish Roman Catholics. Forty years later he was to use them as a power base for his church to bring pressure on the government of the day to wring concessions for Roman Catholics.

Ogle Robert Gowan took a strong interest in the politics of his day. He was later to become known as "the father of the house" for he was for twenty-seven years a member of Parliament. As Grand Master of the Orange Order in Canada he did not like the Family Compact any more than Bishop Macdonell but during the rebellion of 1837 gave his vote to that group for they were more loyal to the British connection than the Reformers and were certainly not interested in forming a Republic.

At the meeting of the Toronto City Council on July 18, 1836, a motion was presented to condemn party processions, as Orange Parades were generally termed. Dr. King, a Roman Catholic councillor, asked that the motion be struck off and declared that there was no need to enact laws against Orange processions, since he was convinced that Orangemen and Roman Catholics would unite in bonds of Christian brotherhood. Alderman Thornhill, an Orangeman, supported King and stated that Orangemen would never again walk in processions or do anything to irritate their Roman Catholic brethren. All parties testified to the active loyalty of Orangemen and Roman Catholcis in the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837. The Grand Orange Lodge of British America claimed in 1839 that more than half of the loyalists in arms to defend the province were Orangemen. Bishop Macdonell wrote to Lord Durham that scarcely any Roman Catholics were implicated in the revolt.

The Grand Lodge resolutions of 1839 included an expression of much satisfaction at the loyal declarations by Bishop Macdonell and other leading members of the Roman Catholic Church, and one of confidence in the loyalty of the Irish Roman Catholics. During the election of 1838 Macdonnell appealed to Roman Catholic voters and stated that he hoped the election "may array Catholics and Orangemen side by side and hand in hand."

However, Macdonell chose to turn on the Orange Order just a few short years after that statement. In evidence before the Lord Durham commission, the bishop stated that "the withholding of educational funds and the Clergy Reserves, and the spread of the Orange system are the principal, if not the only, grounds of discontent among all denominations in Canada."

Outside of the Family Compact there were three men who guided the Loyalist cause of Upper Canada from 1836 to 1839; Egerton Ryerson for the Methodists, Bishop Macdonell for the Roman Catholics, and Ogle Gowan for the Orangemen. Macdonell established the tradigion of attachment to Great Britain among Roman Catholics in Canada which distinguished them so much from their co-religionists in the United States, and in the process he and Gowan did much to maintain union with Great Britain during this period.

It should also be made very clear however that this alliance between Orangemen and Roman Catholics was a temporary one and the surprise is not that the alliance should have been broken but that it should ever have been made in the first place. When the danger of rebellion had passed and law and order prevailed, Bishop Macdonell and the government of the day immediately resumed their attacks on the Orange Order.

The fact that Orangemen were probably the single most significant group in suppressing the rebellion counted for nothing. Surely there is a lesson to be taught by the history of this alliance. Those that compromise for the sake of political expediency are destined to lose much of the respect of their own membership.

Hunters Lodges and the Battle for Windmill Point

Windmill Point, near Prescott, Ontario is famous for the four days in November, 1838 in which an invading force of Americans fought with Canadian militiamen and British troops. The battle came at the tail end of the Upper Canada Rebellion which had been instigated by William Lyon Mackenzie. Ten years before the Rebellion broke out Mackenzie had been in the United States agitating Americans about the British influence in Canada and misleading them about the feelings that Canadians had toward the Crown. It was no coincidence that about this time a secret society sprang up in the northeastern United States known as the Hunters.

The members of this organization were pledged to seek a republican form of government for Canadians. In the oath which was taken by each Hunter was the phrase, -- "especially never to rest till all the tyrants of Britain cease to have any dominion or footing in North America." A convention of the lodges of Ohio and Michigan was held at Cleveland in September, 1838, where a 'Republican Government of Upper Canada' was formed. There were four degrees taken by the Hunters, each including a lengthy oath. The degrees were; the Snowshoe, the Beaver, the Master Hunter, and the Patriot Hunter. At its peak there were over one thousand lodges with a membership of over 50,000. It is interesting to note that on the 12th of December, 1839, the Select Committee to revise the Book of Rules and Regulations of the Orange Order presented the following report in reference to the Orange Obligation.

To the Right Worshipful Lieutenant Colonel Gowan, M.P., and Grand Master:

The Select Committee have agreed to the adoption of the following Obligation, which they have ordered to be printed, for immediate use in all lodges:

"I, _______, do solemnly and voluntarily swear, that I will, to the utmost of my power, support and defend Her present Majesty, Queen Victoria, and her lawful heirs and successors....so long as she, or he, or they, shall support and maintain the Protestant Religion, and the laws of the country....that I am not now or ever will be a member of the Society called "Hunters" or any other treasonable society...."

The attack by the Hunters was intended for Prescott, Ontario but the boat in which they crossed the St. Lawrence River with failed to tie up to the wharf in Prescott as their rope broke and they drifted down the river about a mile and a half to a place called Windmill Point. It was here, behind stone fences that the Hunters, numbering about 170, took up their positions under the command of Colonel Nils Von Schoultz, a native of Finland. It was now the morning of November 12, and the local Canadian militia units readied themselves.

In Brockville, the Grand Master of the Grand Orange Lodge of British America, Ogle Gowan readied his men. He had received an appointment as a lieutenant-colonel in the militia of Upper Canada and had been given command of the battalion which he himself had raised. The 9th Provincial Battalion, also named the Brockville Invincibles was made up entirely of Orangemen recruited by Gowan. After the Battle of the Windmill the battalion was give the title of 'The Queens Royal Borderers', in recognition of their service. By that evening British troops and Canadian militia had surrounded the windmill. The Hunters who had expected the oppressed Canadian people to rally to their support looked out of the windmill at a sea of muskets.

On the morning of November 13, Lieutenant-Colonel Young ordered an attack in two columns, the right one under Ogle Gowan. Gowan's vanguard of forty-four men from the 83rd regiment was commanded by Lieutenant William Johnson. A truce was arranged on the Thursday morning to collect the dead and wounded. On Friday the 16th, the heavy artillery arrived, two eighteen pounders and a howitzer. Every building near the Windmill was soon on fire. Under cover of darkness, Von Schoultz and ten of his men escaped to the riverbank. Soon the white flag was hoisted. Disarmed, the Hunters marched out.

The 157 prisoners were marched to Prescott in a long line, tied to a rope. After being exhibited to the people of the town they were crammed into the forecastle of a steamer and taken to Kingston. Later that same day Von Schoultz was found hiding in some bushes near the river and he was marched to Prescott to join his fellow Hunters. Von Schoultz's trial was a military one and it is interesting that it was John A. Macdonald, future Prime Minister who acted on behalf of Von Schoultz. The wounded among the militia totalled sixty-two and among them was Ogle Gowan. A few days before Christmas of the same year his cousin James in Toronto received a letter: "You must not attribute my tardiness in not having earlier acknowledged the receipt of your letter of the 25th to any unkind feeling, as you must be aware none could find a resting place with me. You ask me, or rather express a hope that my wounds, received at the battle of Windmill Point, are not serious. I received two wounds, both thank God slightly, one a little below the hip, from a bayonet, when the right wing [which I had the honour to command] charged the ruffians, who were entrenched behind a stone wall. One inch further to the right would probably have finished me. Walter Ebbs [sexton of our church] gave the fellow the benefit of his bayonet, in return and quickly dispatched him to answer for his deeds in another place. The other wound is in the side of my knee and was given by a ball fired from one of the windows of a stone house as we advanced to drive in the doors. Neither caused me any serious pain, and I am now [thanks to providence] in good health and spirits and ready to beat the fellows again...."

Following the military court martial in Kingston, eleven Hunters were executed. Von Schoultz was hanged at Fort Henry and ten others at the Kingston jail. Gowan was mentioned is several despatches for his part in the battle. The Battle of the Windmill while it might be called a minor skirmish in the terms that we judge battles today, was a very serious and important battle in 1838. It ended the hostilities that had began the year before with the start of the Upper Canada Rebellion and more importantly showed those Americans that wished to make Canada a republic that Canadians were willing and more than able to defend themselves against attack. Not until the Fenian Raids were Americans to again invade Canadian soil.