was to be later the Province of Quebec. It not
only guided for many years elementary and grammar school education, but
it planned for the establishment of a State or Government College where
higher education could be obtained. But before the proposed plan was
carried into effect, provision was made by a citizen of Montreal for the
endowment of a College to bear his name. As a result, the Royal
Institution for the Advancement of Learning supervised the establishment
of McGill College and directed it in its infancy, for under the Act of
1801 all property and money given for educational purposes in the
Province of Lower Canada was placed under its control.

CHAPTER II

THE DAWN OF MCGILL

During the discussion in the Legislature of educational conditions in
Lower Canada which resulted in the establishment of the Royal
Institution for the Advancement of Learning under the Act of 1801, one
of the most prominent members of the Provincial Parliament was James
McGill, a merchant and fur-trader who represented the West Ward of
Montreal in the Legislative Assembly. Only meagre facts about the life
of James McGill are available and the documentary evidence bearing on
his career is scanty. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on the 6th of
October, 1744. His parents were natives of Banffshire. After an
elementary school education in his native town he entered Glasgow
University at the age of twelve, in accordance with the custom of those
days which permitted attendance at a University at a very early age. The
Matriculation Album of Glasgow University contains the following entry:

1756, Jacobus McGill, filius natu maximus Jacobi mercatoris Glasguensis.

Nine years later, his younger brother Andrew entered the University, as
indicated by the following record in the Matriculation Album:

1765, Andreas McGill, filius natu quintus Jacobi mercatoris
Glasguensis.

Like so many other adventurous Scotchmen of that period, after
completing his education James McGill determined to seek his fortune in
the new land beyond the horizon, from which wondrous stories of the
wealth and romance of the fur-trade were drifting to the old world. He
emigrated to the American Colonies, where he remained for some years,
and where he was later joined by his younger brother, Andrew. But before
the American Revolution the brothers moved to Canada and in 1775 they
were firmly and prosperously established in business in Montreal, where
the older br