Joseph MacKay was born on September 18, 1810, in Kildonan, Highland, Scotland.

He was a businessman and philanthropist. He was educated in Scotland. In 1832, he immigrated to Montreal where he established a wholesale dry goods business. His brother Edward became his partner in 1850 and his nephew, Hugh, in 1856, becoming MacKay Brothers. In 1864, Joseph MacKay became involved in the plans to establish the Presbyterian College of Montreal (opened in 1867). He made several donations and was active in soliciting subscriptions for the college. He also served on its board of managers. His business flourished and in 1875, Joseph and Edward retired, leaving the Mackay Brothers business in the hands of Hugh, assisted by his brothers Robert and James. Joseph became interested in the missionary work of the church and in 1879, he was ordained an elder in the St. Gabriel Street Church. He bequeathed $10,000 to the Presbyterian College, and Edward gave an additional sum of $40,000 at the time of Joseph’s death to endow the Joseph Mackay Chair of Systematic Theology. The MacKays were best known for their support of work with handicapped children. A school, the Protestant Institution for Deaf-Mutes and for the Blind, was established in Montreal in 1869. In 1876, Joseph gave property on Décarie Boulevard, and at his own expense erected a four-storey building. He assumed the presidency, and in 1878, the school was renamed in his honour, the MacKay Institution for Protestant Deaf-Mutes.

He died on June 2, 1881, in Montreal, Quebec.

Robert Mackay was born on October 27, 1816, in Montreal, Quebec.

He was a judge and philanthropist. After being admitted to the bar in 1838, he developed a highly successful law practice in partnership with W.H. Austin and received acknowledgment of his professional accomplishments by becoming Batonnier of the Montreal Bar. In 1867, he became Queen's Counsel, and in 1868, Judge of the Superior Court. Due to ill health, he retired from the judiciary in 1882. He also served on the McGill Board of Governors from 1879 to 1887 and bequeathed his book collection consisting of some 2,000 titles, of which 450 were on non-law subjects to McGill university. In addition to his legal/judicial career, he had a great interest in art, becoming President of the Montreal Art Association in 1882. He donated his valuable art collection to the Fraser Institute.

He was married to Ann Kearney (-1843) and in 1848, he remarried Christina MacKay (1824-). He died on February 23, 1888, in Montreal, Quebec.

Campbell Duncan Mackellar was born on March 3, 1859, in Hamilton, Victoria, Australia.

He was an Anglo-Australian author who also wrote under the pseudonyms of “H.R.H.” and “Hilarion.” Little is known of his early life. After leaving Australia, he became a European celebrity, thanks to his interest in Balkan politics. MacKellar wrote novels, short stories, and dramatic sketches. All were published in Britain, except the short story collection “The Premier's Secret and Other Tales” (1887), published in Australia. He wrote “The Old Stradivari and Other Dramatic Sketches” (1894) and the novels “Lothair's Children” (1892), “A Jersey Witch” (1892), and “In Oban Town” (1896.) The other short story collection is “Grafin Rinsky and Other Tales” (1892). In 1890, he sent a letter to the editor of The Times, "The Proposed Antarctic Expedition." He published a travel book, "Scented Isles and Coral Gardens: Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies" (1912). He was a member of the Royal Geographical Society of Australia. MacKellar sponsored the Nimrod Expedition (1907-1909) led by British polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911-1914) led by Australian polar explorer Sir Douglas Mawson. Near the South Pole, there is a Mount Mackellar, named after him by Sir Ernest Shackleton, and, in the Antarctic, there is a group of islands, the Mackellar Isles, named after him by Sir Douglas Mawson.

He died on May 5, 1925, in London, England.

John MacKellar (d. 1854) was a British Admiral who succeeded Robert Murray as prison agent at the Office for Prisoners of War located in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He held the post from 1804 until approximately 1810. He was the eldest son of General MacKellar, who was employed as chief engineer under General Wolfe.

Scottish explorer Mackenzie is best known for his east-west overland crossing of Canada to the Pacific 1793. He was born in Stornoway in the Scottish Outer Hebrides. He sailed for North America in 1774 and was sent to school in Montréal. By 1779, he was worked as an apprentice for Finlay, Gregory & Co., afterwards Gregory, McLeod and Co., and which later merged with the North West company in 1787. He was sent to Detroit in 1784 and to the West in 1785. When the firm was absorbed in the North West Co. in 1787, Mackenzie joined the North West as a partner. He traveled to Athabasca in 1788, leaving on an expedition to try find a northwest passage to the Pacific, reaching the Arctic Ocean. The river Mackenzie that he traveled in now named after him. Mackenzie made an expedition to the Arctic Ocean from Fort Chipewyan in 1789 along the river which now bears his name. His significant expedition in 1792 took him across Canada to the Pacific, using recent advancements in the study of longitude that he had learned in London. In 1793 he journeyed to the Pacific Ocean. In 1790 he severed his connection with the North West Co. and returned to England, where he published his Voyages in 1801 and was knighted in 1802. He returned to Canada in 1802 to become a leading partner in the XY Company. In 1805 Mackenzie was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada from Huntingdon County. In 1812, Mackenzie returned to Scotland and married Geddes Mackenzie. He died in Scotland in 1820.

Alexander MacKenzie was born on October 8, 1805, in Montreal and died on May 10, 1862, in Terrebonne, Quebec. He was a son of Roderick Mackenzie (1761-1844) and Marie Louise Rachel Chaboillez (1786-1853). Mackenzie married Marie-Louise Trottier Desrivières Beaubien in 1833. He was an officer in the British Army and a partner in the North West Company.

Charles Mackenzie was born in Scotland in 1774. In 1803 he entered the service of the North West Co. In 1804, he was a clerk on the Assiniboine. Mackenzie made four trading expeditions to the Missouri Indians in the years 1804 to 1806. His account of the Missouris was published by L.R. Masson in his Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest (1889). He spent most of the rest of his service in the region of Rainy Lake and Albany where he was transferred in 1807. He was a clerk for the Hudson's Bay Co. from 1821 until he retired in 1854. He died at the Red River Settlement in 1855.