James Buchanan Macaulay

Who was James Buchanan Macaulay?

Colonel Sir James Buchanan Macaulay, CB was a lawyer and judge in colonial Canada.

Macaulay, born at Newark, Upper Canada, 3 December 1793, was the second son of James Macaulay by his wife Elizabeth Tuck Hayter. His father was posted from England to Canada in 1792, attached to the Queen's Rangers, and was afterwards the Chief Medical Officer of Upper Canada, under the patronage of his friend John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada.

Macaulay served as an ensign in the 98th regiment. In 1812, he joined the Glengarry Fencibles as a lieutenant, and fought during the War of 1812 with America at the Battles of Ogdensburg, Oswego, Lundy's Lane, and at the Siege of Fort Erie. At the close of the war in 1815 his corps was disbanded, and after studying law he was admitted to the Canadian bar in 1822.