# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Macdonald, Archibald

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​MACDONALD. (Retired Commander, 1842.)
Archibald Macdonald, born in Nov. 1786, in co. Linlithgow, N.B., is a younger son of John Macdonald Kinneir, of Sander and Kinneir, and is descended in a direct line from the second son of John, Lord of the Isles. His brother. Sir John Macdonald Kinneir, was Envoy in Persia.
This officer entered the Navy, 8 March, 1798, as Midshipman, on board the Ardent 64, Capt. Thos. Bertie; previously to accompanying whom into the Bellona 74, he attended the expedition of 1799 to the Helder, and was wounded in the action off Copenhagen 2 April, 1801. In Feb. 1802, being then in the West Indies, he removed to the Bellerophon 74, Capt. John Loring; and during his attachment to that ship he assisted at the capture, among other vessels, of Le Duquesne 74, and La Créole of 44 guns, with the French General Morgan and 500 troops on board. After he had for a short time served in the Cumberland 74, Capt. John Serrell, Mr. Macdonald was transferred, in July, 1803, to La Créole, which had been added to the British Navy and placed under the orders of Capt. Austin Bissell. In Jan. 1804, however, the latter ship, during her passage to England, unfortunately foundered, and would have carried all on board to destruction had ​not the Cumberland miraculously hove in sight at the eleventh hour, and with great difficulty effected their rescue. In the following May (he had been intermediately employed in the Montagu 74, Capt. Robt. Waller Otway, and Ville de Paris 110, flag-ship of Hon. Wm. Cornwallis) Mr. Macdonald was placed, with the rank, we believe, of Acting-Lieutenant, in command of the Capelin schooner, on the Newfoundland station, where he remained until Feb. 1807. He was then (having been officially promoted on 22 of the preceding Dec.) appointed a Lieutenant of the Tribune frigate, Capts. Thos. Baker and Geo. Reynolds, with whom, until he invalided in Nov. 1812, he served in the Channel, Baltic, and West Indies. In April, 1807, we find him assisting, when in company with the Isis, at the destruction of the greater part of a convoy of 30 vessels passing from Ferrol to Bilbao under the protection of several gun-boats. He was also present, in 1809, in an action with some Danish gun-boats in the Belt; and in the course of the same year he chanced to be on board the Charger gun-brig, in the Malmo Channel, when that vessel preserved a convoy from capture. He had previously, we understand, been sent by Sir Rich. Keats with despatches from off Gottenborg to England in a small prize-boat of so crazy a description that it was with the greatest difficulty he succeeded in keeping her afloat, encountered as he was by four days of the most desperate weather. On 12 May, 1810, being again on board the Tribune, Mr. Macdonald partook of a gallant action of two hours and a quarter, in which the latter, with a loss of 9 men killed and 15 wounded, beat off, on the coast of Norway, four Danish brigs-of-war, carrying altogether 74 guns. From Sept. 1813 to June, 1814, he had charge of the Bienfaisant prison-ship at ]?lymouth. Entering the Transport service in Jan. 1815, he superintended the debarkations of the troops before and after the battle of Waterloo; and when at Antwerp in the following winter he alone despatched upwards of 90 vessels with army ordnance and stores to England. His last appointment afloat was to the command, in 1823, of the Harpy Revenue-vessel, in which he cruized with much success for a period of three years. He accepted his present rank 26 Jan. 1842.
Commander Macdonald has been for many years employed in the Quarantine service at Liverpool. He married Miss Cox, of St. John’s, Newfoundland, and by that lady has had issue a large family.