Allan MacNab

Sir Allan Napier MacNab, 1st Baronet (19 February 1798 – 8 August 1862) was a Canadian political leader and Premier of the Province of Canada before Canadian Confederation (1854–1856).

Biography

Allan Napier MacNab was born in Niagara, Upper Canada (now Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario) to Allan MacNab and Anne Napier; daughter of Capt. Peter William Napier, R.N., the commissioner of the port and harbour of Quebec. When MacNab was a one-year-old, he was baptized in the Anglican church in St. Mark's Parish of Newark. His father was a lieutenant in the 71st Regiment and the Queen's Rangers under Lt-Col. John Graves Simcoe. After the Queen’s Rangers were disbanded, the family moved around the country in search of work and eventually settled in York (Toronto) where MacNab was educated at the Home District Grammar School.

As a fourteen-year-old boy he fought in the War of 1812. He probably served at York and also certainly as the point man in the Canadian forlorn hope that headed the Anglo-Canadian assault on Fort Niagara. The 20 local men eliminated two American pickets of 20 men each with the bayonet before taking part in the final assault (Captain Kerby of the Incorporated Militia Battalion was reportedly the first man into the fort).