41 Facts About Isaac Buchanan

Isaac Buchanan was a businessman, political figure and writer in Upper Canada, then Canada West, Province of Canada.

Isaac Buchanan's business was primarily centred in Hamilton and Canada West, but he was an international merchant, with business interests in Scotland and New York as well as Toronto and Montreal.

Isaac Buchanan was the founder of the regiment that later became the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry.

Isaac Buchanan was actively involved in the presbyterian movement in Canada West, helping to establish the Free Church of Scotland in Canada.

Isaac Buchanan was elected four times to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, originally as a moderate Reformer from Toronto, but gradually moving to more conservative opinions, when elected from Hamilton.

Isaac Buchanan was a generous donor to public causes, particularly in the Hamilton area.

Isaac Buchanan lived in reduced circumstances in his later years, with his income supplemented by a government appointment.

Isaac Buchanan was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1810 to Peter and Margaret Miller Buchanan.

Peter Isaac Buchanan established himself as a manufacturer of cloth in Glasgow, with a factory in Hutcheson Street.

Isaac Buchanan became prominent in the city's mercantile community, becoming a member of the Merchants House and an elder at St David's Church.

Isaac Buchanan's sister was the wife of Peter Buchanan's brother, Andrew.

Isaac Buchanan attended the Glasgow Grammar School but his ambitions for a professional career were thwarted by family financial reverses and the death of his father in 1825.

Isaac Buchanan became a junior partner in a new firm with his employer's son.

Isaac Buchanan travelled to Montreal in 1830 to take charge of the venture.

Isaac Buchanan argued that the end of the imperial preference would inevitably lead to Canada's annexation by the United States.

Isaac Buchanan travelled back and forth between Canada and Britain on matters related to his business, as well as lobbying on trade issues within the British Empire and Canada.

Isaac Buchanan became involved in railway politics, as he was concerned that the Grand Trunk Railway, centred in Montreal, could undercut the trade from the Hamilton area.

Isaac Buchanan invested heavily in the competing Ontario Great Western Railway, centred on Hamilton.

Isaac Buchanan was a director in the Great Western Railway and he attempted to promote its development over those of the competing Grand Trunk.

At the height of his business career, the Isaac Buchanan businesses were some of the largest in Canada, and he was a very wealthy man.

Isaac Buchanan was a commissioned officer in the local militia during the Upper Canada Rebellion, leading troops in Toronto and then on the Niagara frontier.

Years later, in 1862 when he was established in the Hamilton area, Isaac Buchanan founded the 13th Battalion Volunteer Militia, which is one of the predecessors of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry.

Isaac Buchanan served as lieutenant-colonel of the Battalion for two years.

On his appointment as lieutenant-colonel, his wife, Agnes Isaac Buchanan, presented a stand of colours to the Battalion.

Isaac Buchanan was in Glasgow during this period, and favoured the evangelical approach.

Isaac Buchanan was one of many Presbyterians who argued that the Presbyterian churches should share in the disposition of the income from the Clergy Reserves, which fit well with the ideology of the Free Church.

Isaac Buchanan began to demonstrate his political allegiance as a moderate Reformer shortly after arriving in York and taking up business.

Isaac Buchanan began to make an impression in the town, but he found himself resented by the Tory oligarchy of the Family Compact.

Isaac Buchanan considered them provincial in nature, and resented the strong control which the Anglicans had over the town and the province, compared to his own Scots Presbyterian Church.

Isaac Buchanan, with his strong business background in both Upper Canada and Lower Canada, his vehemently expressed dislike for the Tories, as well as his calls for reform of the Clergy Reserves, was an obvious candidate for the Sydenham coalition project.

Isaac Buchanan was nominated for the Toronto riding in the 1841 general election, along with John Henry Dunn, another moderate Reformer, as candidates for the first Legislative Assembly of the new Province of Canada.

Isaac Buchanan believed that the Governor necessarily was the head of the government and had to be able to act independently of the Legislative Assembly, if needed.

Isaac Buchanan thought that responsible government would lead to the end of the British connexion.

Isaac Buchanan supported protectionist trade policies and opposed representation by population.

Isaac Buchanan married Agnes Jarvie, daughter of Robert Jarvie, on January 27,1843, when he was in Scotland.

Isaac Buchanan received a government appointment in 1879 which sustained him through his later years.

Agnes Isaac Buchanan died in Hamilton, May 7,1896, aged 71.

One of the couple's sons, James Isaac Buchanan, worked as a banker in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and made a substantial fortune.

Isaac Buchanan's sisters lived in it for the next thirty years.

In Markham, York Region, Isaac Buchanan Drive is named after him.

The Isaac Buchanan and Family fonds is an extensive collection held by Library and Archives Canada.