Who was James McGill?
In 1813, James McGill bequeathed a 46-acre estate and £10,000 to found a university or college for educational purposes.
Chartered in 1821, McGill began instruction in 1829 at the Faculty of Medicine. The Faculty of Arts was established in 1843. Over the decades the University added steadily to its programs and facilities.
The first women students were admitted in 1884. In 1907, the University added Macdonald Campus when Sir William Macdonald endowed a college at Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, 40 kilometres (about 25 miles) west of Montreal - today the site of McGill's Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
Mandate of the Society
The James McGill Society was formed in 1975. Its primary concern is to foster interest and appreciation of McGill University's history and personalities, which are interpreted broadly to include current activities and impending developments - that is both past history and history in the making.
The Society covers the entire spectrum of McGill life: academic and research activities, student life, and administrative activities. Arts, Science, Medicine, and all the other faculties have been discussed in rotation over the years. Macdonald College is an area of continuing interest.
Constitution
Read the constitution of the Society:
Meetings of the Society
The Society meets four or five times a year. See Meetings for more information.
Presidents *
| Dates | Presidents |
|---|---|
| 1975-1985 | Edward Bensley, Faculty of Medicine |
| * | Michael Maxwell, Department of History |
| * | Robert V. V. Nicholls, Department of Chemistry |
| * | Max Dunbar, Department of Meteorology |
| 1985-1987 | Stanley Frost, Director, History of McGill Project |
| 1987-1989 | Margaret Gillett, Faculty of Education |
| 1989-1991 | Carman Miller, Department of History |
| 1991-1993 | Robert H. Michel, McGill University Archives |
| 1993-1995 | M. A. Whitehead, Department of Chemistry |
| 1995-1997 | Peter F. McNally, Graduate School of Library and Information Studies |
| 1997-1999 | William Feindel, Montreal Neurological Institute |
| 1999-2001 | Tom Thompson, Development Office |
| 2001-2003 | David Covo, School of Architecture |
| 2003-2005 | Johanne Pelletier, McGill University Secretariat |
| 2005-2007 | John Hobbins, Nahum Gelber Law Library |
| 2007-2009 | Desmond Morton, Department of History |
| 2009-2011 | Gordon Burr, McGill University Archives |
| 2011-2013 | Susan Button, Development and Alumni Relations |
| 2013-2015 | Theresa Rowat, Director and University Archivist McGill University Archives |
| 2015-2017 | Jarrett Rudy, Department of History |
| 2017-2019 |
Christopher Lyons, |
| 2019-2023 | Ronald Critchley, Historical Researcher |
| 2023- | Wes Cross, Historical Researcher |
* Uncertainty exists concerning the specific dates when the first four Presidents held office.
From the Will of James McGill
I give and devise all that tract or parcel of land commonly called Burnside, situated near the city of Montreal, containing about forty six acres ... to the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning, constituted and established ...
... by virtue of an Act of the Parliament of the Province of Lower Canada made and passed in the forty sixth year of His majesty's Reign ... upon condition that the said Royal Institution for the Advancement of learning do and shall, within the space of ten years, to be accounted from the time of my decease, erect and establish ...
... upon the said last mentioned tract or parcel of land, an University or College, for the purposes of education and the advancement of learning in this Province.
James McGill Fonds, MSG435 Rare Books and Special Collections