Dr Daniel Mackinnon / Donald Mackinnon of Antigua

Name problem: Scottish clan lists often call the Antigua ancestor Donald, while Antigua and the Antiguans calls him Dr Daniel Mackinnon, second son of Lachlan Mòr. For our board, the safest label is Daniel/Donald Mackinnon of Antigua until the naming conflict is fully resolved.

Identity in Antigua source: Antigua and the Antiguans says Dr Daniel Mackinnon was the second son of “Lacklin More Mac’kinnon,” founder of the Mackinnon family in Antigua, and one of the most influential men of his day. It places him at Dickenson’s Bay, Antigua, and says he represented St John’s in the Assembly convened on May twenty-second, 1710.

Colonial activity: Antigua Sugar Mills says Daniel Mackinnon emigrated to Antigua between 1678 and 1688, and connects him with estates including Drapers, Golden Grove and Dickenson’s Bay. It also notes a deed by which Golden Grove was leased to Dr Daniel McKinnon for ninety-nine years.

Reputation conflict: George French, writing in 1718, attacked Daniel as a corrupt Scots apothecary who built a fortune through abusive medical and property practices, drove poor families away to enlarge his possessions, and was suspected in the death of Sir William Mathews. That is hostile testimony, but it matters because it shows Daniel was already controversial inside Antigua’s colonial society.

Legacy: he founds the colonial Mackinnon branch. That branch later produces William Mackinnon and William Alexander Mackinnon, and after the senior Gaelic line dies out in 1808, the chiefship passes into this Antigua-descended line. This is the major moral and historical break: the clan title eventually moves from the war-broken Jacobite Gaelic line into a Caribbean plantation family.