John MacNider (1760-1829)

He was born at Kilmarnock, Ayrshire. He came out to Quebec to work for his uncle, Mathew, who ran that side of the family's considerable import-export business. His uncle died in 1804 and John succeeded him as head of the business in conjunction with his brother, Mathew, back in Scotland. They had five warehouses in Quebec City and sold Canadian timber and supplies to the Royal Navy while trading in wine and spices from Europe and the British West Indies. John kept shipyards at Sillery where he built ships and sent cargoes of timber to Britain. Near there, he built the home that he named New Kilmarnock. Having co-founded and served as either President or vice-President of the Quebec Savings Bank, he retired in 1816 and passed the family business on to his stepson, Charles William Ross, and his stepson-in-law, John Graddon.

John MacNider is best remembered as the pioneering and visionary Seigneur of Grand-Métis and Métis-sur-Mer which he purchased in 1807 from his late uncle's estate. John was described as, "a man with the dreams and ambition to pursue (its) development and with the means to do so". From nothing, he developed a thriving Scottish community into which he willingly put more money in than he ever took out. Though MacNider died three years before its completion, he played a crucial role in persuading Governor Sir James Kempt to build the road that would connect Métis by land to the outside world. The road became a settlement magnet, and Métis quickly became the principal population centre for the Gaspé region. He willed Metis to his nephew, Adam Lymburner MacNider, whose son sold it in 1851. In 1886, it was purchased by Lord Mount Stephen whose niece, Mrs Elsie Reford, the pioneer horticulturalist, built Estevan Lodge and created Les Jardins de Metis.