Fonds F2865 - Henry Eustace MacFutter fonds

The Honourable Henry E. MacFutter, born in 1817, was the son of a wealthy Montreal distiller, who, in 1837, was banished by his father to Kingston to article in the law office of a young lawyer by the name of John A. Macdonald. However, he soon reverted to his former life as a rake -- drinking, gambling, and womanizing. His trail of misdeeds became tracherous after crossing paths with Edward Barker, Pirate Bill and his daughter Kate, and a murdeous officer in the Fort Henry Guard. He also fell out early on with his legal mentor.

After Macdonald became Prime Minister in 1867, he set about expunging his former student's name from the documentary record, both before and after Confederation. Hence the reason his name, his very existence, is missing from the hisorical record, or as one commentator has noted, "its almost as if Henry Eustace MacFutter is a man who never lived."

MacFutter received Honorary Degrees from McGill, Dalhousie, Oxford, and Queen's. During his day, he was one of the wealthiest, most influential and high-profile men in the British Empire. His accomplishments were legion. He was a celebrated explorer, a hurdy-gurdy virtuoso, a renowned phrenologist, statesman, and author. A close friend was President Theodore Roosevelt, with whom MacFutter hunted big game in Africa.