Thomas McKay

Thomas McKay (September 1, 1792 – October 9, 1855) was a Canadian businessman who was one of the founders of the city of Ottawa, Ontario. He was born in Perth, Scotland and became a skilled stonemason. He emigrated to the Canadas in 1817, and settled in Montreal.

He became partners with John Redpath and their firm did the masonry work on the Lachine Canal near Montreal, they then went on to build the locks on the lower section of the Rideau Canal, between the Rideau River and the Ottawa River at Bytown. McKay also built two stone spans for the Union Bridge, which was the first bridge across the Ottawa River between Hull, Quebec and Bytown. The Commissariat building built by McKay in 1827 during the construction of the Rideau Canal now serves as home to the Bytown Museum and is the oldest surviving stone building in the city of Ottawa.

McKay was one of the few business leaders to remain in Bytown after the canal project was finished. He bought land at the intersection of the Rideau River and Ottawa River and laid out a town, which he named New Edinburgh. McKay built a sawmill and a gristmill on land there. He encouraged Scottish immigrants to come to the area and it became a prosperous industrial centre. He was an Elder and Trustee of St. Andrew's congregation of the Church of Scotland, and partly responsible for the acquisition of The Glebe lands for St Andrew's. In 1840, he attempted to persuade the Church of Scotland Canada Synod to erect their College in Bytown, but in 1841, Queen's College was started in Kingston, Canada West.