The University of Guelph's Centre for Scottish Studies is pleased to announce the last talk of the summer Roundtable Series on Monday, August 15th, at 3pm in the MacKinnon Extension building, room 132. The talk will be given by Dr Katie McCullough, Director of the Centre for Scottish Studies at Simon Fraser University, and Guelph alumna. The talk is entitled "Loyal They Remain: Building a Highland Scottish Community in Upper Canada." 

This paper explores the formation of a Highland Scottish community in Glengarry County, Ontario in the early nineteenth century. Following the Napoleonic Wars, a network of Highland Scottish colonial elites set their sights on supporting a burgeoning Highland Scottish community located in Upper Canada by opening a branch of the London-based association the Highland Society of London, called the Highland Society of Canada (HSC). 

The HSC brought Highland Scottish elites in Glengarry County, as well as nearby Montreal, together to socialize and distribute charity to their settler community. Men who joined the HSC included some of the most notable members of the colonial elite, many of who were either part of or had close ties to the "Family Compact," or the developing "Tory" establishment in Upper Canada who were loyal to the British crown. 

Through association, maintaining links to London, and by re-creating the charitable projects of the parent society, including support for the development of education and agriculture, and promoting and supporting Highland culture in Glengarry County, the HSC ensured Highland Scottish identity was maintained in Upper Canada in the years leading up to Canadian Confederation.