Herber Stone McDonald, Judge of the united Counties of Leeds and Grenville, dates his birth at Gananoque, County of Leeds, Ont., February, 23, 1842, being a son of Hon. John McDonald, at one time a member of the Legislative Council of Canada, and Henrietta M. Mallory, his wife. His grandfather, John McDonald, senior, was from Perthshire, Scotland, and settled at Fort Edward, N. Y. John McDonald, junior, was at one time in business in Troy, N. Y., coming to Canada in 1817.
The subject of this sketch finished his literary education at Queen’s College, Kingston, whence he was graduated B.A., in 1859, and received the title of M.A. in 1861. His legal education he obtained at Brockville and Toronto; was called to the Bar in 1863, and practiced at Brockville until he went on the Bench, being appointed Junior Judge in the autumn of 1873, and Senior in December, 1878, He is regarded as one of the most promising of the recently appointed Judges; is studious and painstaking, lucid in his charges, and is usually correct in his conceptions of the merits of a case.
Judge McDonald was returned to the Provincial Parliament in 1871, and resigned to take his seat on the Bench, to which, brief as his career is as a jurist, he has done credit.
He is a Master Mason, but rarely attends the meetings of the order, holding his connection with the lodge at Newboro, County of Leeds.
He is a member of the Church of England, and a delegate to the Synod, being quite prominent among the laymen of that religious body.
June 15, 1863, Emma Matilda, daughter of David Jones, Registrar of the County of Leeds, was united in marriage with Judge McDonald, and they have two children.