Date Published:
February 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

John Dougall

Dougall, John (1808-1886), was born at Paisley, Scotland, on July 8, 1808, the eldest son of John Dougall, manufacturer. He came to Canada at the age of eighteen, as a commercial traveller. In 1835 his interest in temperance reform led him to accept the editorship of the Canada Temperance Advocate; and in 1846 he founded the Montreal Witness, first as a weekly, then in 1860 as a daily, newspaper. The success of this paper, which appealed to strict religious and temperance sentiment, was unprecedented. In 1871 Dougall founded a similar paper in New York, the Daily Witness, but this disappeared in 1878, leaving behind it, however, the Weekly Witness, which long enjoyed a large circulation. On August 19, 1886, he died suddenly at Flushing, Long Island, New York. He married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of John Redpath, Montreal.

Source: W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., p. 228.