John was born is the town of Glasgow Scotland on January 11th, 1815. He was the second son of Hugh Macdonald (his father). At the age of five years old, John and his family moved to the country known as Canada. They Settled Near Kingston, then known as the most important town is all of Upper Canada. After four years they moved to Quinte Bay, leaving John at a school in Kingston, at the time John was ten years old. John was placed at the Royal Grammar school, with the tutor Dr. Wilson. After John turned 16 years old, his dad came and took him out of school and put him to work at the office of George Mackenzie, where he worked really hard at studying law. When he started to practice law, there were rumors of a big storm that would cover the country. The next year a bunch of people, in Lower Canada lead by Papineau and in Upper Canada lead by William Lyon Mackenzie, were forced to take guard because a "body of hunters" were attacking from America, under the command of a Pole named Von Shoultz, Shoultz was captured and his followers were killed. Then Courts were established at London and Kingston, and Shoultz and his accompanies were on trial for there crimes. John was Von Shoultz" lawyer. He was such a good lawyer he attracted a lot of attention. In 1844, The worst part of Lord Mercalfes reign, John was elected for Kingston, beating Mr. Manahan. When he first joined the council, he sat at his desk doing nothing while the best encounters for that part of "parliament" history went on, "looking" said a man who saw John just sit there. Johns first speech was to respond to the Hon. Robert Baldwin, even though what he was doing was daring, what he was doing was based on a large amount of common sense. During the final days of Tourism, Mr. Draper, the Attorney General, brought up a case and said, " Your time has come at last, Macdonald". John then became a Receiver General, but after a while he took care of England's land that was in Canada, in a short time he turned the confusion of the people into cooperation.