Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Macdonald, John (1727-1779)
MACDONALD, JOHN (1727–1779), Scottish catholic prelate, nephew, by his mother, to Bishop Hugh Macdonald [q. v.], was born in Argyllshire in 1727. He entered the Scots College at Rome in 1743, and was there ordained priest in 1752. Returning to Scotland in 1753, he officiated as missionary, first in Lochaber, and then in the island of South Uist. In January 1761 the Propaganda appointed him coadjutor to his uncle, and he was consecrated at Preshome on 27 Sept. of the same year to the see of Tiberiopolis (Strumitza), in partibus infidelium. On Bishop Hugh Macdonald's death in 1773, he succeeded him as vicar apostolic of the highland district of Scotland. He died on 9 May 1779, and was succeeded in the vicariate apostolic by Alexander Macdonald.
[Brady's Episcopal Succession, iii. 465; London and Dublin Weekly Orthodox Journal, 1837, iv. 84; Stothert's Catholic Mission in Scotland, pp. 12, 176.]