John McCaul (March 7, 1807 – April 16, 1887) was an Irish-born Canadian educator, theologian, and the second president of the University of Toronto from 1848 to 1853.

In 1849, King's College was renamed as the University of Toronto, and McCaul was elected to succeed John Strachan as president.

[2] McCaul would spend fifteen years at Trinity College, receiving a Master of Arts in 1828, after which he was given the job of University Examiner of Classics.

McCaul authored numerous books while at Trinity College focused on the classical poetry of Horace and other Roman satirist, as well as Greek tragedies.

McCaul had expressed his interest to Bagot for a role at the new University, who decided to appoint him Vice-President and Professor of Classics.

However, Bishop John Strachan, the founder of King's College, initially resisted, advocating recruiting someone from England, instead of appointing the Irish McCaul, writing:“if we are to commence King’s College in an imposing, popular, and effective manner, the President and leading Professors must without exception be from England, and this I believe is now generally expected by a vast majority of the intelligent inhabitants of the Province.”[4]Yet, Bagot remained sufficiently impressed by McCaul's qualifications and work at Upper Canada College that he dismissed Strachan objections.

However, soon after, the government led by the reformist Baldwin abolished Kings’ College and established the non-sectarian University of Toronto.

[9]” John Langton, who served in the Senate of the University of Toronto wrote "Dr. McCaul is no doubt a first rate scholar and a very clever man and he has one element fitting him for command, that whether it is by bullying or by compromising or by artful countermining he never loses sight of the main object - to have his own way in the end.

McCaul as president was also required to act on some of the major social questions of the age, including the role of women and Black people in society.

It was a great subject of astonishment to some of our Kentucky friends, who came over here last year in October, when they saw this mulatto get the first prize for Greek verse which he had to recite.”[11]McCaul did not support the admission of Women into University of College.

In 1869, Dr. Emily Howard Stowe, who would become the first female physician to practice in Canada, applied to take lessons at University College.

Additionally, he edited The Maple Leaf; or Canadian Annual, a Literary Souvenir, and contributed articles and reviews to various periodicals.