During the War of 1812, he helped pay the ransom of a number of prisoners held by Native Americans following the River Raisin Massacre.
[2] His father was a supporter of the Stuart claim to the British throne, which made him unpopular with the government and prompted him to move his family to the United States in 1785.
After a fire destroyed his father's business, McDonell was sent in 1798 to work as a clerk in his uncle's mercantile house in York, Canada.
Although the intercession of the American ambassador to Great Britain eventually led to the outlawry judgment being dropped in 1826, he had lost all of his property and outstanding business debts owed to him in Canada.
McDonell was one of several Wayne County residents who signed a statement calling for such a convention, which eventually approved the proposal and removed the last obstacle to Michigan's statehood.