Background and Early Years in Scotland, 1795–1820
Mackenzie was born in Dundee, Scotland. Both of Mackenzie's parents, Daniel Mackenzie, a weaver, and Elizabeth Mackenzie, née Chambers, came from Kirkmichael. They married in May 1794: a widow, Elizabeth was seventeen years older than Daniel. Daniel allegedly died three weeks after William Lyon Mackenzie's birth (though historians have been unable to find a record of his burial) and Mackenzie was raised by his mother. Elizabeth Mackenzie was a deeply religious woman, a proponent of the Secession, a branch of Scottish Presbyterianism deeply committed to the separation of church and state. While William Lyon Mackenzie was not a religious man himself, he remained a proponent of separation of church and state for his entire life.
Mackenzie entered a parish grammar school at Dundee at age 5, thanks to a bursary, and then moved on to a Mr. Adie's school. Mackenzie early on adopted habits as a voracious reader, keeping a list detailing the 958 books he read between 1806 and 1820. By 1810, at age 15, he was writing for a local newspaper. During this time he also joined an early "Mechanics Institute". It was there that he met Edward Lesslie and his sons James and John, who would play a large role in Mackenzie's life. They would all be key to establishing a Mechanics Institute in Toronto.
Mackenzie's mother arranged for him to apprentice with several tradesmen in Dundee, but in 1814, he was able to secure financial backing from Edward Lesslie to open a general store and circulating library in Alyth. During this period Mackenzie had a romantic relationship with one Isabel Reid, of whom nothing is known except that she gave birth to Mackenzie's illegitimate son on July 17, 1814. The boy was raised by Mackenzie's mother.
During the recession which followed the ending of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, Mackenzie's store in Dundee went bankrupt and he had to travel to seek work, first returning to Dundee; then going to Wiltshire in 1818 to work for a canal company; travelled briefly to France; and then worked briefly for a newspaper in London.
Lacking stable employment, at age 25, Mackenzie decided to emigrate to British North America, along with his friend John Lesslie.
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