Robert MacHray was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. He studied mathematics at King's College, Aberdeen and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He was ordained as a deacon in the Church of England in 1855 and a priest in the following year. In 1865 he became the bishop of Rupert's Land, which was headquartered in Winnipeg, MB, Canada. In 1875 he became the metropolitan of Canada, and at the union of the Canadian Anglican churches in 1893 he was created archbishop of Rupert's Land and primate of all Canada. He received the honorary degree of D.D. from Manitoba University in 1883; from Durham in 1888, and that of D.C.L. from Trinity College, Toronto, m 1893. He died unmarried at Winnipeg on 9 March 1904. A state funeral was decreed, and he was buried in the cemetery of St. John's Cathedral.