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Thank you for your immediate and helpful replies. My question did relate to a military context and topic 842376.0 was a thread that I started 12 months ago. I still haven't managed to trace any record of John MacDonald HEICS, hence my question. The link to the militaryarchivesresearch.com is interesting, as it suggests that there are more sources of HEICS Army records that I have been aware. I'll try to investigate further. 

That's interesting. I'm not currently subscribed to Find My Past but may have to rejoin. I vaguely remember that there was some confusion about the date of his death but I had assumed that the transcription of the grave inscription was correct.  The family tree in the MacDonald family book actually shows  'Angus John MacDonald (1757-1830)' but I don't know the source of their information.

Thank you, Shaun, for you further input.

It was only a reference that I had recently found in the Celtic Magazine https://archive.org/details/celticmagazine06unkngoog/page/n343/mode/2up?q=Lerigan to Jessie MacDonald's father being Lieutenant John MacDonald that made me think that he was an officer. I'll have another look at her marriage records to see if his rank is mentioned.

I must confess that I am not sure that I have seen a specific reference to John McD being Controller/Comptroller of Customs. I was relying on family reports. I think that I have only come across 'of Customs' or 'Customhouse' http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~coigach/genealogy/articles/18251125ij.htm 

I had come across the reference to Jane MacKenzie's father being Comptroller of Customs in the Dundonnell Cause proceedings. I thought that he must have been Comptroller prior to John McD.

I didn't know that there were Customs records at NRS, so will definitely try to look at them. I had tried to find them at Kew and the Highland Archive Centre. I had also tried to visit the Border Force National Museum library in Liverpool but it was, unfortunately, closed at the time.

Thank you, Shaun. That is very interesting. Am I right in thinking that the Bengal and Madras Army lists would, therefore, not include HEICS Officers? I see that the HEICS Cadet Registers are kept at the National Archives, so think that I shall have to try to pay them a visit.