 His father, Edward Campion Acheson, was an English-born Canadian (immigrated to Canada in 1881) who, after serving in The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada during the North-West Rebellion of 1885, became a Church of England priest after graduating from Wycliffe College and moved to the U.S. eventually becoming an Episcopal Bishop of Connecticut.His mother, Eleanor Gertrude (Gooderham), was a Canadian-born descendant of William Gooderham, Sr. (1790–1881), a founder of the Gooderham and Worts Distillery of Toronto.Like his father, Acheson was a staunch Democrat and opponent of prohibition.