William Macomb (c. 1751 – April 16, 1796) was a British colonial merchant and fur trader in the

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

area before and after the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, who got his start as a young man in the colony of New York. He was a brother of Alexander Macomb, and the two were partners in Detroit. After the war, Macomb was elected as a member of the first parliament of

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of th ...

in 1792, and he was the largest slaveholder in the area of Michigan at the time of his death. He died shortly before the British evacuated from Fort Detroit under the

Jay Treaty The Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, Between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America, commonly known as the Jay Treaty, and also as Jay's Treaty, was a 1794 treaty between the United States and Great Britain that averted ...

, which was ratified in 1795.

Early life

Macomb was born in

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

, northern Ireland around 1751, of Scots ancestry. He was the son of John Macomb, a merchant, and Jane Gordon."William Macomb"
''Becoming Prominent: Regional Leadership in Upper Canada, 1791-1841'', McGill-Queens University Press, 1989, p. 213 When he was a child, his family emigrated in 1755 to the colony of New York. They settled in Albany, where his father John Macomb was a merchant. With his older brother,

Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

, William also went into fur trading in upstate New York, dealing with the six nations of the Iroquois and other tribes around the southern part of the Great Lakes.

Career in Detroit

In 1774 the brothers moved to

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

(now

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

, USA) as agents for Phyn & Ellice, fur traders in

Schenectady Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

, who sold them their stock for that site. David B. Dill Jr. "Portrait of an Opportunist: The Life of Alexander Macomb"
''

Watertown Daily Times The ''Watertown Daily Times'' is a newspaper published six days a week, Tuesday through Sunday, in Watertown, New York. It provides coverage of Jefferson County, Lewis County, St. Lawrence County and Oswego County. It was founded in 1861 and ...

,'' (September 9, 1990). First of a 3-part series Trading here since the 17th century, French Canadians were fiercely competitive in the area, but the young men felt they had a good start. In 1776 the Macomb brothers purchased Grosse Ile from the Potawatomi Indians. The island was not settled by European Americans until after the war. During the

, the Macombs continued to supply the British at Fort Detroit and the Indian Department, becoming wealthy and highly influential, and taking another partner. Alexander Macomb returned to New York, settling in Manhattan before the end of the war. He became a very wealthy American land speculator, making profits from transactions in Georgia, North Carolina and Kentucky. William Macomb continued to lead their business in the Detroit area, forming many connections with other British military and civil authorities. His trade with natives continued to include liquor, although this was officially discouraged by local Catholic leaders and

John Graves Simcoe John Graves Simcoe (25 February 1752 – 26 October 1806) was a British Army general and the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada from 1791 until 1796 in southern Ontario and the watersheds of Georgian Bay and Lake Superior. He founded Yor ...

, the first Lieutenant Governor of

, the jurisdiction established in 1791 after the United States gained independence. Macomb married Sarah Jane Dring, and they had at least eight children together. One account said that, after her death, he married a woman of the surname Gallant. Another said that Sarah Jane survived his death.

Political activities

In July 1788, Macomb was appointed as a judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the District of Hesse. It was known as the Western District after 1792, when

was established. The district covered not only present-day Western Ontario, but extended to the settlements at Detroit and

Michilimackinac Michilimackinac ( ) is derived from an Ottawa Ojibwe name for present-day Mackinac Island and the region around the Straits of Mackinac between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.. Early settlers of North America applied the term to the entire region ...

, which were also under British control at the time. The British vacated these areas in 1796. In 1792, Macomb was elected to the

1st Parliament of Upper Canada The 1st Parliament of Upper Canada was opened 17 September 1792. Elections in Upper Canada had been held in August 1792. All sessions were held at Navy Hall in Newark, later Niagara-on-the-Lake. This parliament was dissolved 1 July 1796. T ...

; he was among three men elected from Detroit to this parliament. Together with François Baby, he represented

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, serving until his death in 1796. Macomb died at Detroit two months before the British evacuation of the fort in July 1796, following settlement of the border between Canada and the United States by the

, which was ratified in 1795. Seven of his eight surviving children were still minors at that time. With 26 slaves listed in his estate at the time of his death, Macomb was recorded as holding the most slaves of any person in what is now known as Michigan.

Legacy

Macomb was survived by his wife Sarah and the following children: John W. (named for his father), Anne, Catherine, William, Sarah, Jane, David B., and Eliza. His widow and children continued to live in Detroit after his death, becoming Americans after changes under the Jay Treaty. All of these children except John W. Macomb were minors at the time of the June 1805 fire that destroyed Detroit, according to land board records."Proceedings of the Land Board of Detroit"
''Governor and Judges Journal'', p. 158; at Internet Archive; retrieved 2/23/2009

References

External links