Andrew Frederick Gault
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Andrew Frederick Gault (14 April 1833 – 7 July 1903) was an Ulster-born Canadian merchant, industrialist, and philanthropist known as the Cotton King of Canada. Born in
Strabane Strabane ( ; ) is a town in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Strabane had a population of 13,172 at the 2011 Census. It lies on the east bank of the River Foyle. It is roughly midway from Omagh, Derry and Letterkenny. The River Foyle marks ...
, Ireland, Gault was the youngest son of Leslie Gault, an
Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...
merchant and shipowner in
County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional Counties of Ireland, counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an admini ...
and his wife Mary Hamilton. His mother was from an old family in
County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconne ...
His father was a general trader in Strabane who branched out into shipping, sending emigrant ships to New Brunswick and the United States, to return with timber and grain. In 1841 Leslie Gault lost three ships at sea and also lost money on grain and timber, due to falling markets. In 1842 he himself emigrated with his family to Lower Canada to make a fresh start in Montreal, the mercantile centre of British North America, but nine months later he died of cholera. His widow returned to Ireland. Their son, Mathew Hamilton Gault, aged twenty, took control of the business in Montreal, while Andrew Gault attended the new
High School of Montreal The High School of Montreal was an English-language high school founded in 1843, serving Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in the area eventually known as the Golden Square Mile. It was less formally known as Montreal High School and from 1853 to 1870 was ...
.Michael Hinton,
Gault, Andrew Frederick
, in ''Canadian Dictionary of Biography''
On leaving school Gault joined the dry-goods firm of Walter McFarlane, and from 1853 to 1858 he was in partnership with James B. Stevenson as Gault, Stevenson and Co., then formed a company with his brother Robert Leslie Gault, as Gault Brothers and Company, later joined by a brother-in-law, Samuel Finley. Andrew Gault was the leading partner. In June 1863 its value was estimated at $31,000, with sales between $75,000 and $100,000 a year. By 1873 sales of Gault Brothers and Co. reached some $2,000,000, and they continued to grow, with branches in Manchester, Winnipeg, and Victoria. In 1896 it was incorporated as Gault Brothers' Company Limited, with a capital of $1 million. In the 1870s Gault and his brother
Matthew Hamilton Gault The Hon. Matthew Hamilton Gault M.P., J.P. (18 July 1822 – 1 June 1887) was an Irish-Canadian financier and politician. In 1865, he founded Sun Life Financial at Montreal, Canada East. He was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in ...
made investments in cotton textiles. In 1872 Andrew invested more than $100,000 to build a cotton mill at
Cornwall, Ontario Cornwall is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, situated where the provinces of Central Canada, Ontario and Quebec and the state of New York (state), New York converge. It is the seat of the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, Unit ...
, the Stormont Manufacturing Works. The mill was destroyed by fire in 1874, with the insurance paying only $38,000, against replacement costs of $250,000, and it was only in 1879 that a new mill was built, the Stormont Cotton Manufacturing Company Limited. Gault had investments in many businesses, including the Dominion Commercial Travellers' Association (1875), Farnham Beet Root Sugar Co. (1879), Corriveau Silk Manufacturing Co. (1883), Citizens Gas Company of Montreal (1883), Globe Woollen Mills Co. Ltd (1887), Canadian Woolen Mills Litd (1887), Campbellford Woolen Mills Co. (1887), Crescent Manufacturing Co. (1896), Havana Electric Tramway Co. (1898), Boas Manufacturing Co. (1898), the
Shawinigan Water & Power Company Established in 1898, the Shawinigan Water & Power Company was one of the dominant, privately owned hydroelectric companies in Canada until 1963, when it became a part of Hydro-Québec. History Shawinigan Water & Power Company was founded on Ja ...
, and Trinidad Electric Light and Tramway Co. (1901). On 12 July 1864 Gault married Louisa Sarah Harman, and they had several stillbirths, two Don's who died in infancy, and a daughter and a son who survived, Lillian Mary Louisa, born 1877, and Andrew Hamilton, born in 1882. According to the family, Gault's hope for a healthy son caused him to promise Bishop
William Bennett Bond William Bennett Bond (10 September 1815 – 9 October 1906) was a Canadian priest, archbishop, and the 2nd primate of the Anglican Church of Canada. Early life Bond was born on September 10, 1815, at Truro, England, to John Bond and Nanny ...
that if God would grant this wish he would give a building for the
Montreal Diocesan Theological College Montreal Diocesan Theological College (known as Montreal Dio) is a theological seminary of the Anglican Church of Canada. It offers the Master of Divinity, Diploma in Ministry, Bachelor of Theology, and Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.) to candida ...
, which in due course he did. He also acted as a philanthropist towards other educational causes, giving away more money than he left when he died, and was the founder of the Gault Institute at
Salaberry-de-Valleyfield Salaberry-de-Valleyfield is a city in southwestern Quebec, Canada, in the Regional County Municipality of Beauharnois-Salaberry. The population as of 2019 was 42,410. Situated on Grande-Île, an island in the Saint Lawrence River, it is bordere ...
.


Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gault, Andrew Frederick 1833 births 1903 deaths High School of Montreal alumni