William Grant (1743 – November 20, 1810) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

-born

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mos ...

r and businessman in

Lower Canada The Province of Lower Canada (french: province du Bas-Canada) was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence (1791–1841). It covered the southern portion of the current Province of Quebec an ...

. He was born in Kirkmichael, Scotland in 1743 and came to

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

shortly after 1759, and became involved in the fur trade in the regions near Michilimackinac,

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

and Lake Nipigon. Grant became partners with Gabriel Cotté and Alexander Shaw. In 1791, he formed Grant, Campion and Company with Étienne-Charles Campion and

Samuel Gerrard Samuel Gerrard (1767 – March 24, 1857) was a Canadian fur trader, businessman, militia officer, justice of the peace, politician, and seigneur. He was the second president of the Bank of Montreal. From 1838 to 1841, he was a member of the Sp ...

; the firm played an important role in the development of the fur trade in the region, becoming share-holders in the

North West Company The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what is present-day Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario. With great weal ...

and coming to an agreement with that company regarding access to trading territories. In 1787, he married Marguerite Fafard, dit Laframboise, at

Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières (, – 'Three Rivers') is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice River, Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence River, Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Sain ...

. He was named justice of the peace for Trois-Rivières district in 1792. Grant was also involved in importing goods from Britain. In 1795, he retired from the fur trade. He died at William-Henry (later Sorel) in 1810.

External links

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grant, William 1743 births 1810 deaths People from South Ayrshire Scottish emigrants to pre-Confederation Quebec Pre-Confederation Canadian businesspeople Canadian fur traders Immigrants to New France