François-Antoine Larocque (August 19, 1784 – May 1, 1869) was a Québécois businessman involved in the

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 ecosystem, boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals h ...

. He was born in

L'Assomption L'Assomption () is an off-island suburb of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec, Canada on the L'Assomption River. It is the seat of the Regional County Municipality of L'Assomption. It is located on the outer fringes of the Montreal urban area. ...

in 1784, the son of François-Antoine Larocque, and studied at the

Collège de Montréal The Collège de Montréal () is a subsidized private high school for students attending grades 7–11 located in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A former Roman Catholic minor seminary, it was founded on June 1, 1767 as the ''Petit Séminai ...

. After his father's death in 1792, he went to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and learned English. He joined the

XY Company The XY Company, also known as the New North West Company, was a joint-stock fur trading enterprise based in Montreal that conducted business chiefly in the Canadian Northwest between 1798 and 1804.Assiniboine River The Assiniboine River ( ; ) is a long river that runs through the prairies of Western Canada in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It is a tributary of the Red River. The Assiniboine is a typical meandering river with a single main channel embanked ...

region. However, when the North West Company took over its short-lived competitor in the fall of 1804, he traveled south to the Mandan and Hidatsa villages along the Upper Missouri. There Larocque met the Lewis and Clarke Expedition, dined several times in the company of the Captains, and asked leave to borrow their translator,

Toussaint Charbonneau Toussaint Charbonneau (; March 20, 1767 – August 12, 1843) was a French Canadian explorer, fur trapper and merchant who is best known for his role in the Lewis and Clark Expedition as the husband of Sacagawea. Early years Charbonneau was ...

. Larocque returned to the Assiniboine at some point during the spring of 1805 before beginning an exploratory excursion in the Rocky Mountains to ascertain the possibility of trade with the Absorokas in current day Montana and Wyoming. He is the first well documented trader known to reach the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming.Wood, W. Raymond., and Thomas D. Thiessen. Early Fur Trade on the Northern Plains: Canadian Traders among the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians, 1738-1818 : the Narratives of John Macdonell, David Thompson, Francois-Antoine Larocque, and Charles McKenzie. Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1985. Print. Francois-Antoine Larocque later published the ''Journal of Larocque from the Assiniboine to the Yellowstone, 1805''. He returned east to

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

in 1806. He served in the militia during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

, later serving as a captain in the Chasseurs Canadiens. In October 1813, he was taken prisoner and released the following year. In 1818, Larocque married Marie-Catherine-Émilie, daughter of Gabriel Cotté. He helped found the

Bank of Montreal The Bank of Montreal (, ), abbreviated as BMO (pronounced ), is a Canadian multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company. The bank was founded in Montreal, Quebec, in 1817 as Montreal Bank, making it Canada ...

in 1819. He went into business with

Joseph Masson Joseph Masson (January 5, 1791 – May 15, 1847) was a Canadian Businessperson, businessman, who is considered the first French Canadian millionaire. Seigneurial system of New France, Seigneur of Terrebonne, Quebec, Terrebonne, Quebec, presid ...

and later formed his own company, Larocque, Bernard, et Compagnie, which operated from 1832 to 1838. Larocque was associated with the Fils de la Liberté but did not take up arms during the

Lower Canada Rebellion The Lower Canada Rebellion (), commonly referred to as the Patriots' Rebellion () in French, is the name given to the armed conflict in 1837–38 between rebels and the colonial government of Lower Canada (now southern Quebec). Together wit ...

; nonetheless, he was imprisoned in 1838. He retired from business in 1841. During the Corp of Discovery, Larocque asked Lewis to join, but he denied his offer due to his French background. He died at

Saint-Hyacinthe Saint-Hyacinthe ( , ) is a city in southwestern Quebec east of Montreal on the Yamaska River. The population as of the 2021 Canadian census was 57,239. The city is located in Les Maskoutains Regional County Municipality of the Montérégie regi ...

in 1869. His uncle, Laurent Leroux, was an important figure in the fur trade and also a founder of the Bank of Montreal. His son François-Alfred-Chartier married Amélia, the daughter of Antoine-Olivier Berthelet in 1841.

References

External links

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Larocque, Francois-Antoine 1784 births 1869 deaths 19th-century Canadian businesspeople Canadian expatriates in the United States

See also

References

External links