Claude Greysolon de La Tourette
| Claude Greysolon de La Tourette | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1660 Saint-Germain-Laval, France (probably) |
| Died | after 1716 France (probably Lyons) |
| Years in Thunder Bay | 1684–c. 1693 |
| Occupation | Fur trader; commandant of the posts at Lake Nipigon and Kaministiquia |
Claude Greysolon de La Tourette (c. 1660 – after 1716) was a French fur trader and the younger brother of Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut. He commanded the French posts founded on Lake Nipigon and at Kaministiquia (present-day Thunder Bay) in the 1680s and early 1690s.[1]
Life
La Tourette was born about 1660, probably at Saint-Germain-Laval in France. The date of his arrival in New France is uncertain; the Dictionary of Canadian Biography finds no evidence for the claim that he came in 1675 or that he accompanied his brother in 1678. In 1683 the two brothers left for the western Great Lakes with a convoy of 15 canoes, under a commission from Governor Joseph-Antoine Le Febvre de La Barre.[1]
Dulhut founded trading posts on Lake Nipigon (later called Fort La Tourette) and at Kaministiquia in 1684 and 1685, and placed them under La Tourette's command.[1][2] La Tourette's work was to trade with Indigenous people between Lake Superior and Hudson Bay, and to travel to Montreal for goods and hired men. In 1687 he told Governor Jacques-René de Brisay de Denonville that more than 1,500 Indigenous traders had come to his posts. When he went west again in 1688 he took a party of 200 men, 30 of them his own employees. After Dulhut's western career ended, La Tourette continued to operate the two posts until about 1693.[1]
He probably returned to France in the mid-1690s and settled at Lyons, where in 1700 he lent 10,800 livres to the city's procurators. A lawsuit in New France over a 1685 loan of 3,186 livres from Charles Aubert de La Chesnaye lasted until a judgment against him in 1716, the last Canadian reference to him. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography finds no evidence that he later commanded a post in the Illinois country.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Yves F. Zoltvany, "Greysolon de La Tourette, Claude," Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 2 (University of Toronto/Université Laval, 1969).
- ↑ Yves F. Zoltvany, "Greysolon Dulhut (Du Lhut, Du Luth), Daniel," Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 2 (University of Toronto/Université Laval, 1969; rev. 1982).