Dominique Rousseau
| Dominique Rousseau | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1755-11-09 Quebec |
| Died | 1825-02-27 Montreal, Quebec |
| Occupation | Silversmith; fur trader; merchant |
| Father | |
| Mother | |
| Partner | |
Dominique Rousseau (9 November 1755 – 27 February 1825 (aged 69)) was a Quebec-born silversmith, merchant, and fur trader whose commercial rivalry with the North West Company in the early nineteenth century helped bring about the establishment of Fort William — present-day Thunder Bay — as the company's principal inland depot.[1]
Early life and silversmithing
Rousseau was born on 9 November 1755 at Quebec. He learned the silversmith's trade in Quebec, likely in the workshop of Joseph Schindler, where he became acquainted with Louis Huguet, dit Latour. Both men subsequently moved to Montreal, where Rousseau may have worked for fur merchant François Cazeau, who was present at Rousseau's marriage to Charlotte Foureur on 30 January 1776.[1]
The couple initially settled at Grondines (Saint-Charles-des-Grondines). After his father's death, Rousseau returned to Montreal in June 1780 and purchased a Rue Saint-Jacques residence from his father-in-law, Louis Foureur, dit Champagne. By 1781 he was prosperous enough to rent a pew at Notre-Dame church and to lend his brother-in-law Pierre Foureur 1,175 livres interest-free. In 1783 he ceased working as a silversmith himself, renting his house and tools to silversmith Charles Duval, with payment stipulated in trade silver that Rousseau would then market.[1]
Merchant career
In the spring of 1784 Rousseau established himself as a merchant at Saint-Philippe-de-Laprairie, acquiring six farm properties and marketing the agricultural produce of his tenants while supplying them with implements and animals. By 1789 he sold three of these farms for £900, more than triple his original outlay. He moved to Montreal in May 1787, then spent 1788–1791 at Longueuil before settling permanently on Rue Notre-Dame, Montreal, in 1792, where he took charge of the ward's fire pumps.[1]
Between 1793 and 1795, operating on Rue Saint-François-Xavier, Rousseau directed the manufacture of 12,000 pairs of drop ear-rings for François Bouthillier, employing a team of silversmiths that included Henry Polonceaux, Sigmund Hiltne, John Oakes, Nathan Starns, and Christian Grothé. He required workers to sign notarized confidentiality agreements before seeing the models — an indication of his commercial sophistication. From 1796 he operated a retail establishment on Rue Saint-Paul. In March 1797 he partnered with his brother François and Jean-Baptiste-Toussaint Pothier to open a potashery at Deschambault, where production began in the summer of 1797.[1]
Fur trade
In the summer of 1798 Rousseau sold a consignment of merchandise, silver articles, and clothing valued at over 16,000 livres to Pierre-Gabriel Cotté for delivery at Michilimackinac, marking his entry into the fur trade as a bourgeois. He secured substantial interest-free loans from Joseph Lamothe, a captain in the Indian Department, and went on to employ roughly 60 engagés — including around 50 winterers — and outfit up to seven canoes a year. His winterers operated mainly south of Michilimackinac, in the Illinois country, the Upper and Lower Mississippi valley, the Grand River (Michigan), and the Detroit region.[1]
Grand Portage venture and the NWC lawsuit
In 1802, in association with merchant Joseph Bailly, Rousseau attempted to establish a trading post at Grand Portage (present-day Minnesota), sending a ten-man crew under clerk Paul Hervieux. The North West Company reacted aggressively: Duncan McGillivray, Simon McTavish, and Archibald Norman McLeod blocked the expedition from pitching tents and trading on NWC-cleared sites. McGillivray slashed one of Hervieux's tents and set fire to another. The NWC also threatened its own engagés with punishment if they traded with Rousseau's party. As a result, Hervieux sold only a fraction of his goods, and the expected profit of £2,500–£3,000 was not realized.[1]
In October 1802 Rousseau and Bailly sued McGillivray in the Court of King's Bench. Witnesses for the plaintiffs included merchants Thomas Forsyth, Maurice-Régis Blondeau, Jean-Baptiste Tabeau, and Daniel Sutherland. McGillivray was ordered to pay £500 in damages plus costs — a sum that Lord Selkirk described as a "mere trifle" compared with the profits Rousseau had been entitled to expect. Historian Grace Lee Nute concluded that this verdict prompted the NWC to abandon Grand Portage on American soil and relocate its principal depot to British territory at Fort William (Thunder Bay), thereby removing the legal exposure that the Grand Portage operations had created.[1][2]
Later operations
In 1806 Rousseau sent a northwest expedition under voyageur François Hénault, dit Delorme, routed through Grand Portage to Rainy Lake via American territory along an NWC-abandoned path. The NWC sent Alexander MacKay's men to obstruct them; MacKay's party felled trees to block the route and Delorme was forced to abandon his goods. The dispute was eventually settled out of court.[1]
On 10 December 1806 Rousseau reached an accord with the Michilimackinac Company through agents including Jean-Baptiste-Toussaint Pothier, Josiah Bleakley, Jacques Giasson, George Gillespie, and David Mitchell Jr., receiving a monopoly retail post at Michilimackinac in exchange for respecting agreed trading limits. On 12 January 1807 he settled his remaining dispute with the NWC, receiving £600 compensation from the McGillivray brothers and partners. Evidence from his post-mortem estate inventory — which contained 68 Michilimackinac Company documents — suggests that substantial operations continued until John Jacob Astor's South West Fur Company took over in 1811.[1]
After 1811 Rousseau returned immediately to the fur trade, entered a long-term partnership with Paul-Joseph Lacroix, and continued sending canoes to Michilimackinac as late as the spring of 1813. From 1814 he also operated through Michel Lacroix at St. Louis and York (Toronto). Throughout his career he invested heavily in Montreal real estate, rarely mortgaging, preferring to hold and rent properties rather than sell them. A new warehouse was built on Rue Notre-Dame in 1808 and a substantial new store in 1820.[1]
Personal life
Rousseau's domestic arrangements were complex. He and Charlotte Foureur did not cohabit for long, and from around 1796 to 1811 he lived with Jean Cook, with whom he fathered five children. From 1803 he publicly recognized these children, gave them his name, and in his successive wills named them his heirs and their mother as usufructuary of his estate. He drafted approximately ten wills, at least four in his final two years. Charlotte Foureur, exercising rights under their marriage contract, was able to partially frustrate these dispositions after his death. Two additional children attributed to Rousseau from Michilimackinac in 1821 were later found to be those of his son Dominique.[1]
His post-mortem inventory and the subsequent sale of his effects revealed an opulent household maintained by multiple domestic servants, a 60-piece dinner service, substantial food and wine stores, and silverware valued at £46. A partial catalogue of his library showed interests in natural history, law, finance, and the fur trade.[1]
Death
Rousseau died on 27 February 1825 in Montreal following a stroke, leaving a credit balance in his estate of approximately £880.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 Robert Derome."Robert Derome, "Rousseau, Dominique," Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6."[website].Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6 (University of Toronto/Université Laval).1987.University of Toronto/Université Laval.Link.(Rights: copyrighted | Access: open)
- ↑ Grace Lee Nute."A British legal case and old Grand Portage."[newspaper].Minnesota History.1940.vol. 21, pp. 117–48.Minnesota Historical Society.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)