John Sayer
| John Sayer | |
|---|---|
| John Sayers; John Sayre | |
| Born | c. 1750 |
| Died | 1818-10-02 Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Lower Canada |
| Occupation | Fur trader |
| Partner | |
John Sayer (c. 1750 – 2 October 1818) was a fur trader active in the western Lake Superior region and a partner in the North West Company.
Early career
Sayer entered the fur trade in the late 1770s, working out of Michilimackinac in the Fond du Lac district of the upper Great Lakes country. By 1780 he was serving as an agent for Montreal merchant Joseph Howard, holding a licence for one canoe. That same season he reported devastating losses among the Ojibwa from a smallpox epidemic. In 1784 he participated in efforts to regulate competition among traders operating in the region, and in 1785 he joined the General Company of Lake Superior and the South, directing operations across the southwestern Lake Superior country.[1]
Trading partnerships and the North West Company
Through the late 1780s Sayer formed a succession of trading arrangements, partnering at different times with Jean-Baptiste Perrault and Jean-Baptiste Cadot, before establishing his own firm, John Sayer and Company, around 1791. He subsequently became a North West Company agent based at Sault Ste. Marie. In 1793 he assumed command of Fort St Louis at Fond du Lac, a post that Perrault had constructed, and from that year until 1805 he wintered at a series of interior locations: Lac de la Sangsue, White Oak Point, Upper Red Cedar Lake, Pembina, and tributaries of the St Croix River.[1]
His attendance at the annual NWC rendezvous — held at Grand Portage until 1802 and thereafter at Kaministiquia — brought him regularly to the northwestern shore of Lake Superior, the area that would later become Fort William and Thunder Bay.[1] In April 1798 the explorer David Thompson encountered Sayer in the interior and described him as "poor in flesh" after a winter's subsistence on wild rice and maple sugar.[2]
By 1798 Sayer had risen to a full partnership in the NWC. On 5 July 1802 he signed an agreement entitling him to two company shares. When the NWC merged with the rival New North West Company (the XY Company) in 1805 and expanded to one hundred shares, Sayer took furlough in Lower Canada and operated a post at Lac des Chats on the Ottawa River.[1]
Retirement
In 1807, Duncan McGillivray raised accusations of "former irregularities" against Sayer, resulting in his forced retirement from active partnership. The following year he acquired roughly 1,000 acres in Onslow Township on Lac des Chats in exchange for one company share. He sold this estate to Duncan Cameron in 1809 and moved to Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue. In 1810 he sold his remaining NWC share to McTavish, McGillivrays and Company. Although he was elected to the Beaver Club, he appears never to have attended its meetings.[1]
Personal life
Sayer had a country wife, Obemau-unoqua (possibly also known as Nancy), a Native woman, with whom he had at least three sons: Pierre-Guillaume Sayer, John Charles Sayer, and Henry Sayer. His will also names Margaret Sayer, Henry, and James Sayer as natural children. He later entered a union with Elizabeth McPherson. Sayer died on 2 October 1818 at Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue in Lower Canada.[1]
References
[1] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Douglas A. Birk."Douglas A. Birk, "SAYER, JOHN," Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 5."[website].Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 5 (University of Toronto/Université Laval).1983.University of Toronto/Université Laval.Link.(Rights: copyrighted | Access: open)
- ↑ David Thompson, David Thompson's Narrative, 1784–1812, ed. R. G. Glover (new ed., Toronto, 1962), 203–5.
- ↑ "John Sayer notarial record, 15 June 1819; 27 June 1810."[record].ANQ-M (Archives nationales du Québec, Montréal), CM1, CN1-185.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ D. A. Birk."John Sayer and Fond du Lac fur trade: the history, ecology and archeology of an 1804–1805 North West Company wintering post site (21-PN-11) and its relation to the fur trade in the western Lake Superior region."[book].1974.Minnesota Historical Society, St Paul.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ Allan Morrison."History of the fur trade."[record].Morrison (Allan) papers.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "Sayer journal and accounts."[record].MG 19, C1, 12; 17.Public Archives of Canada (PAC).(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "Les bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest."[book].Les bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest (Masson).1: 395.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "Documents Relating to the North West Company."[book].Docs. relating to NWC (Wallace).109–10, 207, 247–48, 497.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "New Light on the Early History of the Greater North-West."[book].New light on early hist. of greater north-west (Coues).1: 225n.; 2: 1011.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections."[book].Mich. Pioneer Coll..10 (1886): 421; 37 (1909–10): 426, 536–37, 537n., 555–57, 568–69, 575.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "Wisconsin State Historical Society Collections."[book].Wisconsin State Historical Society, Coll..19 (1910): 173–74, 181, 238.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ W. E. Stevens."The northwest fur trade, 1763–1800."[book].University of Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences (Urbana).1926.14 (1926), no. 3: 135–37.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)