William McGillivray

William McGillivray
Born	1764 Dunlichty, Scotland
Died	1825-10-16 London, England
Occupation	Fur trader, merchant, politician, militia officer
Father	Donald McGillivray
Mother	Anne McTavish
Partner	Magdalen McDonald Susan (à la façon du pays)
Siblings	Duncan McGillivray Simon McGillivray

William McGillivray (1764 – (1825-10-16)16 October 1825) was a Scottish-born fur trader, merchant, politician, and militia officer who rose to lead the North West Company as its principal director from 1804 until the merger with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821. The inland headquarters of the North West Company at Kaministiquia — known as Fort William — was named in his honour, making him one of the foundational figures in the history of what is now Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Early life

McGillivray was born in 1764 in Dunlichty, Scotland, the son of Donald McGillivray and Anne McTavish. His mother's brother, Simon McTavish, was a prominent North American fur trader who visited Scotland in 1776 and financed William's secondary education. In 1784, McTavish brought his nephew to Montreal and placed him as a clerk with the North West Company at a salary of £100 per year.

Career in the fur trade

McGillivray's early postings took him deep into the interior. In 1785 he worked as a clerk in the Red River department, and the following year he reached Île-à-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan, accompanying proprietor Patrick Small. During the winter of 1786–87 he established a trading post at Snake Lake to contest territory held by Gregory, MacLeod and Company. He worked alongside Roderick McKenzie and participated in the 1787 merger of competing firms at Grand Portage.

By September 1789 McGillivray was trading at Rat River, Manitoba. In 1790 he purchased the share of Peter Pond for £800, becoming a partner and proprietor of the English (Churchill) River department headquartered at Île-à-la-Crosse, where around 80 men and approximately 40 Indigenous and Métis women resided. In 1791 he was given charge of the Athabasca department, a territory later extended to the Pacific coast by Alexander Mackenzie in 1793.

Returning to Montreal in 1793, McGillivray became a partner in McTavish, Frobisher and Company — the firm that managed the North West Company — and took charge of the Grand Portage depot alongside John Gregory. When Mackenzie rejoined the company in 1795, he served as McGillivray's assistant. After Joseph Frobisher retired in 1798, McGillivray assumed a more senior role, overseeing the New York agency, the London house of McTavish, Fraser and Company (managed by his cousin John Fraser), the China trade, and relations with the Hudson's Bay Company.

A significant achievement of this period was the 1803 relocation of the North West Company's inland depot from Grand Portage south of the international boundary to Kaministiquia on the north shore of Lake Superior — a site that became known as Fort William, named in McGillivray's honour. This move placed the company's central hub squarely on Canadian soil and made Kaministiquia a major hub of the western fur trade.

Leadership of the North West Company

Following Simon McTavish's death in July 1804, McGillivray became his executor and successor as the head of the North West Company. He quickly negotiated an agreement on 5 November 1804 with the rival New North West Company (XY Company), absorbing it and conceding 25 percent of shares, though he excluded Alexander Mackenzie from the arrangement on account of his reputation as a disruptive force.

In December 1806, after John Gregory's retirement, McGillivray restructured McTavish, Frobisher and Company into McTavish, McGillivrays and Company, bringing in his brother Duncan McGillivray, his brother-in-law Angus Shaw, and the Hallowell brothers. He also worked to control company costs, reducing salaries, limiting the number of employees, and restricting personal fur trading by the hired workforce.

Competition with John Jacob Astor's American interests and with the Hudson's Bay Company intensified during this period. Attempts to ship goods via Hudson Bay were twice tried and failed at great expense — the two expeditions had cost the company more than £45,000 by 1806 without securing a viable route. The company's vessels engaged in the China trade accumulated further losses.

The Selkirk conflict and Fort William

The establishment of Lord Selkirk's Red River settlement in 1812 directly threatened the North West Company's supply corridor to Athabasca. The colony sat at the junction of the Assiniboine and Red rivers on land granted to Selkirk by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1811. Pemmican supply restrictions imposed by Governor Miles Macdonell and his successor Robert Semple created a running conflict known as the Pemmican War. This crisis culminated on 19 June 1816 in the Seven Oaks massacre near present-day Winnipeg, in which Semple and approximately 20 settlers were killed.

Selkirk responded by arriving at Fort William with soldiers and mercenaries. On 13 August 1816 he arrested McGillivray and other company proprietors, seized the fort, confiscated company furs, and took control of the warehouses. McGillivray secured bail in Montreal and complained to Governor Sir John Coape Sherbrooke, demanding the return of Fort William. The legal and political battles arising from these events dragged on for years and contributed substantially to the company's declining finances.

Merger and final years

By 1821, exhausted by the costs of competition and litigation, the North West Company merged with the Hudson's Bay Company. McGillivray acknowledged to John Strachan that continued resistance would have been futile, though he maintained the merger had been negotiated on equal terms. In practice, equality proved illusory: McTavish, McGillivrays and Company and its successor firm declared bankruptcy shortly after his death.

Public life

McGillivray was active in the civic life of Lower Canada. He joined the Beaver Club in 1795. He served as justice of the peace for the Indian Territories from 1804, for the Quebec District from 1815, and for the Montreal and Three Rivers districts from 1821. In 1806 he was appointed commissioner for administering the oath of allegiance to half-pay officers. From June 1808 to October 1809 he represented Montreal West in the Lower Canadian House of Assembly, replacing John Richardson. During the War of 1812, he held the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Corps of Canadian Voyageurs from October 1812 to March 1813. The Legislative Council appointed him in 1814. He was a congregant of the Scotch Presbyterian Church on St Gabriel Street in Montreal.

McGillivray acquired substantial land holdings: in 1802 he obtained 12,000 acres in Inverness Township, Lower Canada (later sold to Joseph Frobisher); Upper Canada granted him Plantagenet Township lands in 1813; and in 1817 he purchased the Bhein Ghael estate in Scotland.

Personal life

Around 1790, McGillivray entered into a relationship à la façon du pays with a woman named Susan, by whom he had three sons and one daughter. On 22 December 1800 he married Magdalen McDonald in London. They had six children together, four of whom died in infancy; the surviving children were sons Simon and Joseph and daughters Anne and Magdalen.

Death

McGillivray died on 16 October 1825 in London. His will left his Scottish estate to his daughters Anne and Magdalen, with £10,000 each, while his sons Simon and Joseph each received £2,000 and the Plantagenet Township lands.

External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography