James McGill

James McGill

James McGill (born October 6, 1744 in Glasgow , Scotland , † December 19, 1813 in Montreal ) was a Scottish - Canadian merchant , officer and philanthropist . According to him, is McGill University in Montreal named, whose creation he made it possible with his will.

biography

McGill was the son of a wealthy Scottish trader and studied at the University of Glasgow . Before 1766 he emigrated to Québec and got into the fur trade . He founded the company James McGill & Co. which traded in the area of Fort Michilimackinac between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan . In 1773 he took part with Isaac Todd in a trade expedition west of Grand Portage , three years later he formalized this partnership under the company name Todd & McGill . Since he concentrated more on the southwest areas on the upper reaches of the Mississippi River , he got out of the North West Company after a short time in 1779 .

In 1775, McGill was a member of the committee that negotiated the terms of the surrender of the city of Montreal during the ultimately failed invasion of Canada by the American Continental Army . He distrusted the revolutionaries and his house was a meeting place for the loyalists . In 1776 he married the widowed Charlotte Trottier Desrivières. In the same year he was appointed justice of the peace and as such was entrusted with the administration of the city (there were elected mayors in Montreal only from 1833). Among other things, he supervised the razing of the Montreal city walls from 1802 .

McGill was elected to Lower Canada Colony Parliament in 1792 . He was also active in the local militia and took over its command in 1810. In the British-American War , which broke out in 1812, he was not used in combat. As a fur trader, slave owner and real estate speculator, McGill was considered the richest man in Montreal. He had no children and left his fortune to the "Royal Institution for the promotion of learning" ( Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning ), with the requirement to use the money within ten years for the establishment of a university after him named. His Burnside Place property was to be integrated into the campus. The McGill University was eventually founded in 1821 after lengthy litigation. He bequeathed part of the fortune to his nephew Peter McGill .

literature

• Stanley Brice Frost: James McGill of Montreal . McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal / Kingston 1995, ISBN 0-7735-1297-7 .

Web links

• James McGill . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ).
• Who was James McGill? (McGill University)
• McGill's will