Charles Jean Baptiste Chaboillez

Charles-Jean-Baptiste Chaboillez of Montreal, was one of the most influential French Canadian fur traders and a founding member of the Beaver Club. He was born in at Michilimackinac (Mackinaw City, Mich.) as a first son of Charles Chaboillez, voyageur and fur trader, and Marie-Anne Chevalier. His family belonged to the fur-trading bourgeoisie, as both his father, and the father of his mother, were successful fur traders. Charles-Jean-Baptiste continued the tradition.

Chaboillez concentrated his trading activity at Michilimackinac, in the area south of Lake Superior, and in the Mississippi region. It seems that he collaborated in business with his mother, who moved to Montreal in 1757, and his brother Pierre-Louis in Montreal. Chaboillez prospered in the fur business, as evidenced in 1770 when he made an investment of £2,550 in the fur trade which put him in the forefront of Canadian investors. Little is known of his business practices but until about 1780 he wintered in the region of Grand Portage and the “Grande Rivière,” and went to Montreal for the summers. From then on it seems the order was reversed: the winters were spent in Montreal, the summers on trading trips.

Chaboillez invested part of his profits in land estates, he had acquired farms in the Montreal region in 1779, and in 1788 he also owned three islands near the tip of Montreal Island; on one of these, Île à l’Aigle, there was a farm with animals and valuable farming equipment.

Without a doubt Chaboillez had held an important place in the fur trade. In 1778, John Askin Sr remarked that Chaboillez was firmly established: “I know no person so well off in the North Trade as he is.” However, by the time Chaboillez died in 1808 his fortune had vanished. Not much can be said about the causes of his failure but that the turning-point probably came around 1790.