François Havy

François Havy was a French merchant and entrepreneur who operated in Quebec. He first came to Quebec in 1730 as supercargo aboard the Louis Dauphin, a ship owned by the newly formed Robert Dugard et Cie of Rouen, France. As the trip proved profitable for the firm, Havy returned to Quebec in 1732 as a permanent factor to establish a warehouse and office.

Havy and his assistant and cousin, Jean Lefebvre, handled the company affairs and from 1733 on it usually accounted for an eighth or a tenth of the colony’s import trade, climbing to a sixth in 1738, a seventh in 1740, and a fifth in 1741. They also supervised the sending of return cargo, which consisted mainly of beaver pelts, and oversaw the construction of six ships for the company. Due to English domination of the Atlatic, after 1744 the company sent none of its own ships to Quebec, and in October 1747 Havy and Lefebvre received word that it would cease all its trade with Canada.

Havy and his assistant also conducted business on their own account and even built many smaller ships for their exploitation of sealing concessions on the north shore of the St Lawrence and Labrador. Together with their former business partner’s widow, Marie-Anne Fornel, on 20 September 1749 they gained the concession for 12 years on sealing and trade from the Baie des Esquimaux (probably Hamilton Inlet). They also received a six-year lease on the scattered trading posts east of Quebec and north of the St Lawrence known collectively as the King’s Posts.

Because of the hostilities between the English and French and the French and Indian War (1754-1763), Havy and his partners relinquished the lease in 1755, fearing war losses. In 1756 he returned to France to supervise export of merchandise to Canada and to prepare for eventual transfer of their business from the colony. When the British forces entered Quebec in September 1759, it destroyed the business he had built up over 30 years. He lost considerable assets in sealing stations and mortgages on houses in Quebec, and a fortune in Canadian paper money and bills of exchange was rendered almost worthless by governmental repudiation. What left of his Quebec business was concluded by François Levesque, his other partner who carried on as a merchant in British Canada for some time.

François Havy died at Bordeaux, aged 57.