Joseph Frobisher

Joseph Frobisher was one of Montreal's most important fur traders. He was born in in Halifax, England, and he arrived in the province of Quebec around 1763. He came with his brother Benjamin, and the third brother, Thomas, joined them nine years later. They did not possess much capital, but they were filled with a desire to put the small capital that they did possess to profitable use. Ultimately, they dominated the fur trade in the northwest, and in fact the entire economy based on pelts.

Their fur trading company was based in Montreal and was trading in the Northwest Territory. The brother divided the work: Benjamin managed and ran the business with London from Montreal, Thomas made his career almost entirely in the west, travelling from Grand Portage (near Grand Portage, Minn.) to the most distant trading posts, and Joseph divided his time between Grand Portage, other posts, and Montreal, had more varied experience.

Benjamin died in 1787 and Joseph took over as the head of the firm. Soon, Joseph entered into partnership with Simon McTavish under the name of McTavish, Frobisher and Company. The firm was a principal one among the North West Company, at first a loose association of a few Montreal merchants who discussed how they might break the stranglehold the Hudson's Bay Company held on the North American fur trade, but from 1784 it was officially incorporated on a long-term basis.

Joseph invested his profits from the fur trade into other economic activities. In 1793 he purchased a fifth of the shares in the Batiscan Iron Work Company; on 28 May 1803, with his partners in the ironworks, he bought the seigneury of Champlain, near Trois-Rivières, which was rich in forest resources; he became one of the first five shareholders in the Company of Proprietors of the Montreal Water Works, which had been set up in 1801 to supply the town and surrounding area with drinking water. Frobisher also invest a large part of his fortune in real estate.

Joseph Frobisher retired from the fur trade in 1798, but remained active in business and social life until his death on 12 Sept. 1810.