William Grant

William Grant was a Canadian fur trader and merchant born in Kirkmichael, Scotland. He came from a large family which had many members active in the fur trade during the early decades of British rule in Canada.

Grant came to the province of Quebec in the early 1760s, and in 1767 he was a resident of Montreal and was already involved in the fur trade as a merchant. For the next 20 years he pursued this career on his own as well as with associates, in the region southwest of Michilimackinac (Mackinaw City, Mich.) and in the vicinity of lakes Superior and Nipigon.

There are little records of Grant’s activities during 1770s but it is clear he was involved in the fur trade. His activities were continued during the 1780s as he regularly obtained permits and often wintered in the pays d’en haut. He was particularly interested in the region around Lake Superior and in the hinterland of Michilimackinac.

In 1791 Grant joined with Étienne-Charles Campion, a Michilimackinac trader, and Samuel Gerrard, a Montreal merchant, in establishing the firm of Grant, Campion and Company, which was destined to play an important role in the trade southwest of the Great Lakes and in the Timiskaming region. Grant oversaw the firm’s general operations while Campion handled the trade “with the Indians in the pays d’en haut” and Gerrard kept the books.

The company provided trade goods to various Michilimackinac merchants as well as to traders throughout the region extending from Lake Superior to the Mississippi. It was one of the most important firms engaged in the fur trade to the southwest of Grand Portage (near Grand Portage, Minn.), Michilimackinac, and Detroit (Mich.) in the early 1790s. The firm hired voyageurs, paid their wages, and sold the furs consigned to it, in either Montreal or England.

Grant decided to wind up the affairs of the firm in November 1795, because, as he explained in a letter to Simon McTavish, of the precarious state of the fur trade in the area southwest of the Great Lakes, along with violent stomach pains and problems with his eyesight which made writing extremely difficult, and rendered him less and less able to conduct any kind of business.