North West Company

Organized in 1795, by a number of merchants

chiefly of Montreal, engaged in the fur trade. The first "partners," or

bourgeois, of the Company were Simon McTavish, Joseph Frobisher, John

Gregory, William McGillivray, Angus Shaw, Roderick McKenzie, Cuthbert

Grant, Alexander McLeod, and William Thorburn. Most of them had

previously been in the North-West as independent fur traders. A new

agreement was entered into by the hen partners in 1802; in 1804 the

Company absorbed its vigorous rival, the X Y Company, and in 1821 was

itself absorbed by the Hudson's Bay Company. =Index=: (Mackenzie / Selkirk / Simpson era) Early

beginnings--Montreal traders enter the North-West, 2; oppose the

Hudson's Bay Company, 3; the Frobishers build a post on Sturgeon Lake,

4; penetrate to Lake Athabaska, 5; their aggressiveness, 5; more than a

match for the Hudson's Bay Company, 6; Company organized, 1783-1784, 6;

opposition (X Y) Company formed, 6; absorbs rival interests, 1787, 6,

16; growth of fur trade, 7; amalgamates with Hudson's Bay Company, 8;

rearrangements of partners and stock, 58; operations extended to Hudson

Bay, 99; absorbs X Y Company, 1804, 99; opposes Red River settlers,

161-164; resents Miles Macdonell's proclamation, 170-171; sends Duncan

Cameron and Alexander Macdonell to Red River, 172-173; breaks up the

colony, 174-176. (Sir James Douglas era) Influence upon development of Pacific slope, 4;

conserves British interests in western America, 17, 18. (Sir Frederick Haldimand era)

Establishment of, 261-263. (General Brock era) Its headquarters at Montreal, 99. See

also Hudson's Bay Company; X Y Company; Montreal Company. =Bib.=:

Mackenzie, Voyages; Henry, Travels and Adventures; Henry-Thompson,

Journals, ed. by Coues; Harmon, Journal; Narrative of Occurrences

in the Indian Country; Sketch of the British Fur Trade; Bancroft,

History of the North-West Coast; Bryce, Hudson's Bay Company; Begg,

History of the North-West; Masson, Bourgeois de la Compagnie du

Nord-Ouest; Tasse, Canadiens de l'Ouest; Laut, Conquest of the Great

North-West; Burpee, Search for the Western Sea.