Date Published:
June 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Alexander Ellice

Ellice, Alexander (1743-1805), merchant, was born in 1743, and about 1765 emigrated to New York, where he purchased a partnership in a firm at Schenectady, later known as Phyn, Ellice and Co., which was interested in the fur-trade. In 1774 the headquarters of the firm were transferred to London ; and from 1774 to 1779 Alexander Ellice was the partner who looked after the affairs of the firm in Montreal. In 1779 he returned to London, leaving the Montreal office in charge of his younger brother Robert ; and he died in London on September 29, 1805, possessed of considerable wealth. His will is on file at Somerset House in London. He married a daughter of George Phyn, laird of the Corse of Monelly in Scotland, and thus became the brother-in-law of James Phyn, and the uncle by marriage of the Hon. John Forsyth and the Hon. John Richardson. For an account of the history of the firm of Phyn, Ellice and Co., see R. H. Fleming, Phyn, Ellice and Company of Schenectady (Contributions to Canadian Economics, 1932).

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., p. 287.