Date Published:
June 2005

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

James Finlay

(1766-1830)

Finlay, James (1766-1830), fur-trader, was born in Montreal in 1766, the son of James Finlay and Christiana Youel. He entered the service of the "Little Company", in opposition to the North West Company, as an apprentice clerk, in 1784, at the same time as the Hon. Roderick Mackenzie. He became a clerk of the North West Company in 1787, and in 1792 he was made a wintering partner of the Company, in charge of Fort de l'Isle, on the Saskatchewan. He relinquished his two shares in the Company in 1805, and in 1814 he was a merchant at Beloeil on the river Chambly, in Lower Canada. From 1814 to 1817 he was store-keeper of the Indian department at Lachine, and in 1817 he petitioned for the position held by his father as inspector of chimneys at Montreal. He died at Montreal on January 3, 1830. In 1798 he married Elizabeth Grant, daughter of John Grant, and granddaughter of Richard Dobie; and by her he had "a large family". His daughter Elizabeth married on March 26, 1835, Frederick, son of Sir John Chetwode, Bart., of Oakley Park, Cheshire.

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II. Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., p. 337.