Date Published:
July 2005

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

Simon Fraser

Fraser, Simon (1760?-1839), fur-trader, was born about 1760, probably in the parish of Boleskine, Stratherrick, Invernessshire, Scotland, the son of Capt. Alexander Fraser. He came to Canada, and entered the fur-trade prior to the year 1789, when he and Toussaint Lesieur took the posts of Rivière des Trembles and Portage de l'Isle on a sort of lease from the North West Company. He appears to have become a partner of the North West Company about 1795; and in 1797 he was in charge at Grand Portage. He retired from the fur-trade about 1800; and in 1805 he relinquished his two shares in the North West Company. He was elected a member of the Beaver Club in Montreal in 1803, and he continued an active member until 1816. In 1807 he purchased from John Gregory the fief Bellevue, on the lake of Two Mountains; and he lived here until the house in which he lived was burned in 1820, when he bought a property at Ste. Anne's on the island of Montreal, where he lived until his death at Ste. Anne's, on May 6, 1839. In 1804 he married Catherine (d. 1846), daughter of Donald McKay, and sister of William, Alexander, and Donald McKay; and by her he had five sons and three daughters. In his obituary notice in the Quebec Gazette, he is described as "formerly a partner of the North West Company, and subsequently one of the firm of Fraser, Caldwell, and Co., of Albany ." See W. S. Wallace, Simon Fraser of Ste. Anne's (Trans. Roy. Soc. Can. , 1934).

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., p. 390.