Jean Baptiste Rousseau (fur trader)

Jean Baptiste Rousseau was born in Montreal, when Quebec was a colony of France, but became an influential fur trader, merchant, and translator under British administration of Upper Canada.[1]

Jean Baptiste Rousseau
BornJuly 4, 1758
Montreal
DiedNovember 16, 1812(1812-11-16) (aged 54)
Niagara on the Lake
NationalityCanada
Other names
  • St. John John Baptist Rousseau
  • Mr St. John
Occupationfur trader, merchant, and translator

His father, Jean-Bonaventure Rousseau, was a fur trader, operating out of the area around Lake Ontario.[1][2] Through his own work in the Fur Trade Rousseau learned the languages of the local First Nations. In 1770 Rousseau's father was licensed to trade fur at the mouth of what is now known as the Humber River, a stopping place for First Nations people travelling from Lake Ontario to the upper lakes.

Rousseau had strong ties with Joseph Brant, the influential Mohawk leader who had fought with the British during the American Revolution.[1] His second wife, Margaret Clyne, was Brant's adopted daughter. Rousseau and his wife named one of their sons Joseph Brant. Rousseau would later purchase 12,000 acres of Mohawk land through Brant.

John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, granted Rousseau 500 acres around his fur trading post on the eastern bank of the Humber River in what is now the Swansea neighbourhood.[1]

Rousseau became one of the first merchants in York, Upper Canada, and later Hamilton.[1][3] He was owner, or part-owner, of multiple grist mills and taverns, in Kingston, York, Ancaster and Brantford.

Rousseau had been a long-time officer in the militia. He was a Lieutenant Colonel when he served during the Battle of Queenston Heights, in October 1812.[1][3] He survived the battle, without being wounded, but fell ill and died in November, 1812.

References
  1. "ROUSSEAUX ST JOHN, JOHN BAPTIST (baptized Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, dit Saint-Jean), fur trader, interpreter, businessman, militia officer, and office holder". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Archived from the original on 29 March 2019. Retrieved 2019-03-29. On 24 July 1793 Lieutenant Governor Simcoe urged that he be appointed his personal interpreter. Rousseaux had, Simcoe wrote to Alured Clarke*, the lieutenant governor of Lower Canada, 'all the requisites necessary for that office, and is equally agreeable to ... [Brant] and the Mohawks as to the Missassagas ... the only person, who possesses any great degree of influence with either of those Nations.'
  2. Ron Brown (2010). From Queenston to Kingston: The Hidden Heritage of Lake Ontario's Shoreline. Dundurn Press. pp. 93–94. ISBN 9781770705326. Retrieved 2020-05-17. After 1750, when the French had destroyed all their Lake Ontario fortification, the ruins of the earlier Fort Toronto were resurrected by fur trader Jean Bonaventure Rousseau, and run by his son Jean Baptiste Rousseau, or "St. John," as Lieutenant Governor Simcoe called him.
  3. "Jean Baptiste Rousseau Family Fonds (F 493)". Archives of Ontario. Archived from the original on 2018-12-24. Retrieved 2019-03-29. Active in the Upper Canadian militia, Rousseau participated in the Battle of Kingston. He died while on business at Fort George in 1812. Rousseau's sons, George and Joseph Brant Rousseau, continued to operate the family businesses after his death.
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