James McGill

James McGill
Born	October 6, 1744(1744-10-06) Glasgow, Scotland, Kingdom of Great Britain
Died	December 19, 1813(1813-12-19) (aged 69) Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Resting place	In front of the Arts Building 45°30′18″N 73°34′38″W
Other names	James McGill III
Alma mater	University of Glasgow
Known for	Founder of McGill University
Religion	Protestant
Spouse	Charlotte Trottier Desrivières, née Guillimin
Children	childless ("I have none of my own" he wrote in a 1795 letter)
Parents	Margaret Gibson, James McGill

James McGill (October 6, 1744–December 19, 1813) was a Scottish-Canadian businessman, military commander and philanthropist known for being the founder of McGill University. He was also a prominent member of the Château Clique.

Biography

Burnside Place, McGill's country home, now McGill campus

Statue of James McGill on the university's downtown campus.

James McGill was born on Stockwell Street in Glasgow, Scotland and educated at Glasgow University, he had emigrated to Canada by 1766, and entered the fur trade south of the Great Lakes, at first as a clerk or agent for the Quebec merchant, William Grant of St. Roch. By the next year, the firm of "James McGill & Co." was trading at Michilimackinac . In 1773, McGill joined with Isaac Todd in a trading venture beyond Grand Portage, which was renewed under the name Todd & McGill in 1776 . This partnership was important in the formation of what would become the North West Company. Todd & McGill prospered, as one of the main firms supplied by the London commission merchant, John Strettell. The partnership did not participate in the North West Company after 1783, but it continued in the so-called "Southwest trade" in the Mississippi valley until Michilimackinac was handed over to the Americans in 1796. It was also involved in other enterprises, but few business papers have survived, making a detailed account difficult.

In November of 1775, McGill was a member of the representation for the citizens of Montreal at the drafting of the articles of capitulation for the city to the invading American army.

McGill was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada for Montreal West in 1792 and appointed to the Executive Council in 1793. He was elected again in 1800 and in Montreal East in 1804.

He was the first honorary Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment The Canadian Grenadier Guards, which name is marked upon the replicated cairn that stands before the Arts building of McGill University.

As a fur trader, slave owner and land owner, he further diversified his activities into land speculation. By 1810 had abandoned the fur trade altogether. Rumoured to be the richest man in Montreal, he left a great deal of money to charity, including an estate and £10,000 to the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning to found McGill University.

James McGill was buried, alongside his fur-trading associate, John Porteous, in the old Protestant "Dufferin Square Cemetery". When the cemetery was eradicated in 1875, his remains were reinterred in front of the Arts Building on the university campus.

Plaques are displayed on Stockwell Street, Glasgow commemorating his birthplace and his foundation of the university, and in the undercroft of Bute Hall at Glasgow University, recognizing the historic link between Glasgow and McGill universities. The birthplace is now home to a chain of a popular William Hill betting shop.

See also

• List of universities named after people
• Scots-Quebecer

Further reading

• Frost, Stanley Brice (1995), James McGill of Montreal, McGill-Queen's University Press, ISBN 0773512969, http://books.google.ca/books?id=i6EPAUHBacMC&lpg=PA171&dq=McGill%20University&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true 

External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• McGill University - Who was James McGill?
• James McGill's Will
•  "McGill, James". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1900.