Namesakes in the Fur-Trade

NAMESAKES IN THE FUR-TRADE ONFUSION between persons ofthe same name has always beena fertile sourceof error in history; but nowhereperhaps hasthis confusionbeenmorepronounced than in the history of the Canadian fur-trade. For this there have been several reasons. In the first place, the majority of the Canadian fur-traders were of Scottish birth or extraction; and it is well known that the Scottishpeoplehave usuallydisplayeda striking lack of ingenuity in the inventionof baptismalnames. To the family or clan name they have generally prefixed Christian names of a stereotyped character,so that the number of John Macdonalds,Alexander Mackenzies, and Simon Frasersin Scottishhistory hasbeenasthe sandsof the sea. In the secondplace,the Scottish-Canadian furtraders , with the clannishnessof their race, were wont to introduce into the trade not a few of their poor relations in Scotland: the North West Company, for example, was filled with relatives of both Simon McTavish and Sir Alexander Mackenzie, not to mention other partners. In the third place, most of the fur-traders took to themselvesIndian or half-breed wives, "according to the customof the country", and had half-breedsonswho almostinvariably bore the namesof their fathers. Some of these half-breed sonsactually roseto positionsof importancein the fur-trade while their fathers were still alive. In these circumstances,it is not surprisingthat many writers onthe historyof the fur-trade havefalleninto the trap ofconfusing different personsof the same or similar names. Sonshave been confusedwith fathers, nephewswith uncles, and even persons wholly unrelated the one with the other. The Revd. Robert Campbell, for instance, in his invaluable History of the Scotch Presbyterian Church,St. Gabriel Street,Montreal (Montreal, 1887), hopelesslymixesup the Cuthbert Grant who was a partner of the North West Company, and who died in the west in 1799,with his half-breed son of the same name, who took part in the affair at SevenOaks in 181õ; and the Revd. GeorgeBryce, in his Remarkablehistoryof theHudson'sBay Company(London, 1900) mixesup just as badly the Peter (Bastonnais) Pangman, who was the associateof Peter Pond, with his half-breed son, also known as "Bastonnais" Pangman, who was present at the affair of Seven 285 286 T}IE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW Oaks. The confusionbetween Norman McLeod (the partner of John Gregory in Gregory, McLeod and Company), Archibald Norman McLeod (hisnephew),AlexanderMcLeod (alsoa partner of the North West Company), and Alexander Roderick McLeod (who becamea chief trader in the Hudson's Bay Company under the union of 1821, and who died in 1840) hasbeensoprofoundthat Dr. Bryce actually "telescoped"three of them in a personageto whom he gave the name of "Alexander Norman McLeod" The late Dr. Elliott Coues,the editor of the Henry-Thompson journals,waswell awareof thesepitfallswith whichthe historyof the fur-trade was beset. He devoted a great deal of time to making a card-indexof the nameshe met with in the literature of thesubject; andhisfootnotes areto thisday a massofinformation assembled nowhere else. But the result of his researches was that he frequently had to throw up his hands in despair in his attempt to disentanglethe snarlshe encountered,as in the case, for example, of his note on the numerousGrants who were prominent in the fur-trade at the end of the eighteenthcentury.• Since Dr. Coueswrote, however,a great deal of new information has cometo light, thanks mainly to the publicationof new materials relatingto the fur-trade by suchwritersasJudgeHoway, Professor Morton, Professor Innis, Mr. R. Harvey Fleming, Mr. J. N. Wallace, and others,and it is now possibleto distinguish,with some degree of certainty, between at least the more important personalitiesin the fur-trade bearing homonyms. Until recently no one dreamt that there had been two Simon Frasers,partnersin the North West Companyat the sametime; but it is now establishedbeyondquestionthat suchwas the case. We even know somethingof the older Simon Fraser, who passed from the sceneasSimonFraserthe explorercameinto it. He was the sonof Simon Fraser, senior,a merchant of Quebecin the early daysof British rule, and a cousinof the great SimonMcTavish. He wasin chargeat GrandPortagein 1797,andretiredfromactive participationin the fur-trade about 1799. In 1804,hewitnessed the last will and testament of Simon McTavish, when he was described aslivingat "Bout de l'Isle", or Ste.Anne'sin the Island of Montreal; and...