Alexander Henry the elder

Alexander Henry 'The Elder'
Born	August 1739 (1739-08) New Brunswick, New Jersey
Died	4 April 1824(1824-04-04) (aged 84) Montreal, Quebec
Known for	Explorer, author, original founder of the Beaver Club, and pioneer of the British-Canadian fur trade
Spouse	Julia Calcutt Kittson
Children	6

Alexander Henry 'The Elder', in French: Alexandre Henri Le Vieux (August 1739 – 4 April 1824) was an American-born explorer, author, merchant who settled in

An "easy and dignified" raconteur, in 1776 Henry was invited to give an account of his journeys at the Royal Society in London and at Versailles to Queen Marie Antoinette. In the 1780s, Henry introduced John Jacob Astor into the North American fur trade; subsequently, Astor would stay as Henry's guest during his annual visits to Montreal.

Alexander Henry was born at

On June 6, Henry and three other British prisoners were taken by canoe toward Beaver Island. As they reached Waugoshance Point, an Odawa tribal appeared and spoke with them, luring them close to land. Several Odawa warriors sprang from cover and charged the canoe, forcibly removing the four prisoners, who were taken back to Mackinac.

During the ensuing division of the spoils from the fort, Henry ended up as a possession of the Ojibwe leader Minavavana. Fortunately Wawatam intervened and spirited Henry away to his own lodge.^[8] Several days later, when Henry was threatened again, Wawatam came to his rescue and hid him in Mackinac Island's Skull Cave overnight.

He lived with the Wawatam and his family for nearly a year and followed them on their seasonal moves to hunting and fishing territories in lower Michigan. Henry's experiences during this winter of 1763–64, described in his memoirs, are a valuable primary source into Native American life during the fur trade era.

They returned to Michilimackinac in the spring of 1764 to trade their furs, but some of the Ojibwe residing in Saginaw Bay plotted to kill Henry, and Wawatam permitted him to go to Sault Ste Marie to seek the protection of Cadotte. He was still not safe since another Ojibwe chief, Madjeckewiss, followed him there with some of his warriors intent on killing him, and it took Cadotte's diplomatic skills to dissuade them. Soon afterward, Sir William Johnson at lastheld a peace conference at Fort Niagara, and both Henry and the Ojibwes attended. Eager to return to Michilimackinac to recover his property, Henry accompanied the expedition of Colonel John Bradstreet from Niagara to Detroit, and from there, he went with Captain William Howard's troops who reoccupied Michilimackinac in September, 1764.^[9]

In 1765, Henry acquired a license to trade in the

In 1767–68 he wintered on the

Henry had made a prominent name for himself, and from 1781 he settled in Montreal as a general merchant. He was still very much attached to the fur trade with occasional trips made to Detroit or Michilimackinac, and particularly the latter when he sustained heavy losses following the conclusion of the American Revolution. In 1785, Henry with seventeen of the other most prominent fur traders was a founding member of the Beaver Club at Montreal.

During the mid-1780s, Henry encouraged a friend in New York, William Edgar (1736–1820), to enter the trade in furs with China. Fascinated by the prospects offered by the Pacific coast, Henry passed on his ideas, which he called "my favorite plan," to the New York merchant John Jacob Astor. He introduced Astor into the Canadian trade and Astor was Henry's guest during his annual visits to Montreal. In the 1790s, Henry and Astor assisted Simon McTavish and the North West Company in organizing shipments of furs to China. In 1792, a fur trade partnership between John Forsyth, Jacob Jordan and Alexander Ellice attempted to entice Henry and Peter Pond to join them in opposition to the North West Company.

During the 1790s, Henry and another close friend, John Askin, were interested in land speculation in Ohio. One of their ventures, known as the Cuyahoga Purchase, came to naught when the Ohio Indians from whom the land had been acquired at the end of the Northwest Indian War refused to bring forth their land claims at the Treaty of Greenville. The deeds that had been obtained by Henry and his associates were considered invalid, which caused Henry to moan, "We have lost a fortune of at least one million of dollars."^[15]

In 1792, Henry and his nephew Alexander Henry the younger together obtained one share in the North West Company for six years. In 1796 he sold his interest to William Hallowell (1771–1838), but continued to buy furs from traders and export them to England. When one of his uninsured shipments was captured by the French in 1801, he suffered a serious financial crisis. In order to repair his fortunes, Henry became a commission merchant and auctioneer in partnership with William Lindsay. Plagued by ill health, he worked hard at a job that he did not find satisfying.

Despite those reverses of fortune, Henry maintained a secure place in Montreal's mercantile society. He served as a captain in the militia and from 1794 to 1821 as justice of the peace. He lavishly entertained leading merchants in his home, regularly signed petitions and memorials, and attended parties. He was particularly active in the Beaver Club, reactivated in 1807, of which he was the senior member and on its creation, the vice-chairman. In 1806, he was one of the principal donators to the building of Nelson's Column, Montreal. In 1812, he was appointed vendue master and King's Auctioneer for the district of Montreal, working in partnership with his nephew Norman Bethune, who lived with him at 14 Rue Saint-Urbain. He remained close to his old friends, and Isaac Todd, who Henry enjoyed teasing, returned again to Montreal from his native Ireland to be close to Henry and McGill.

In 1809, Henry had written to Askin, "There is only us four old friends (James McGill, Isaac Todd, Joseph Frobisher, and himself) alive, all the new North westards are a parcel of boys and upstarts, who were not born in our time, and supposes they know much more of the Indian trade than any before them." To recapture his exciting past, he wrote a memoir of his life which he published in New York that year and dedicated to his English friend, Sir Joseph Banks. Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories, between the years 1760 and 1776^[1] has become a Canadian adventure classic and is still considered as one of the best descriptions of Native Indian life at the time of Henry's travels.

"A middle-sized man, easy yet dignified." Henry was known among the Indians and the French as "the handsome Englishman." He never recovered the wealth he had amassed during the height of the fur trade, but is remembered for his accomplishments in society and as one of the most important business leaders who turned Montreal into an innovative centre of business expansion. At age 85, he died at his home on Notre-Dame Street, Montreal, "esteemed by all who knew him."^[9]

As was the custom with early

• Martha Henry (1777–1849), natural daughter by Henry's country wife.[17] At Albany, New York, 1798, she married William Hallowell (1771–1838), who had purchased his partnership into the North West Company from Henry that year. Their daughter, Elizabeth, married John Bethune, Dean of Montreal.
• Mary Kittson, Henry's stepdaughter, married to John Cates, brother of Lt. Samuel Cates of the King's Royal Rifle Corps whose wife (Mary Tucker) was the sister of Mrs George Kittson.^[18]
• George Kittson (1779–1832), Henry's
  stepson, married Anne Tucker and was the father of several children including Norman Kittson. Their daughter, Margaret, married Henry's business partner in later life, Norman Bethune (1789–1848), son of Rev. John Bethune. Another son, William Henry Kittson, married a sister of Chief Justice Sir William Collis Meredith. Meredith's former business partner at Montreal, Strachan Bethune
  , was the grandson of George Kittson's sister, Martha (Henry) Hallowell.
• Julia Henry (b.1780), died unmarried.
• William Henry (1784–1864), was a
  fur trader with the North West Company and later a surveyor and civil engineer at Montreal. He carried several scars from knife wounds received in quarrels with various Indians, and in the Rocky Mountains he had his scalp torn off by a Grizzly bear before being rescued by an Indian.^[14] He was inducted into the Beaver Club in 1817. He was married to Jane Doe Felton, sister of The Hon. William Bowman Felton. They had several children including Charles Henry (1832–1897), who ran away from home at the age of thirteen to lead an adventurous life on the seas which included being shipwrecked on one of the islands off Hawaii
  , for a brief period, where he was married to a native.
• Alexander Henry (1785–1812), not be confused with his first cousin Alexander Henry the younger. He also worked for the North West Company, but was "barbarously murdered" by Native Indians at Fort Nelson near Port Nelson, Manitoba.^[14]
• Robert Henry (born after 1785-), wintering partner of the
  Cobourg. He was inducted into the Beaver Club in 1815. He married Christine Bethune (1787–1865), daughter of Rev John Bethune.^[19]
• John Henry (1786–1787), died an infant. His godparents were Mrs Isaac Todd and Mrs John Gregory, wives of two of the earliest and most prominent partners of the North West Company.^[20]

• Alexander Henry and the Grand Portage Story at the NPS
• Henry's story of capture at Fort Michilimackinac
• The Veil surrounding Alexander Henry's Mixed Blood Sons