page_title: Beaver Club
section_title: Members
hierarchical_section_title: Beaver Club / Members
caption_attribution_description: Simon McTavish (circa 1750 - 6 juillet 1804) était un entrepreneur canadien d'origine écossaise et un homme d'affaire influent au Canada durant la deuxième moitié du 18e siècle.
context_page_description: The Beaver Club was a gentleman's dining club founded in 1785 by the predominantly English-speaking men who had gained control of the fur trade of Montreal. According to the club's rules, the object of their meeting was "to bring together, at stated periods during the winter season, a set of men highly respectable in society, who had passed their best days in a savage country and had encountered the difficulties and dangers incident to a pursuit of the fur trade of Canada". Only fragmentary records remain of their meetings, but from these it is clear that the Beaver Club was "an animated expression of the esprit de corps of the North West Company". The men of the Beaver Club were the predecessors of Montreal's Square Milers.
context_section_description: All the names below appeared in Rules and Regulations of the Beaver Club, 1819, when only one of the original members was still alive. The nineteen original members were ranked in seniority by the date on which they had first entered the interior of Canada. As such, the French Canadian fur traders who had remained in the business after the British Conquest of New France held the most senior rank. In that order, with the dates in brackets of their first adventures into the Canadian wilderness, the original nineteen members were:
  Charles Chaboillez (1751)
  Maurice-Régis Blondeau (1752)
  Hypolitte Desrivieres (1753)
  Etienne-Charles Campion (1753)
  Gabriel Cotte (1760)
  Alexander Henry the elder (1761)
  Joseph-Louis Ainsse (1762)
  Benjamin Frobisher (1765)
  James McGill (1766)
  George McBeath (1766)
  James Finlay (1766)
  Joseph Frobisher (1768)
  John McGill (1770)
  Peter Pond (1770)
  Matthew Lessey (1770)
  David McCrae (1772)
  John McNamara (1772)
  Thomas Frobisher (1773)
  Jean-Baptiste Jobert (1775)
  New members were elected almost every year from 1787, though the dates of their first voyages into the interior were not always recorded. The list below shows new members inducted by year, and if known the year of their first voyage in brackets:
  1787: Jean-Baptiste Tabean (1770) Josiah Bleakley.
  1789: Patrick Small (nephew of Major-General John Small)
  1790: Nicholas Montour (1767); Venant St. Germain; Leon St. Germain; Joseph Howard.
  1791: John Gregory; Andrew Todd; Jacques Giasson.
  1792: Simon McTavish.
  1793: Myer Michaels; James Grant.
  1795: Isaac Todd; William McGillivray; Sir Alexander Mackenzie.
  1796: Angus Shaw; Roderick Mackenzie of Terrebonne.
  1799: Duncan McGillivray; George Gillespie.
  1801: Jacques Porlier.
  1802: Alexander Cuthbert.
  1803: Alexander Fraser; Simon Fraser.
  1807: D. Mitchell; Thomas Thain; Lewis Crawford; D. Mitchell, the younger; Peter Grant; Alex McDougall; Pierre de Rastel de Rocheblave (1793); John Forsyth; John Richardson; John Finlay; Aeneas Cameron; William McKay.
  1808: Sir John Johnson; John MacDonald of Garth; Archibald Norman McLeod; Alexander Mackenzie (1783).
  1809: John Wills; Charles Chaboillez, younger; Alexander McKay.
  1810: John Sayer.
  1813: James Hughes; Kenneth McKenzie.
  1814: Archibald McLellan (who won an award for bravery); George Moffat; W. McRae; Henry McKenzie.
  1815: Jasper Tough; J.M. Lamothe (1799); F.A. LaRocque; Thomas McMurray; Robert Henry; Peter Warren Dease; Charles Grant.
  1816: David Stuart.
  1817: William Henry; Jacob Franks (1799); David David (1807); John McLaughlin (1807); Hugh McGillis; John McDonald; Allan McDonell; James Grant; John Siveright (1799); John George MacTavish.
  1818: Simon McGillivray; Angus Bethune; Jules-Maurice Quesnel; John McGillivray; James Leith.
  1820: Sir George Simpson.
  Finally, there were eleven honorary members, many of whom were the captains of the ships who transported their furs back to England. They could only attend at meetings held especially for them in the summer months. The dates in brackets show the year of their admission:
  Captain Featonby of the Eweretta (1789); Captain Gibson of the Integrity (1789); Monsieur le Compte Andriani, of Milan (1791); Captain Edwards of the Indian Trader (1792) ; Colonel Daniel Robertson, of Struan (1793); Major-General Sir John Doyle (1796); Captain Edward Boyd of the Montreal (1800); Captain Alexander Patterson of the Eweretta (1800); Major George Clerk, of the 49th Regiment (1807); Lord Viscount Chabot (1808), Quartermaster General of Canada; Captain Sarmon of the Mary (1808).
caption: Simon McTavish, the undisputed leader of the North West Company known for his generosity and refined style of living, was admitted into the Beaver Club in 1792
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