Montreal

A harbour developed at Montréal because the Lachine Rapids meant goods had to be transferred here and a fur-trading post was established in 1611. In turn it was fur-trading which established the Scottish connection in the city with Simon MacTavish, from Stratherrick, moving north from the Mohawk Valley and settling in Montréal in the late 1770s. He became the leading businessman in the 1880s and the founding father of the North West Company. He cemented his alliance with the voyageurs by marrying Marie Marguerite Chaboillez, daughter of the owner of a long-standing fur trading business.

There was also a sizeable Scottish population in Montréal as a result of the 78th, or Fraser, Highlanders, les sauvages d'Ecosse, receiving their back pay here after the city's fall in September 1760. They were offered favourable land grants at the end of the French and Indian war and many settled in the area.

The first steamship sailed from Montréal in 1809 and excavation of the Lachine Canal was completed in 1825. Dredging of the channel between the city and Lac Saint-Pierre took place in the 1850s allowing the largest ocean-going vessels to reach the city.

Voyages