Joseph Frobisher

The Hon. Joseph Frobisher (April 15, 1748 – September 12, 1810) M.P., J.P., was one of Montreal's most important fur traders. He was elected to the 1st Parliament of Lower Canada and was a seigneur with estates totalling 57,000 acres.[1] He was a founding member of the North West Company and the Beaver Club, of which he was chairman. From 1792, his country seat, Beaver Hall, became a centre of Montreal society.

Early life

Joseph Frobisher was born at Halifax, Yorkshire in 1748. He was the third of five sons born to Joseph Frobisher (1710–1763) and Rachel Hargreaves (1718–1790). The Frobishers were an old Yorkshire family descended from Richard Frobysher of Altofts and Thorne, a first cousin of Sir Martin Frobisher.[2] Joseph's eldest two brothers, Benjamin and Thomas (1744-1788), came to Quebec soon after the British Conquest of New France to enter the fur trade

Family and legacy

In 1779, at the Anglican service in Montreal, Frobisher married a girl twenty years his junior. She was Charlotte Jobert (1761-1816), daughter of surgeon Jean-Baptiste Jobert and Charlotte Larchevêque. Her aunt, Marguerite Larchevêque (1749-1798), was married to Charles Chaboillez, one of the most influential French Canadian fur traders, who with Frobisher and his brother was one of the founding members of the Beaver Club. They were the parents of fifteen children, but only three lived to adulthood and married:

The Frobisher brothers gave their name to the Baffin Island community called Frobisher Bay, which in 1987 was renamed Iqaluit, and is now the capital city of Nunavut territory. The body of water on which sits Iqaluit is still known as Frobisher Bay. There still exists a Frobisher street in Montreal. Beaver Hall Hill is a street which follows the beginning of the path up Rue Belmont to the location of Frobisher's country retreat.[7]

(Rachel) Charlotte Frobisher (1780-1801), In 1797, she married Major-General Edward James O'Brien (1772–1855), of the 24th Regiment of Foot. He was the son of James O'Brien (d.1773) M.P., of Ennistymon Castle, County Clare. She died in tragic circumstances and was buried with a monument to her memory at Exeter Cathedral.[6] (O'Brien remarried and his daughter Mary Henrietta married Vice-Admiral Hon. Robert FitzRoy, captain of HMS Beagle during Charles Darwin's famous voyage.)

Lt.-Col. The Hon. Benjamin Joseph Frobisher, became a partner in the North West Company, was elected to Parliament, and was Aide-de-camp to Lord Dalhousie. In 1804, he married Isabella, daughter of James Grant and Susannah Coffin. She was a niece of The Rt. Hon. Sir William Grant and General Sir Roger Hale Sheaffe 1st Bt. She was a stepdaughter of The Hon. John Craigie and a half-sister of George Hamilton.

Caroline Frobisher (1798-1843). In 1820, she married James McGill Trottier Desrivières, heir of The Hon. James McGill, his father's stepfather. He was a first cousin of The Hon. Henri Desrivières. They were the parents of one son who died in infancy.

birth date	April 15, 1748
birth place	Halifax, Yorkshire
death date	September 12, 1810
death place	Beaver Hall, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Early life

Career

Beaver Hall

Family and legacy

External links

References