Groseilliers, Médard Chouart, Sieur des << `groh` zeh YAY, may dahr shwahr syur deh >> (1618-1696?), was a French explorer and fur trader. He and his brother-in-law, Pierre Esprit Radisson, were among the first whites to explore around and south of what is now Lake Superior.
Groseilliers was born in Charly-sur-Marne, France, near Meaux, on July 31, 1618. His given and family name was Médard Chouart. Groseilliers went to Canada about 1641. From 1654 to 1656, he explored and traded for furs in what are now Michigan and Ontario. Later, he and Radisson explored that region and present-day Minnesota and Wisconsin.
In the early 1660’s, French authorities arrested Groseilliers for fur trading without a license. Angered by this treatment, Groseilliers and Radisson went to England in 1665 and told King Charles II that Canada’s rich furs could be reached by way of Hudson Bay, a route previously unknown to the English. In 1668, Groseilliers led an English fur-trading expedition to Hudson Bay in Canada. This trip resulted in the establishment of the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1670. Groseilliers worked for the company from 1670 to 1675. He revisited Hudson Bay with Radisson between 1682 and 1684, but returned to New France about 1685.
See also Hudson’s Bay Company ; Radisson, Pierre E .
