McGillivray, William (1764-1825), directed the North West Company, a Canadian fur-trading organization, from 1804 to 1821. He helped develop the fur trade by sending traders into western Canada’s wilderness.
McGillivray was born in 1764 in Dunlichty, Scotland. His uncle Simon McTavish worked for the North West Company. In 1784, McTavish hired McGillivray to work for the company in Montreal. He worked as a clerk and later ran a western trading post. In 1790, McGillivray became a partner in the firm. About that time, he married a Cree woman according to local custom. In 1800, he married Magdalen MacDonald, a British woman.
McGillivray directed the North West Company at a time of intense competition with the Hudson’s Bay Company, a British fur-trading firm. By 1821, he felt his company could no longer compete, so he helped join the two firms under the British firm’s name. McGillivray died in London on Oct. 16, 1825.
See also McTavish, Simon .
