Alexander Henry the elder
| Alexander Henry 'The Elder' | |
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| Born | August 1739 New Brunswick, New Jersey |
| Died | 4 April 1824 (aged 84) Montreal, Quebec |
| Known for | Explorer, author, original founder of the Beaver Club and pioneer of the British-Canadian fur trade |
Alexander Henry 'The Elder' (August 1739 – 4 April 1824) was one of the leading pioneers of the British-Canadian fur trade following the British Conquest of New France; a partner in the North West Company, and a founding member and vice-chairman of the Beaver Club. In 1763-64, he lived and hunted with Wawatam of the Ojibwa, who had adopted him as a brother.
"Blessed with as many lives as a cat," he recounted his time with the Ojibwa and subsequent explorations in his Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories between the years 1760 and 1776 (published New York, 1809), which he dedicated to his friend Sir Joseph Banks. The book is considered an adventure classic and one of the best descriptions of Native Indian life at this time.
An "easy and dignified" raconteur, in 1776 Henry was invited to give an account of his journeys at the Royal Society in London and at Versailles to Queen Marie Antoinette. In the 1780s, Henry introduced John Jacob Astor into the Canadian fur trade; subsequently Astor would stay as Henry's guest during his annual visits to Montreal.
Alexander Henry was born at New Brunswick, New Jersey to an educated merchant family related to Matthew Henry. He was the eldest son of John Henry (d.1766), a merchant whose father, Alexander Henry (d.1744), had emigrated to British North America from the West of England to seek his fortune. He received a good education and afterward took an apprenticeship in business. From the age of twenty, Henry was working as a merchant out of Albany, New York. He made a lucrative but hazardous living supplying the British army during the French and Indian War (the North American front of the Seven Years' War). In 1760, following Wolfes victory at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, Henry was placed in charge of three loaded supply bateaux, which followed Lord Amhersts advance along Lake Ontario to Montreal.
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