John Strettell

John Strettell (1721–1786) of London, England, was one of the most important merchants providing trade goods to the Canadian fur trade in the period between the Conquest of Canada and his death in 1786.

Born in 1721, he was the second son of Robert Strettell, a London merchant and Quaker. Robert Strettell took most of his family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was successful in business and became Mayor of Philadelphia. John remained in England, and was trained in business by his mother's brother, the merchant John Owen.

The business was that of a commission merchant, who supplied English manufactured goods to American merchants on credit, and sold the goods that the customers sent to pay their debts. John Strettell became his uncle's partner, and later carried on the business alone. By 1758 he was shipping trade goods to the Indian Commissioners of the colony of Pennsylvania, and he continued to trade to Pennsylvania at least till the outbreak of the Revolutionary War.

It was in Canada, however, that Strettell made his great success. Near the end of his career, he referred to "my Canada Friends, to whose favours I principally owe my present happy circumstances". Once Canada had passed into British hands, Strettell lost no time in taking advantage of the new market now available, a market largely dependent on the fur trade. In the spring of 1761, the first season when the fur trade could be re-established west of Montreal, he was already seeking permission from the Privy Council to send gunpowder to Canada for the Indian trade. During the period of military government of Canada, when severe restrictions were placed on the fur trade, Strettell was one of the London merchants who signed petitions to the Colonial Office, seeking relaxation of the regulations. He represented the "Canada merchants" who petitioned for the abolition of the Stamp Act and other offensive duties in 1765, and he led the effort to remove James Murray from the governorship of Quebec. Strettell's interest in various branches of the trade to America is further shown by his activity in collecting money for the relief of sufferers from the Montreal fire in 1765, and from the fire in Bridgetown, Barbados, in 1766; and for the establishment of what later became Brown University, in 1768.

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