John Torrance
| John Torrance | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
8 June 1786 Larkhall, Lanarkshire |
| Died | 20 January 1870 (aged 83) Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
John Torrance (June 8, 1786 - January 20, 1870) was a merchant and entrepreneur of Montreal, Lower Canada. He entered the railroad industry in the 1830s and ran steamboats on the St. Lawrence River. He was also a director of the Bank of Montreal and closely involved with many aspects to do with the progression of Montreal from the 1820s to the 1850s. His home, St. Antoine Hall, was one of the early estates of the Golden Square Mile.
In 1786, John Torrance was born at Larkhall, Lanarkshire, the second of the five very able sons born to Thomas Torrance (1735–1805), of Larkhall. John accompanied his four brothers to New York City in 1805, and came to Montreal in 1807 to join his brother, Thomas, who had established himself as a merchant there. John next went to Quebec City to represent Thomas' firm, meeting his wife there. His marriage contract showed he was already a wealthy man. By 1814, he was back in Montreal and had opened a general store near to Thomas' on Saint-Paul Street. By 1826, his nephew David Torrance, had become a clerk in John’s business, marrying John's daughter in 1832. Their business partnership lasted until John retired in 1853. This closeness between uncle and nephew was a likely reason for John's son opening his own rival firm.
The firm of John Torrance & Co., became strongly associated with tea. In the late 1820s, they began to import tea directly from China and India, breaking the East India Company monopoly previously controlled by Forsyth, Richardson & Co. They diversified into loans from their warehouses to Upper Canadian merchants and developed the Montreal & Quebec Steamboat Company, which at first competed with and then joined forces with John Molson. The Torrances were a major driving force with the Molsons in the creation of the St Lawrence Steamboat Services.
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