Article

Alexander Henry

Published Online January 20, 2008

Last Edited March 4, 2015

Alexander Henry, fur trader (born in August 1739 in New Jersey, USA; died 4 April 1824 in Montreal, QC). He was one of the first English traders, known as the "pedlars from Quebec," to do business in the North-West following 1763.
Henry, Alexander
In 1761 Henry left Montréal for Michilimackinac and in 1775 penetrated the far West (courtesy Metropolitan Toronto Library).

Alexander Henry, fur trader (b in New Jersey Aug 1739; d at Montréal 4 Apr 1824). He was one of the first English traders, known as the "pedlars from Quebec," to do business in the North-West following 1763. 

He came to Québec as a young merchant supplying the British army. Travelling to Michilimackinac, the fur-trade entrepôt, he was present at the 1763 attack there, was taken prisoner and lived with Indigenous people for a year. 

For several years he traded on Lake Superior, but by 1775 he was on the Saskatchewan River. By 1781 he had retired to Montréal as a general merchant. He joined the North West Co but sold his interest in 1796. 

His memoir, Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories Between the Years 1760 and 1776 (1809), is a classic of Canadian travel literature. (See also Exploration and Travel Literature In English.)