Simon McTavish (1751-1804)

He was born at Stratherrick near Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. His two elder brothers were taken into the care of their father's friend, Dugald MacTavish, of Dunardry, Chief of the Clan MacTavish; and, in 1764, at the age of thirteen, Simon was sent to New York with his sister and her husband, Captain Hugh Fraser (1730-1814). Having become a successful fur-trader in the Detroit and Niagara regions, in 1783 he co-founded the North West Company at Montreal with the Frobisher Brothers. He died in 1804 leaving a fortune of £125,250 (roughly US$500,000), but all of his children died young, unmarried, and without offspring. His business was continued by his nephew, William McGillivray, of Chateau Saint-Antoine, and another large part of his fortune devolved to another nephew, John McTavish, of Brooklandwood, the British Consul at Baltimore in Maryland through whom the McTavish name was continued.