James McKenzie was born around 1777 near Inverness, Scotland, and died in 1849 in Quebec. His parents were Alexander Mackenzie of Achnaclerach and Catherine Mackenzie, and he was the brother of Roderick Mackenzie. In 1795, McKenzie began a seven-year apprenticeship with the North West Company under his brother Roderick in the Athabasca department. He had two sons with an unknown Indigenous woman near Terrebonne, Quebec, and in 1825, married Ellen Fitzsimmons, the under-aged daughter of Captain Thomas Fitzsimmons. They had seven children. McKenzie kept journals in Fort Chipewyan (Alberta) dated from 1799 and 1800, which illuminated the harshness of life in the fur trade and his contempt for Canadians, Indigenous peoples, and the North West Company. McKenzie physically abused members of the New North West Company (also known as the XY Company), sold Indigenous women to engagés, provided Indigenous peoples with bad tobacco and watered-down rum, and rewarded rather than punished a hunter responsible for the death of an engagé. Promoted partner in 1802, McKenzie was reassigned to the Athabasca country, where he constructed a “watch house” near the Hudson’s Bay Company’s post and ordered the destruction of the company’s property. Along with this, he debauched Indigenous peoples, plundered furs, and harassed workers of the Hudson’s Bay Company. McKenzie’s actions provoked some Chipewyan people into killing six North West Company workers that harassed them. Following the amalgamation of the two North West companies in 1804, McKenzie’s harassment intensified, causing the withdrawal of the Hudson’s Bay Company from the area in 1806. In 1807, McKenzie joined the Beaver Club in Montreal and soon after was appointed to the king’s post in Mingan, Quebec. McKenzie ventured up the Labrador coast to Musquaro, where he met the Naskapi peoples. In 1811, he bought a house near Terrebonne, Quebec, which facilitated visits to his brothers Roderick and Henry, and to his two sons with the unknown Indigenous woman. In 1815, he assisted John McDonald of Garth in dispossessing around four-hundred voyageurs of the Hudson’s Bay Company of their local tavern. McKenzie left the North West Company in 1818 to become an independent merchant at Tadoussac and Quebec. He was commissioned as a justice of the peace in 1821 and was believed to have settled in Quebec City.

Henry Mackenzie was born in 1781 in Achnaclerach, Contin, Ross and Cromarty, Scotland.

He was a seigneurial agent, fur trader, merchant, Justice of the Peace, and militia officer. Henry McKenzie, a lesser-known figure, was the brother of Roderick, Donald, and James, and a cousin of Sir Alexander Mackenzie. He moved to Lower Canada shortly before 1800 and was hired as a clerk at Grand Portage, Minnesota. In 1803, he settled close to Montreal in the seigneury of Terrebonne, which belonged to Simon McTavish. He helped him manage it and as a seigneurial agent, he established contacts with grain dealers and exporters. In 1806, he obtained a commission as Justice of the Peace for the district of Montreal. At the beginning of the War of 1812, he joined the Terrebonne battalion of the militia as a major and later was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. In 1814, he purchased 2 of the 19 shares of McTavish, McGillivrays and Co. and became one of the partners of the Michilimackinac Company. In 1815, McGillivray put him in charge of public relations for the North West Company. The same year he joined the Beaver Club. He was a member of the Scotch Presbyterian congregation in Montreal, serving as its vice-chairman in 1819 and 1822, and chairman in 1823 and 1825.

In 1815, he married Ann Bethune, daughter of John Bethune and sister of Angus Bethune. He died on June 28, 1832, in Montreal, Quebec.

Charles McKenzie was born around 1778 in Ferintosh, Scotland, and died in 1855 in the Red River settlement (Manitoba). He worked as an apprentice clerk for McTavish, Frobisher and Company in Montreal in 1802 and moved to the area around the Red and Assiniboine rivers in 1803. Shortly before 1805, McKenzie married a Métis woman named Mary McKay, “a la façon du pays,” and had one son and three daughters. They formally married on March 6, 1824, in Montreal. When McKenzie was serving as a clerk under Charles Chaboillez (North West Company partner in charge of the Fort Dauphin department) in 1804, he was sent to trade with the Mandan peoples on the upper Missouri River. McKenzie stayed with the Gros Ventre tribe over the course of the winter and arrived at Fort Assiniboine (Manitoba) in the spring of 1805. In 1807, McKenzie was posted to the Monontagué department near Lake Nipigon in Upper Canada and remained there until his retirement in 1854. He recorded his ventures to the Missouri River in a journal that was given to Roderick McKenzie of Terrebonne in 1842, where it was later published in 1889. According to his journals, McKenzie was an advocate of Indigenous issues and recorded extensively on Indigenous hunting practices, events at the post, and natural phenomena. Upon his retirement, he and Mary moved to their son’s farm in the Red River settlement.

Alexander McKenzie was born around 1767 in Stornoway, Scotland, and died in 1830 in Montreal. He was the nephew of fur trader and explorer Alexander Mackenzie. It is possible that he came to North America with his family during the mass exodus of the Mackenzies from the Isle of Lewis during the widespread poverty in the 1770s. He may have settled in New York and after the War of American Independence, moved to Montreal. McKenzie married Isabella Latour, likely “a la façon du pays,” and had one son and one daughter. In 1790, McKenzie began trading in the environs of Detroit and became associated with the Montreal firm of Forsyth, Richardson and Company. McKenzie left the Detroit region for north of Lake Superior in 1796, when Forsyth, Richardson and Company began trading in this area in 1793. He was one of the first six wintering partners in the New North West Company (also called the XY Company). In 1799, McKenzie and his men built a post near Edmonton House (near Fort Saskatchewan). From 1804 to 1808, McKenzie oversaw the Athabasca department, where his high-handed manner earned him the titles of “the Emperor” and “the Baron.” He commanded the North West Company post in Pic River (Ontario) on Lake Superior in 1809 and in 1811, he became the company’s agent at Fort William (now known as Thunder Bay). However, in 1815, a crisis between the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company developed around the Red River (Manitoba) settlement established by Lord Selkirk (1771-1820, Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk), and McKenzie was sent as an agent of the North West Company to hasten its destruction. He persuaded Miles Macdonell, governor of Assiniboia, to surrender that year and McKenzie helped escort him to Fort William. For his complicity in this action, McKenzie was arrested by Selkirk at Fort William on August 12, 1816. He, along with other North West Company partners including John McDonald, Simon Fraser, John Siveright, and John McLoughlin were tried in York (Toronto) in October 1818 on charges relating to the violence in Red River. They were all acquitted and their trials are known as one of the most controversial series of trials in Canadian legal history. After this, McKenzie was no longer a wintering partner of the North West Company, and in 1821, he worked as an agent in Fort William for McTavish, McGillivrays and Company. Since 1808, McKenzie was a member of the Beaver Club and became a major in the militia.

Neil McKenty was born on December 31, 1924, in Peterborough, Ontario.

He was a Canadian radio and television broadcaster and author. He was educated at the University of Toronto (B.A.) and the University of Michigan (M.A. in Communications, 1964). He was a teacher and ordained priest with the Jesuit order (1957-1969). He was on the editorial staff of Jesuit weekly America magazine. In 1970, McKenty left the Jesuits and accepted a position doing public relations with the Special Olympics. In 1972, he moved from Toronto to Montreal to work as a talk show host for CJAD AM radio. In 1977, he began to host his two-hour morning show Exchange. He left in 1985 to focus on his writing career, returning to broadcasting when his television phone-in talk show, "McKenty Live" on CFCF-TV, debuted in September 1987 and ran until 1990, when he decided to focus on writing once again. McKenty is the author of five books, e.g., a biography "In the Stillness Dancing: The Journey of John Main" (1985), a memoir “The Inside Story: Journey of a Former Jesuit Priest and Talkshow Host Towards Self-Discovery” (2017), and a murder mystery, “The Other Key: An Inspector Julian Main Mystery” (2003). Together with his wife, they published the book "Skiing Legends and the Laurentian Lodge Club" (2001).

He was married to Catharine Fleming Turnbull. He died on May 12, 2012, in Montreal, Quebec.