William McGillivray was born in Dunlichty, Scotland, in 1764 and died in 1825. He was the eldest son of Donald McGillivray and Anne McTavish, daughter of John McTavish of Garthberg and sister to fur trader Simon McTavish. McGillivray moved to Montreal in 1784 to work for the North West Company under his uncle Simon McTavish, after Simon McTavish financed McGillivray’s secondary schooling. In the 1790s, he married Susan, a Cree or Metis woman born near Flin Flon on the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border, “a la façon du pays,” and had one daughter and three sons together. He later married Magdalen McDonald in 1800, daughter of Captain John McDonald of Garth, and had one son and five daughters, four of whom died in infancy. McGillivray was a commissioner and was made partner in McTavish, Frobisher and Company in 1793 and was appointed Justice of the Peace for the “Indian Territories” (now known as south of the Great Lakes between the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers) and for the Province of Quebec, the district of Montreal, and Trois-Rivières. McGillivray was held responsible and arrested for the massacre of Seven Oaks, where the rivalry between the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company left twenty settlers killed. McGillivray was then released on bail in Montreal. He wrote accounts of his travels, and specifically, his interactions with Indigenous peoples in his journal.

Simon McGillivray was born in Dunlichty, Scotland, in 1783 and died in 1840 in Blackheath, England. McGillivray was the youngest son of Donald McGillivray and Anne McTavish, daughter of John McTavish of Garthberg and sister to fur trader Simon McTavish. In 1837, McGillivray married Anne Easthope in England. Due to an injured foot, McGillivray did not join his brothers William and Duncan on their expeditions to Canada, but remained in London to work for McTavish, Fraser and Company to maximize profits for the Montreal firm.

Elizabeth McGillivray was born in 1776 in Inverness, Scotland, it is unknown when or where she died. She was a sister of William McGillivray. She married James Reid in 1808.

Duncan McGillivray was born in Inverness-shire, Scotland, in the 1770s and died in 1808. He was the second son of Donald McGillivray and Anne McTavish, the sister of fur trader Simon McTavish. In the 1790s, McGillivray moved to Montreal along with his brother William and accepted a job in the North West Company, offered to him by his uncle Simon McTavish. Prior to this, Simon McTavish financed McGillivray’s secondary schooling. McGillivray had one child named Magdalene in 1801 with an unknown Indigenous woman. William McGillivray, a clerk who joined the North West Company in 1814, may have been fathered by McGillivray and an unknown Cree woman, as he was described as a “half-breed of the Cree Nation” by Governor George Simpson. Due to the rivalry between the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company, in 1798, McGillivray was accused by an officer of the HBC of having stolen furs from the Ojibwe so that they could not pay their debts to the HBC, but this accusation never amounted to anything.

Peter McGill was born in Wigtonshire, Scotland, the son of John McCutcheon and Mary McGill. His uncle, John McGill, who was Receiver General of Upper Canada from 1813 to 1822, bequeathed his large estate to Peter on condition that he assume the name McGill, which he did. He came to Canada in 1809 to become a partner of the Montréal firm of Parker, Gerrard, Ogilvie and Co. Later, he founded his own mercantile firm, Peter McGill and Co. In 1819 McGill became a director of the Bank of Montreal. He served as its president from 1834 to 1860. He was the first chairman of the first railway company established in Canada, the St. Lawrence and Champlain, from 1834 until 1838. McGill was mayor of Montréal from 1840 to 1842. He held a seat in the Legislative Council of Lower Canada, 1832-1838. He was member of the Special Council of Lower Canada (1838-1841) and of the Legislative Council of the United Provinces, 1841 to 1860 where he served as Speaker from 1847 to 1848.

Wife of wealthy Montreal business man James McGill.

James McGill was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1744. He entered Glasgow University in 1756, but did not receive a degree. He later immigrated to the American colonies and the first known North American reference to McGill dates from 1766. In about 1774, he arrived in Montréal and, in partnership with Isaac Todd, became involved in the commercial fur trade. For a time, he also maintained business partnerships with his brothers, Andrew and John. McGill was a member of the Beaver Club, a private social club based around participation in the fur trade. From 1792 to 1796, and from 1800 to 1804, he represented a Montréal constituency in the Lower Canada Legislature, and in 1793 he was appointed to the Executive Council. In 1776, McGill married Marie-Charlotte Guillimin, the widow of a former colleague, Amable Desrivières. James McGill enslaved at least six Black and Indigenous people: Sarah, Marie-Louise, Jacques, Marie-Charles, Marie, and a Chatiks si chatiks (Pawnee) child whose name is not recorded. In 1813, he bequeathed a large part of his estate to the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning in order to found and endow a college bearing his name. After delays and litigation by heirs, McGill College was inaugurated in 1829.

Andrew McGill was born in 1754 in Glasgow, Scotland and died in 1805 in Montreal. He was the son of James McGill and Margaret Gibson and was the brother of James McGill (founder of McGill University), John McGill, and Isobel McGill. He was married to Ann Wood and when McGill died, she married his brother James. With his brother James, McGill founded James and Andrew McGill and Company in 1810, which had succeeded Todd, McGill and Company.