McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
James Bissett Fonds
Fonds
10 cm., originals, Photostats, and photographs
James Bissett was born in 1830 in Lachine, Quebec and died in 1904. He was the son of Alexander Bissett and Jane Bissett (her maiden name is unknown). Bissett was a carpenter in 1827 and became Superintendent of the Lachine Canal from 1843 to 1868. He spent eight years as a mercantile trader before joining the Hudson’s Bay Company as an Accountant at the Lachine Depot in 1854. He also served as Officer-in-Charge for the Hudson’s Bay Company post in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1859 and 1860, as Chief Trader in Victoria and Esquimalt (British Columbia) between 1860 and 1871, and as Chief Factor in Montreal from 1872 to 1880.
The two volumes of Photostats were received from the Public Archives of Canada in 1935. The original documents were received in 1962 from the estate of Miss Alice M. Bissett and from Bissett’s granddaughter Miss Alison Cole.
Correspondence, accounts, journals maps, etc., documenting Bissett’s career with the Hudson’s Bay Company. The Photostats (in C.1 and C.2) include Bissett’s journal and accounts at the Red River, 1854-1855, and a journal “Lachine to the Sandwich Islands” 1858-1859. There are also journals for 1859 and 1867. The original documents (in C.3) include correspondence with the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1858-1875, and accounts, 1860-1873. There are Bissett’s commissions as Chief Trader (1858) and as Chief Factor (1872), and a list of Chief Traders and Factors, 1855-1879. There are also some plans / maps, sketches, and photographs including a sketch of the Hudson’s Bay Post at Honolulu, ca. 1860.
English.