File 28 - Letter from Roderick Mackenzie to John Mackenzie

Roderick Mackenzie was born in 1761 in Achiltibuie, Scotland, to Alexander Mackenzie of Achnaclerach and Catherine Mackenzie. Mackenzie moved to Quebec in 1784 and died in 1844 near Terrebonne, Quebec. Mackenzie’s family (brothers, cousins, and in-laws) were all involved in the fur trade, and he worked as a clerk and assistant for his first cousin Alexander Mackenzie. Mackenzie travelled to the northwest and established Fort Chipewyan and set up a library for the employees of the North West Company in Athabasca. While there, he married an unknown Indigenous woman “à la façon du pays” and had three to four children with her. His daughter Nancy, from this marriage, married a fur trader named John George McTavish. Nancy’s biography can be found linked to Mackenzie’s biography in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, in which describes the typical life and treatment for Indigenous women at the time. Mackenzie served as lieutenant-colonel in the Terrebonne Militia and was appointed with the Legislative Council of Lower Canada. He was also appointed as Justice of the Peace for the “Indian Territories” (now known as south of the Great Lakes between the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers), and later for Montreal, Trois-Rivières, Gaspé, and Saint-François in Quebec. Mackenzie was a commissioner for various construction jobs (primarily of bridges and schools) and was a member of both the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec and the American Antiquarian Society and was a fellow of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries at Copenhagen. Mackenzie was accredited with the authorship of the introduction of his cousin Alexander Mackenzie’s book titled Voyages from Montreal, which gives an overall account of the history of the fur trade. He was also a member of the Beaver Club, a dining club for men who had influence in the fur trade.