François-Antoine Larocque

François-Antoine Larocque (August 19 1784 – May 1 1869) was a Quebec businessman involved in the fur trade.

He was born in L'Assomption in 1784, the son of François-Antoine Larocque, and studied at the Collège de Montréal. After his father's death in 1792, he went to the United States and learned English. He joined the XY Company as a clerk and worked in the Assiniboine River region; after that company was taken over by the North West Company, he worked as a clerk in the Upper Red River department. In 1804, Larocque and others travelled south to the Missouri River, where they met the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He continued on his own and later published the "Journal of Larocque from the Assiniboine to the Yellowstone, 1805". He returned east to Montreal in 1806. He served in the militia during the War of 1812, later serving as a captain in the Chasseurs Canadiens. In October 1813, he was taken prisoner and released the following year. In 1818, Larocque married Marie-Catherine-Émilie, daughter of Gabriel Cotté. He helped found the Bank of Montreal in 1819. He went into business with Joseph Masson and later formed his own company, Larocque, Bernard, et Compagnie, which operatd from 1832 to 1838. Larocque was associated with the Fils de la Liberté but did not take up arms during the Lower Canada Rebellion; nonetheless, he was imprisoned in 1838. He retired from business in 1841.

He died at Saint-Hyacinthe in 1869.

His uncle, Laurent Leroux, was an important figure in the fur trade and also a founder of the Bank of Montreal. His son François-Alfred-Chartier married Amélia, the daughter of Antoine-Olivier Berthelet in 1841.

External links

* [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=4538 Biography at the "Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online"]