Entrepreneur and philanthropist, born in Glasgow, W Scotland, UK. He emigrated to Canada in the 1770s, and made a fortune in the NW fur trade and in Montreal. He bequeathed land and money to found McGill College, Montreal, which became McGill University in 1821.
James McGill (October 6, 1744 – December 19, 1813) was a Scottish-Canadian businessman and philanthropist.
Born in Glasgow, Scotland and educated at Glasgow University, he became one of the Montreal merchants involved in the fur trade south of the Great Lakes from 1770. Rumoured to be the richest man in Montreal, he left a great deal of money to charity, including an estate and 10,000 pounds to the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning to found McGill University.
He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada for Montreal West in 1792 and appointed to the Executive Council in 1793.
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