Simon McTavish - Family and Monument

Family and Monument

In October, 1793, Simon McTavish married Marie-Marguerite Chaboillez (b.1775), daughter of Charles Chaboillez, a founding member of the Beaver Club. Directly after the marriage, they moved to London, where McTavish hoped to live permanently, but his new wife became depressed there and they returned to Montreal in the spring of 1795. The McTavishes had six children, four of whom lived to adulthood, but only one married. A monument stands to their four surviving children at Chiswick Parish Church:

• Mary McTavish (1796-1819). In 1817, at Marylebone Church, she married Major Charles Pasley (1781-1821), of Gloucester Place, Portman Square, London; nephew of Admiral Sir Thomas Pasley. His first cousin, Sir John Malcolm, had previously appointed him Chargé d'affaires to Fat′h-Ali Shah Qajar of Persia on the part of the Supreme Court of India. Mary was given away by her guardian and first cousin, Simon McGillivray. She died at Sidmouth, Devon.
• William McTavish (1797-1816), died unmarried at Stroud-on-the-Green, near Kew. He was described as 'of Dunardry' in his death notice.
• Ann McTavish (1800-1819), died unmarried at Bridport, Dorset.
• Simon McTavish (1803-1828), died unmarried at Ramsgate, Kent.

By McTavish's will, he instructed that all of his children were to be taken to England for their education, and Mrs McTavish accompanied them in 1806. At London, in 1808, she took for her second husband Major William Smith Plenderleath, the recognized illegitimate son and eventual heir of General Gabriel Christie, by his mistress Rachel Plenderleath.

Simon McTavish was related to many of the most important persons in the Canadian fur trade: William McGillivray, Simon McGillivray and Duncan McGillivray were his nephews; Simon Fraser, John Fraser (his London agent) and Donald McTavish were his cousins; Angus Shaw and John MacDonald of Garth were his nephews-in-law. Through his wife, MacDonald was the brother-in-law of David Thompson. Sir Alexander Mackenzie was the cousin of Roderick McKenzie, brother-in-law of McTavish's wife.

Simon McTavish died in Montreal in 1804, leaving an estate of £125,000. In his will he bequeathed funds to a number of people as well as the Hôpital Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal and the Montreal General Hospital. McTavish Street, bordering the westerly side of McGill University was named in his honor, as was McTavish reservoir, just north of the university.

His McGillivray nephews organised his funeral, settled his will and built a memorial for him within the grounds of his house on the slopes of Mount Royal. They built a twenty foot column enclosed by a walled mausoleum, that once occupied a prominent place in Montreal's iconography. In 1942, rather than repair the aged monument, the City of Montreal tore the column down and replaced it with a small inconspicuous block - reducing to size a symbol of Montreal's past anglophone influence.