1. John Torrance was a merchant and entrepreneur of Montreal, Lower Canada.
17 Facts About John Torrance
1. 2.
John Torrance entered the railroad industry in the 1830s and ran steamboats on the St Lawrence River.
3.
John Torrance was a director of the Bank of Montreal and closely involved with many aspects to do with the progression of Montreal from the 1820s to the 1850s.
4.
In 1786, John Torrance was born at Larkhall, Lanarkshire, Scotland.
5.
In 1805, John accompanied his four brothers to New York City, in 1897, he moved again to Montreal to join his brother, Thomas, who had established himself as a merchant there.
6.
John Torrance next went to Quebec City to represent Thomas' firm, meeting his wife there.
7.
John Torrance was a director of this railroad from 1847 until it became part of the Grand Trunk Railway in 1853.
8.
John Torrance was a director of the St Lawrence and Ottawa Grand Junction Railroad Company, chartered in 1850, to extend the Montreal and Lachine line to Prescott, Canada West.
9.
John Torrance was a stockholder in the short-lived Bank of Canada in Montreal and became a director of the Bank of Montreal from 1826 to 1857, after the death of his brother, Thomas.
10.
John Torrance had been a founder of the Committee of Trade in 1822 and invested in a variety of land speculations and mortgages.
11.
John Torrance strongly supported the Montreal Annexation Manifesto, which cost him his commission as a Major in the militia.
12.
John Torrance was a life governor of the Montreal General Hospital and a founder and trustee of the Mount Royal Cemetery.
13.
John Torrance made gifts to McGill University including a fund for a gold medal in law as a memorial to his wife.
14.
In 1818, John Torrance built a 42-room mansion, St Antoine Hall, off the then fashionable Saint Antoine Street.
15.
The house was renowned for its acres of gardens, conservatories, vineries, and orchards, enjoyed by John Torrance whose hobby was gardening - he was an incorporator of the Horticultural Society of Montreal in 1849.
16.
John Torrance had purchased a small estate in his native Scotland, known as the 'Gatehouse'.
17.
In 1811, at Montreal, John Torrance had married Elizabeth Fisher, the daughter of Catherine Fisher and Duncan Fisher, an American merchant who settled in Montreal after the Revolution.