Levy Solomons

Levy Solomons was a Jewish Canadian merchant and fur trader who was born in England in 1730. He settled in Montreal almost immediately after the British conquest of Canada in 1760. He had lived in Albany, New York, where he retained interests and occasionally resided until the end of his life. He was largely engaged in traffic with the Indians, and his mercantile enterprises extended from Michilimackinac to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and down the Hudson River. During the American invasion of Canada in 1775, General Montgomery appointed Solomons purveyor to the American hospitals in Canada, and the defeat of Montgomery brought disaster to Solomons, who lost the large quantities of stores carried off by the retreating troops. The valuable assistance Solomons had given the Revolutionists subjected him to punishment by the Canadian government; General Burgoyne expelled him in July, 1776; his property was confiscated, and he was compelled to take refuge with his family in Lachine. Some time afterward he recovered some of his losses, and was permitted by the British government to return to Montreal. Through his efforts in 1788, a code of laws was drawn up for the government of the Sephardic synagogue of Montreal. Solomons married Rebekah Franks, daughter of Abraham Franks, one of the earliest Jewish settlers in Canada, and cousin of Colonel David Salisbury Franks and Colonel Isaac Franks, both of whom figured prominently in the American Revolutionary war. Solomons had two sons and eight daughters. His eldest daughter, Mary, married Jacob Franks, the Hudson Bay trader, who was one of the founders of the town of Green Bay, Wisconsin. His third daughter, Rachel, married Henry Joseph of Berthier, the founder of Canada's merchant marine. His son Benjamin Samuel Solomons married a daughter of Gershom Mendes Seixas of New York. He died of unknown causes in 1792 at the age of 62 and was buried in Montreal. He was commemorated by the Jewish Historical Society of Canada and the Canadian Jewish Congress.