b. Montreal, Canada, 1765
d. July, 1839, Brown County, Wisconsin

Jacques Porlier was a fur trader and judge. He was educated in a Jesuit seminary in Montreal. In 1791, he moved to Green Bay, where he clerked for a time in the free store of Pierre Grignon and tutored the Grignon children. He soon entered the Indian trade. He spent several years with various partners, trading in the St. Croix and upper Mississippi River region.

Fur Trade

From 1798 to 1805, Porlier partnered with Noel Rocheblave. They competed with Jacob Franks and Robert Dickson for control of the northwestern Wisconsin fur trade. Porlier joined forces with Robert Dickson's fur company when Rocheblave died in 1805. In 1806, Porlier remained with the company when it merged with the Michilimackinac Company.

Debt and Decline

In 1811, Porlier purchased shares in John J. Astor's new Southwest Fur Company. The association eventually led to his financial ruin. During the War of 1812, Porlier fought with the British. Following the war, he continued to trade in Wisconsin, despite the decline of the fur trade in the area, the growing power of the Astor interests and the government licensing system. Porlier, like most of the Green Bay traders, grew ever deeper in debt to the Astor interests. In 1821, he yielded to the suggestions of the American Fur Company and helped organize the Green Bay Company. The new company was designed to monopolize the fur trade of Wisconsin and facilitate debt payments to Astor. But, it ultimately drove the traders even deeper into debt. Eventually unable to pay, Porlier lost most of his Green Bay lands to Astor. He had become an American citizen in 1821, and continued to live in Green Bay until his death. From 1820 until Wisconsin became a territory in 1836, Porlier served by appointment as chief justice of the Brown County Court.

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Colls. State Hist. Soc. Wis., 7 (1876), 19 (1910), 20 (1911); K. W. Porter, J. J. Astor (2 vols., Cambridge, 1931); WPA MS; J. Porlier Papers.