Type trading station Materials wood structure | Controlled by King of France Year built 1720 | |
Magasin royal ("royal store") was the name given to a trading station under the purview of the King of France. It also applied specifically to two trading stores built along the Humber River by French fur traders in 18th-century Toronto.
The first trading store was built in 1720 near present-day Baby Point along the Humber River at Old Mill. It was built by Philippe Dagneau dit Douville, sieur de la Saussaye, and is commonly known as Fort Douville. The wooden magazine was similar to the one built in Lewiston, New York (likely the French forts or trading post located now in Fort Niagara). The two-storey wood structure had a barricade and was home to three traders from June to July 1750. The lack of other records suggests that there was no permanent settlement in the Toronto area between 1730 and 1750.
From fall of 1750 to April 1751 a larger royal store was built along the Humber, this time at the mouth of the waterway with Lake Ontario. It is commonly referred to as Fort Portneuf after the French military officer who had been instructed to build the fort, Pierre Robineau de Portneuf (1708-1761). This fort was very successful in trading with the first nations and plans were made to build another, larger, trading post on the shores of Lake Ontario, to the east of the Humber River. It was in operation until 1759 and was named Fort Rouillé. Portneuf was the first commandant of Rouillé. All three forts disappeared and only the last fort, Fort Rouillé is still remembered today.
For a time after the defeat of the French, Canadian-born French Canadian fur trader Jean-Baptise Rousseau (1758-1812) lived in a house at Portneuf from 1792. After the establishment of Upper Canada in 1793, the land along the east bank of the Humber was reserved for timber for the saw mill. Rousseau accepted a land grant at Head of the Lake near Ancaster in 1795 and moved his family there to continue his trading with the first nations peoples.