1618?-1696?

French-born Canadian fur trader and explorer who was the first to recognize the possibilities for fur trade and, subsequently, open up that trade in the western Great Lakes and Hudson Bay regions. After serving at a Jesuit mission for several years after arriving in New France (present-day Canada), Groseilliers used his knowledge of Algonguin, Huron, and Iroquois languages to begin trading in furs with Indians. With his second wife's half-brother, Pierre-Esprit Radisson (1636-1710), as his companion, Groseilliers established an active fur trade for the French colony. His successes helped bring about the founding of the Hudson's Bay Company by English investors (in 1670), for whom he worked until 1674. He retired from fur trading in 1683 and died at Trois-Rivières in Quebec around 1696.