Beaver Club
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The Beaver Club was a gentleman's dining club founded in 1785 by the predominantly English-speaking men who had gained control of the fur trade of Montreal. According to the club's rules, the object of their meeting was "to bring together, at stated periods during the winter season, a set of men highly respectable in society, who had passed their best days in a savage country and had encountered the difficulties and dangers incident to a pursuit of the fur trade of Canada". Only fragmentary records remain of their meetings, but from these it is clear that the Beaver Club was "an animated expression of the esprit de corps of the North West Company". The men of the Beaver Club were the predecessors of Montreal's Square Milers.
Arms of the North West Company
A canoe of the rival Hudson's Bay Company in 1869, carrying the artist, Frances Anne Hopkins, and her husband, Edward Hopkins, secretary to the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, in similar style as to the partners of the North West Company
Alexander Henry (1739–1824), vice-chairman of the Beaver Club, published his account of living with the Ojibwa and subsequent explorations (1760-76) before becoming a partner of the North West Company. He introduced John Jacob Astor to the Club and the fur trade at Montreal
Beaver Hall, the home of Joseph Frobisher. Built in 1792, the dining room comfortably sat 40 guests.
Gentlemen's club
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A gentlemen's club is a private social club of a type originally set up by men from Britain's upper classes in the 18th and succeeding centuries.
Reform Club, a prominent club in London since the early 19th century
The bar at the Savile Club, 69 Brook Street, London
A Club of Gentlemen by Joseph Highmore, c. 1730
Scene in a gentlemen's club: a cartoon of 1883 by Charles Keene