an Irish-born fur trader in the Ohio Country of North America who became the region's key figure earlier than his 1746 appointment to the Iroquois' Onondaga Council and remained so until his banishment from the frontier in 1777. Emigrating to Pennsylvania in 1741, he became an important trader by going to the villages of Native Americans, learning their languages and customs, and working on the frontier where previously mostly French had been trading. During and after King George's War of the 1740s, he helped negotiate new treaties and alliances with Native Americans.
