The Todds, established members of the local Protestant gentry, had been prospering at Coleraine since at least 1630 and held several valuable land leases from the Earls of Antrim.

[1] Isaac Todd spent his early manhood as a merchant in his native Ulster in the north of Ireland, but, after the British Conquest of New France, he was quick to seize upon the trade opportunities now available in Canada.

His partner in the late 1760s was another Irishman, Richard McNeall; one of them managed affairs at Montreal while the other (usually Todd) took care of their trade at Detroit and Michilimackinac, where he developed a close friendship with Alexander Henry the elder.

[4] By the early 1770s, Todd was investing large amounts in the trade beyond Grand Portage, cooperating with other Montreal traders such as Benjamin Frobisher and Maurice Blondeau in what was sometimes referred to as the North West Company.

He took an interest in public affairs, but never ran for political office, and seems to have moved back and forth across the Atlantic, uncertain where to settle, and alarming his friends with complaints of ill health.