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Archive record · Brewery

Anchor Brewery (Joseph Knight Boswell)

Quebec City, Quebec, Canada

ClosedOwnership unknownMicrobrewery
Founded
1842
Closed
Year unknown
Archive ID
TB-HXV3PJHB
Last checked
Not yet checked

Who owns this brewery?

Not yet establishedNot yet established

The archive is still digging. That is a gap in the research, not a finding of independence.

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01

From the record

Summary

Quebec heritage records state Boswell leased John Racey's installations in 1842 to establish the Anchor Brewery before founding his larger Saint-Vallier brewery in 1852.

A summary written during research. The sourced facts are in the sections below.

Tally’s Take

Boswell's first move, and a rented one. Quebec heritage records have Joseph Knight Boswell leasing John Racey's installations in 1842 to establish the Anchor Brewery, ten years before he built the larger Saint-Vallier operation. The archive keeps it as its own record because a leased plant trading under a different name is a different brewery, even when the man behind it is the same one. Everything Boswell later became — and the chain that runs from him to National Breweries and Dow — starts in somebody else's building.

02

The Museum

Timeline

  1. 1842
    Boswell leases Racey's installations

    Establishes the Anchor Brewery at Québec.

  2. 1852
    Moves to the Saint-Vallier brewery

    The larger operation, on the former Talon site.

08

Show your working

Sources

  1. recordProbable

    Brewery record taken from Tally's Quebec master, Pass 83, which cited https://www.patrimoine-culturel.gouv.qc.ca/rpcq/detail.do?id=234469&methode=consulter&type=bien for this entry. The cited page has not been opened by the archive.

    Tally's Quebec master, Pass 83 (research workbook) · Tally's Beer Universe research workbook · 2026

    CommercialMedium reliabilitySource accessed 2026-08-19
    Claim last checked 2026-08-19
  2. historyProbable

    Dated evidence as recorded in Quebec Pass 83: 1842, 1852.

    Tally's Quebec master, Pass 83 (research workbook) · Tally's Beer Universe research workbook · 2026

    CommercialMedium reliabilitySource accessed 2026-08-19
    Claim last checked 2026-08-19

Only the claims above are sourced. Everything else on this page is the archive's own research and has not yet been tied to a document — which is worth knowing rather than hiding.

09

Straight answers

Common questions about Anchor Brewery (Joseph Knight Boswell)

Is Anchor Brewery (Joseph Knight Boswell) still open?
No. Anchor Brewery (Joseph Knight Boswell) has closed. The archive has not established the year it stopped. Quebec heritage records state Boswell leased John Racey's installations in 1842 to establish the Anchor Brewery before founding his larger Saint-Vallier brewery in 1852.
When was Anchor Brewery (Joseph Knight Boswell) founded?
Anchor Brewery (Joseph Knight Boswell) was founded in 1842 in Quebec City, Canada.
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