THOMAS DOUGLAS, 5TH EARL OF SELKIRK

'Thomas Douglas' (June 20, 1771 — April 8, 1820) was the 5th Earl of Selkirk, born at Saint Mary's Isle, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. He was noteworthy as a Scottish philanthropist who sponsored immigrant settlements in Canada.

Contents

Early background

Involvement in Canada

Legacy

References

External links

Early background

Thomas Douglas was the seventh son of Dunbar Douglas, 4th Earl of Selkirk, and Helen Hamilton. As he had not expected to inherit the family estate, he went to the University of Edinburgh to study to become a lawyer. While there, he noticed poor Scottish crofters who were being displaced by their landlords. Seeing their plight, he investigated ways he could help them find new land in the then British colonies. After his father's death in 1799, Douglas, the last surviving son (two brothers died in infancy, two died of tuberculosis and two died of yellow fever), became the 5th Earl of Selkirk.

Involvement in Canada

When he unexpectedly inherited the estate, he used his money and political connections to purchase land and settle poor Scottish farmers in Belfast, Prince Edward Island in 1803 and Upper Canada in 1804.
Selkirk asked the British government for a land grant in the Red River Valley, a part of Rupert's Land. The government refused, as the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) had been granted a fur trading monopoly on that land. However Selkirk was very determined, and he and Sir Alexander Mackenzie bought enough shares in HBC to let them gain control of the land. This position of power, along with his marriage connections (his wife Jean, was the sister of Andrew Wedderburn, a member of the HBC governing committee) allowed him to acquire a land grant called Assiniboia to serve as an agricultural settlement for the company. Between 1811 and 1815, Selkirk recruited over 300 Scots and Irish immigrants [1], later referred to as the Selkirk Settlers, to make the arduous trip across the Atlantic to the Hudson Bay outpost of York Factory, then south through the lakes and waterways of Manitoba to the Red River Colony [2].
He traveled extensively in North America, and his approach and work gained him some fame; in 1807 he was named Lord-Lieutenant of Kirkcudbright District in Scotland, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London.
As part owner, Selkirk wanted to stop the North West Company (NWC) from competing with HBC for furs in the region. Lord Selkirk tried unsuccessful to place law under the power of the British Crown while in northwestern Canada. His authority was largely challenged by the Métis people who already inhabited the area, and he spent much of his later life defending his actions in court.
Lord Selkirk first appointed Miles Macdonell as governor of the Red River colony in 1812. They totalled 128 men and required a great deal of assistance from the Métis during the first two years. Because of a shortage of food in 1814, Miles Macdonell issued a proclamation prohibiting the export of food called the Pemmican Proclamation, antagonizing the local Métis population who did not acknowledge the authority of the Red River settlement. The Métis arrested the governor and burned their settlement. Lord Selkirk's response was to retaliate by sending more people to occupy the Red River Region and appointed Robert Semple to act as governor. The Métis were angered by Selkirk's plan to bring a thousand families to the region within ten years, fearing loss of their lands.^[1] By 1816, the violence intensified between the Métis and the newcomers, which resulted in the Battle of Seven Oaks, causing the deaths of 25 of Lord Selkirk's men, including the newly appointed governor.^[2] NWC partners were accused of having aided the Métis attackers. Selkirk, accompanied by Swiss mercenaries and soldiers, occupied the NWC's post at Fort William.^[3] They arrested several of its partners including Simon Fraser and William McGillivray, for whom Fort William was named. Selkirk planned to have those arrested transported by canoe to Montreal where they would be tried for the deaths of his men. But nine of the prisoners including Kenneth Mackenzie (a NWC partner), a British sargeant, two of the Swiss mercenaries and six native guides, drowned in a storm at Maple Island near Batchawana Bay, Ontario.^[4]
Arriving in Montreal, Selkirk was charged with responsibility for the deaths of the nine prisoners, and lost multiple court battles over the incident. Two years after his raid on Fort William, Selkirk returned to England. Suffering from tuberculosis, bankrupt, his reputation tarnished, he died in 1820.^[5]

Legacy

Selkirk's colonizing ambitions have been memorialized in the names of the City of Selkirk and the Village of East Selkirk, as well as the Winnipeg neighborhood of Point Douglas (where Fort Douglas once stood) and Winnipeg's Selkirk Avenue.
The City of Selkirk is served by the Lord Selkirk Regional Comprehensive Secondary School, which is administered by the Lord Selkirk School Division.
The Métis peoples cite Lord Selkirk's intrusion as the period in time their identity as a people came into existence. The Métis existed prior to the confrontations with Lord Selkirk's men but their armed resistance to foreign encroachment became a rallying point for their shared identity. A flag and a national anthem were born during this period in time. ^[6]

References

1. Chisholm, B. & Gutsche, A., ''Superior: Under the Shadow of the Gods'', Lynx Images, 1998, p. 243
2. R. Douglas Francis, Richard Jones, and Donald B. Smith. "Origins: Canadian History to Confederation", 4th ed. (Toronto:Harcourt Canada ltd., 2000), at p. 434-5.
3. Chisholm, B. & Gutsche, A., ''ibid'', p. 26
4. Chisholm, B. & Gutsche, A., ''ibid'', p. 27
5. Chisholm, B. & Gutsche, A., ''ibid'', p. 243
6. Larry Chartrand. "The Definition of Metis Peoples in Section 35(2) of the Constitution Act, 1982. 67 Sask. L. Rev. 209 at p. 220-1.


★ Phyllis A. Arnold ''Canada Revisited 8'', Arnold Publishing Ltd.

External links

★ Detailed biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''

★ , by George Bryce 1909

★ Peerage of Thomas Douglas