Founded 1670
After incorporation by English royal charter in 1670, the Hudson’s Bay Company was granted a right of “sole trade and commerce” over an expansive area of land known as Rupert’s Land, comprising much of the Hudson Bay drainage basin. [1]
The charter was conferred by Charles II on his “dear and entirely beloved Cousin, Prince Rupert,” and a group of associates incorporated as “The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson’s Bay.” With the charter the King gave a province named in honor of the cherished kinsman “Rupert’s Land” The bounds of the province no man knew. The grant was described in the deed as embracing the lands and waters draining into Hudson Bay and Hudson Straits. That meant extension on the east nearly to the shores of Labrador; on the south to the northern watershed of the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes and the upper Missouri; on the west to the Rocky Mountain divide of the Saskatchewan River and the eastern divide of the Athabasca River, Great Slave Lake and Back’s River; and on the north to the line of the watershed of Hudson Straits. This immense territory was granted free from seignorial reservations; it was given to the Governor and Company to hold as “absolute lords and proprietors” in “free and common soccage.”
— Merk [2]
See also
James Knight, York Fort Journals,1717 [3]
Samuel Hearne, Journey to the Northern Ocean, 1772 [4]
George Simpson, Fur trade and empire, 1825 [5]
James McMillan, Portion of letter James McMillan to William Connelly, 1825 [6]
Aborigines’ Protection Society, Canada West and the Hudson’s-Bay Company1856, [7]
Edward Ermatinger], York Factory Express Journal, 1828 [8]
Harold Innis, The Fur Trade in Canada 1930 [9]
Ball, Georgina. “Monopoly system of wildlife management, ” 1985 [10]
- 1670 HBC charter
- 1722 La Vérendrye reachs Lk. Winnipeg
- 1771 Hearne to Coppermine
- 1774 HBC on Saskatchewan
- 1812 NWC vs. HBC
- 1819 Robertson in charge of Fort St Mary
- 1820 Permanent HBC post established at Fort George
- 1821 Northwest Company and Hudson’s Bay Company merge, known as HBC
- 1824 Simpson recrossing Athabasca Pass
- 1824 Simpson and Ross cross Athabasca Pass from west
- 1825 HBC becomes active on the northwest coast
- 1825 McMillan re Tête Jaune’s Cache
- 1827 George McDougall crosses YHP
- 1827 David Douglas Athabasca pass
- 1828 Chief Factor John McLoughlin takes charge of area west of the Rockies
- 1828 James Douglas is captured in Carrier territory and released after negotiations
- 1834 James Douglas becomes a Chief Trader within the HBC
- 1838 HBC granted 21 year exclusive hunting and trading license to northwest coast
- 1839 James Douglas becomes a Chief Factor within HBC
- 1. Wikipedia. Hudson’s Bay Company
- 2. Simpson, George [1792–1860], and Merk, Frederick [1887–1977], editor. Fur trade and empire. George Simpson’s journal entitled Remarks connected with fur trade in consequence of a voyage from York Factory to Fort George and back to York Factory 1824-25. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1931. University of British Columbia Library
- 3. Knight, James [1640–1721]. Life and death by the frozen sea: the York Fort journals of Hudson’s Bay Company governor James Knight 1714–1717. Edited by Arthur J. Ray. Toronto: The Champlain Society, 2018
- 4. Hearne, Samuel [1745–1792]. A journey from Prince of Wales’s Fort in Hudson’s Bay to the Northern Ocean, in the years 1769, 1770, 1771, and 1772. Tyrrell, Joseph Burr, 1858-1957. Totonto: Champlain Society, 1911. Internet Archive
- 5. short
- 6. McMillan, James [1783–1858]. Winnipeg: Hudson’s Bay Company archives. Portion of letter James McMillan to William Connelly HBCA B.188/b/4 fo. 9-10 (1825).
- 7. Aborigines’ Protection Society. Canada West and the Hudson’s-Bay Company. London: William Tweedie, 1856.
- 8. Ermatinger, Edward [1797–1876], and White, James [1863–1928], editor. Edward Ermatinger’s York Factory express journal, being a record of journeys made between Fort Vancouver and Hudson Bay in the years 1827–1828. Ottawa: Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, 1912. Internet Archive
- 9. Innis, Harold [1894–1952]. The Fur Trade in Canada. An Introduction to Canadian Economic History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1930. Internet Archive
- 10. Ball, Georgina. “Monopoly system of wildlife management of the Indians and the Hudson’s Bay Company in the early history of British Columbia.” BC Studies, 66 (1985)
- North West Company [1779–1821]