Governor Samuel Wegg, intelligent layman of the Royal Society, 1753-1802

1978 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-199 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Hudson Bay ◽  
Hudson's Bay Company ◽  
Natural Knowledge ◽  
Commercial Company ◽  
Early Exploration ◽  
Charles Ii ◽  
Christopher Wren ◽  
Hudson’S Bay Company

'The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge and the Hudson’s Bay Company, trading in Rupert’s Land, North America, might seem unlikely institutions to have engendered any close associations in the first several centuries of their existence. Yet, even before the commercial company was chartered by Charles II in 1670, the Society had shown keen interest in the reported happenings in Hudson Bay, and had listened to letters and short papers on the character of, and early exploration of the area. Their interest is even more understandable when one realizes that a significant cadre of Fellows of the Society were either founding Adventurers of the Company or were, in its early years, on its executive Committee. Leading this list was King Charles II himself; and others were Prince Rupert, the first Governor of the Company; Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury; George Monk, Duke of Albemarle; Robert Boyle, James Hayes, Sir Paul Neile, Sir Philip Carteret and Sir Peter Colleton; James, Duke of York, the second Governor of the Company and later King James II; Sir Christopher Wren, President of the Royal Society; and Sir William Trumbull, third Governor of the H.B.C. But no one, then or later, had a longer or closer association with the two institutions, or wielded more authority simultaneously than Samuel Wegg, Esq., Deputy Governor and Governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1774 to 1799, and Treasurer of the Royal Society, 1768 to 1802. The career and the significance of Wegg are not well known to these respective institutions, and less so is their awareness of the part played by him in the other Company or Society.

The History of the Hudson's Bay Company

Polar Record ◽  
1935 ◽  
Vol 2 (9) ◽  
pp. 54-60
Keyword(s):  
Fur Trade ◽  
Hudson Bay ◽  
Hudson's Bay Company ◽  
History Of ◽  
Charles Ii ◽  
Privy Councillor ◽  
Hudson’S Bay Company

Early in the reign of Charles II two Frenchmen—Radisson and Groseilliers—were unsuccessful in eliciting interest in their own country in a scheme for establishing a fur trade with Hudson Bay, whither they had penetrated a few years previously. They consequently made their way to Boston, where they met Sir George Carteret, Privy Councillor to Charles II, Vice-Chamberlain of the Household, Treasurer of the Navy, then on a commission to Massachusetts. Sir George took them with him to England and introduced them to the King and Prince Rupert, who were much interested in their scheme. Action was delayed temporarily owing to the war with Holland and because the command of the sea was held by the Dutch, but meanwhile Radisson and Groseilliers were housed in Windsor at the expense of the King.

Chronological list of expeditions and historical events in northern Canada. V. 1790–1821

Polar Record ◽  
1971 ◽  
Vol 15 (99) ◽  
pp. 893-920
Author(s):  
Alan Cooke ◽  
Clive Holland
Keyword(s):  
Hudson Bay ◽  
Hudson's Bay Company ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
Northern Canada ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Rupert's Land ◽  
New Policies ◽  
Hudson’S Bay Company

During the period covered by this instalment of our list, the accomplishments of the North West Company, both in geographical exploration and in the realization of profits were great. It consolidated its position in the fur-rich Athabasca district and, with a few posts along Mackenzie River, began to draw in the furs of that immense territory. Its traders invaded not only the western part of Rupert's Land but even Hudson Bay itself. The Hudson's Bay Company rose only slowly to the challenge of its formidable rival, but, gradually, it began to adopt new policies and new techniques and to meet the North West Company on its own grounds and on its own terms. Finally, after a bitter struggle that was almost the destruction of both companies, the Hudson's Bay Company, in 1821, effectively absorbed the North West Company in a coalition that gave the older company greater strength than ever and a wider monopoly than Prince Rupert had thought of.

Ruins of Eskimo Stone Houses on the East Side of Hudson Bay

1946 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 201-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. H. Manning
Keyword(s):  
East Coast ◽  
Hudson Bay ◽  
East Side ◽  
Hudson's Bay Company ◽  
Archaeological Material ◽  
Made In ◽  
Hudson’S Bay Company

Archaeological material obtained from Eskimos on the east side of Hudson Bay has been described by Mathiassen, Quimby, and Jenness, but no systematic excavations have been made in the area. Mathiassen was told by Mr. S. Berthfi of Reveillon Frdres that there were house ruins of turf and stone on the east coast of Hudson Bay at Kovik Bay, Mosquito Bay, and Cape Dufferin, and also on the Ottawa Islands; and by Mr. Perdy of the Hudson's Bay Company that there were house ruins at Cape Wolstenholme and many around Port Harrison. Obviously, Mathiassen concluded that these were regular houses of the Thule type. Quimby6 found only oval and rectangular tent rings on the Belcher Islands, and assumed that the semisubterranean houses characteristic of the Thule culture were lacking.

Marketing in the Land of Hudson Bay: Indian Consumers and the Hudson's Bay Company, 1670–1770

2002 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-317
Author(s):  
Ann M. Carlos ◽  
Frank D. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Native Americans ◽  
Marketing Strategies ◽  
The Other ◽  
Hudson Bay ◽  
Hudson's Bay Company ◽  
Simple Process ◽  
Indian Consumers ◽  
Hudson’S Bay Company

The Hudson's Bay Company traded European goods for furs that were hunted, trapped, and brought down to the Bayside posts by Native Americans. The process of exchange was deceptively simple: furs for goods. Yet behind this simple process lies a series of decisions on the part of the company about which goods to provide, what levels of quality to provide, and what price to set. We examine the marketing strategies used by the Hudson's Bay Company and the role played by Native traders. We find that Native Americans were demanding consumers, concerned not only with the quantity of goods they received but also with their quality and variety. In a world where neither side could coerce the other, Natives' preferences were paramount.

Pedestrian extraordinary

1996 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 144-146
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Gold Medal ◽  
Active Period ◽  
Hudson's Bay Company ◽  
Coastal Regions ◽  
Northwest Passage ◽  
Geographical Society ◽  
Mcgill University ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Hudson’S Bay Company

Robert L. Richards, Dr John Rae . Caedmon of Whitby, Publishers, 1994. Pp. 231, £10.50 (Paperback). ISBN 0 905355 29 6. John Rae (1813-1893) was more typically a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, which awarded him its Founders’ Gold Medal in 1852, than of the Royal Society, which elected him in 1880. An Orkneyman of exceptional health and strength, his prowess was the ability to cover astonishing distances over rugged Arctic and sub-Arctic terrain on foot or by canoe. By his own reckoning, during his most active period as an explorer Rae covered a total of 6555 miles on foot and 6700 miles by open boat, including 1765 miles of unknown territory from 1844 to 1854 (at a cost, he added, of only £2 15s per mile.) After qualifying in Edinburgh as a surgeon - his Doctorate was a later honorary award by McGill University - Rae entered the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and spent 23 years based in that Company’s remote outposts. His energy, intelligence, ability to survive harsh winters in icy wilderness, and general bonhomie , attracted Governor Sir George Simpson to appoint Rae to lead expeditions to explore the complex northern coastal regions, with an eye to the Victorian dream of a Northwest Passage. As a preliminary trip, Rae travelled 1200 miles (in snowshoes!) to Sault Ste. Marie, in order to receive rudimentary but sound tuition in astronomy and surveying

Chronological list of expeditions and historical events in northern Canada. IV. 1763–89

Polar Record ◽  
1971 ◽  
Vol 15 (98) ◽  
pp. 699-721
Author(s):  
Alan Cooke ◽  
Clive Holland
Keyword(s):  
The Arctic ◽  
Hudson Bay ◽  
Minor Importance ◽  
Hudson's Bay Company ◽  
Southern Boundary ◽  
Northern Canada ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Hudson’S Bay Company

If the Treaty of Paris in 1763 secured the Hudson's Bay Company in its monopoly of Rupert's Land, it also, by the Cession of Canada, opened to British enterprise the river-and-lake routes, discovered by the French, from Montreal to the fur-rich country west of Hudson Bay. This instalment of our list covers the years of the Montreal traders' expansion into the North-west, their crossing of the Arctic watershed into the fur trader's Eldorado, the Athabasca district, their organization into the Hudson's Bay Company's formidable rival, the North West Company, and concludes with the climax of their north-westward surge, Alexander Mackenzie's arrival at the Arctic Ocean in 1789. This activity obliged the Hudson's Bay Company to change its policy of waiting for the Indians to bring their furs to posts on Hudson Bay and made them push inland to compete for furs with the pedlars from Montreal. In the meantime, the Moravians had established missions on the coast of Labrador, searches for a North-west Passage were directed away from Hudson Bay to the Pacific coast of North America, the first scientific expedition was sent to Hudson Bay, and the Indians were decimated by smallpox. Toward the end of this instalment, we begin to draw our southern boundary of “northern Canada” both westward and northward and to omit many expeditions and events of peripheral or minor importance, such as activities south of Saskatchewan River, or of regular occurrence, such as annual voyages northward from Churchill.

scholarly journals XVIII. An account of some curious fishes, sent from Hudson's Bay; by Mr. John Reinhold Forster, F. R. S. in a letter to Thomas Pennant, Esq; F. R. S.

1773 ◽  
Vol 63 ◽  
pp. 149-160 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Hudson's Bay Company ◽  
Hudson’S Bay Company

The Governor and Committee of the Hudson's Bay Company presented the Royal Society with a choice collection of skins of quadrupeds, many fine birds, and some fish, collected by their servants at the several ports in Hudson's Bay;

Profile: Samuel Hearne

Polar Record ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 23 (142) ◽  
pp. 49-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian R. Stone
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Hudson Bay ◽  
Northern Coast ◽  
Hudson's Bay Company ◽  
Coppermine River ◽  
Hudson’S Bay Company

Samuel Hearne is best known to students of polar history because of his famous overland expedition of 1770–72, when he became the first European to reach the northern coast of North America at the mouth of the Coppermine River. Fewer know of his other notable journeys, in which he established Cumberland House as an inland trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company; fewer still may be aware of his capture, while Governor of Prince of Wales' Fort on Hudson Bay, by the French naval commander la Pérouse in 1782. That Hearne was an attractive and interesting character emerges clearly from his own account of his major expedition (a classic in exploration literature) and his other writings. However, he was also a figure of controversy, both during his life and subsequently, and this lends interest to his story.

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