William Mactavish

William Mactavish

William Mactavish or Mctavish (born March 29, 1815 in Edinburgh , † July 23, 1870 in Liverpool ) was a Scottish fur trader and representative of the Hudson's Bay Company . He was governor of Rupert's Land and Assiniboia Territories , prior to surrender to Canada and the establishment of the Province of Manitoba in 1870.

biography

Mactavish joined the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in 1833 and initially worked at the Norway House trading post north of Lake Winnipeg . In 1834 he was transferred to the north York Factory on Hudson Bay , where he trained as an accountant and warehouse manager. Several promotions followed, until he was finally appointed chief dealer (chief factor) of Fort Garry in the Red River Colony in 1857 . There he married Sarah McDermot, a Catholic Métis .

In 1858, the HBC appointed Mactavish governor of Assiniboia , a task he only took on under protest, since in his opinion politics and business should not be united in one hand. In 1860, after the death of George Simpson, he also had to take over the office of governor of Ruperts Land . In 1861/62 he was also president of the courts in the Red River Colony and in Rupert's Land, as the HBC was unable to find a suitable successor for the deceased incumbent for a long time.

His largely passive attitude favored the Red River Rebellion in 1869 . He largely allowed the provisional government of the Métis, led by Louis Riel , to go ahead, and he was not very resolute in opposition to the agitation of the Canadian Party led by John Christian Schultz . The main reason for this was probably his severe tuberculosis disease. In May 1870 he left the Red River Colony to return to his homeland. He arrived in Liverpool on July 21 , where he died two days later.

Web links

• William Mactavish . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ).