Minutes of the North West Company (Strictly Agreements and solemn engagements. 1801-1811.
| Database ID | 26319 | |
| Institution | University of Saskatchewan Libraries Special Collections | |
| Fonds/Collection | Morton Manuscripts Collection | |
| Series | MSS-C500 | |
| File/Item Reference | MSS-C500-4-16 (Box 6 O/S) | |
| Date of creation | 1801-1811 | |
| Physical description/extent | 1 book; 84 pages | |
| Number of images | 1 | |
| Historical note | The North West Company, a Canadian fur-trading company, was once the chief rival of the powerful Hudson's Bay Company. The company was founded in 1783 and enjoyed a rapid growth. It originally confined its operations to the Lake Superior region and the valleys of the Red, Assiniboine, and Saskatchewan rivers but later spread north and west to the shores of the Arctic and Pacific oceans. It even penetrated the area then known as the Oregon Country, where it constructed posts in what are now the U.S. states of Washington and Idaho. Its wilderness headquarters was located first at Grand Portage on Lake Superior and after 1805 at Fort William (also on Lake Superior, at the site of the present city of Thunder Bay, Ontario). Competition with the Hudson's Bay Company became especially intense when that company established the colony of Assiniboia on the Red River (in present-day Manitoba) in 1811-1812, across the North West Company's line of communications. A few years later, open conflict broke out, during which North West Company men destroyed the Red River colony (see Seven Oaks Massacre) and Hudson's Bay Company men destroyed the North West Company post of Fort Gibraltar (located on the site of modern Winnipeg, Manitoba) and captured Fort William. Under pressure from the British government, the old North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company were merged in 1821 under the name and charter of the latter company. The New North West Company, or XY Company, had a brief existence (1798-1804) as a competitor of the old North West Company before being absorbed by the latter. John Thomson (d. 1928?] was a North West Company clerk at Red River and Rocky Mountain Fort. | |
| Scope and content | These minutes, a negative image photocopy, are a collection of the more formal decisions of the North West Company, many of them being resolutions, agreements, and legal contracts. They were printed in documents relating to the Company edited by W.S. Wallace for the Champlain Society, 1934 (pp 170-245), and must be distinguished from such minutes as The Minutes of the Transactions of the North West Company at Fort William (also printed by the Champlain Society) which detail the routine business of the Company. | |
| Restrictions on access | There are no restrictions on access. | |
| Contributer | North West Company (author) | |
| Copyright holder | Public domain | |
| Copyright expiry date | Public domain | |
| Other terms governing use and reproduction | Responsibility regarding questions of copyright that may arise in the use of any images is assumed by the researcher. | |
| Type | Archival | |
| Primary Media | Textual documents | |
| Provenance Access Point | Morton, A.S. | |
| Availability of other formats | There is a typed transcription at MSS C500/4/17. | |
| Other notes | Photostat done 3 September 1931. On title page: Taken from the photostat copy in the Public Archives of Canada. The original is said by Dr. Doughty to be in the Library of the Imperial Institute, London. | |
| Treaty boundaries | Canada -- National | |
| Cultural region | Canada -- National | |
| Names | McKay, William Thomson, David | |
| Subject | Forts Fur Trade Hunting and Trapping Exploration North West Company | |
| Date Range(s) | 1800-1819 | |
| Permanent Link | https://digital.scaa.sk.ca/ourlegacy/permalink/26319
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