James Anderson

James Anderson, born 1775 in Orkney(1), came to Rupert’s Land as a Hudson’s Bay Company servant in 1796 and was employed as a tailor during his years of service with the Company. His first posting was at Churchill and from there he went to the Albany district and later to Brandon House.  In 1823, he left the Company service and settled with his family at Red River.

James’s ‘country wife’ was an Indian woman known as Mary(2). It is commonly held that Mary was a woman from the Brandon House area. This seems plausible as HBC Chaplain John West described her as a Saulteaux woman when he solemnized their marriage at Brandon House. In their applications for scrip, her children described her as an Indian woman. Her son Caleb’s application stated that she was Cree.

James and Mary were formally married at Brandon House on 23 January 1821 by John West. Six children were baptised on the same day and another was baptised on February 4 by West on his return from Fort Qu’Appelle. Another daughter was born at Brandon House, and in 1823 James and Mary settled at Red River where six more children were born. Their last child, William, was born in 1837 and died at the age of six.

James died at the settlement in 1856. Mary had died two years earlier.

 

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(1) The HBCA biographical sheet says he was from Walls or Stennes[s] and gives a d.o.b. of 10 Feb. 1775

(2) Some biographies attribute the surname Demoran to Mary, but the marriage register only states ‘a Saulteaux Indian woman’ and her baptism the same day denotes her as Mary Anderson, w/o James, Saulteaux. The scrip applications of her children describe her as an Indian. In the transcriber’s text in Library and Archives Canada for her son John’s application, she is given the surname de Moran. However, the digitized application shows the writing to be ‘an Indian’, not ‘de Moran’. LAC has been informed of this and agrees that ‘an Indian’ is correct.