SAMUEL LAMONT

Samuel Lamont sailed on the Prince of Wales in 1813 with the colonists bound for the Selkirk Settlement. He was a 22-year-old millwright from Islay who had been hired as a contract servant to build a grist mill at Red River. Due to an outbreak of typhoid on the ship, the passengers were landed at Churchill Fort rather than York Factory and remained the winter at a makeshift camp near Churchill. Samuel was among those who made the well-known trek to York Factory in the spring of 1814 and then continued by boat to Red River.

His contract was renewed for another year and lumber for the mill was being collected by November. The foundation was laid by March 1815 and it was expected that the mill would be completed that year. However, the summer of 1815 saw the majority of the settlers leave for Upper Canada, the remainder flee north to Jack River, and the burning of the settlement including the mill. Lamont returned to Red River under the leadership of Colin Robertson and in September was at work squaring logs for the rebuilding of the settlement. He intended to rebuild the mill in 1816.

This plan came to an end with the second destruction of the settlement and exodus once again to the north end of Lake Winnipeg. Samuel continued to York Factory to take the ship for Britain. The Prince arrived late at YF and did not leave until October 6, too late to clear Hudson Strait. The ship was forced to winter in James Bay near Moose Factory so Lamont did not arrive home until October 1817.

In the 1830s, Lamont returned to Canada with his wife and children. He came not to Red River, but to Sunnidale Township, Ontario, where he built a mill.