I was alerted to a new-to-me website this morning – one that mentions the Red River Colony. So, naturally, I went in to have a look!

Many of us are tempted to accept as truth what we see in print. Unfortunately, and this is something that is particularly evident in material one finds on the Internet, a lot of what is written for our edification is either poorly researched, mistaken, or just downright misleading! Such is the case with Scottish Government site I was refered to today, Learning and Teaching Scotland: Scots and Canada.

The site looks very professional, and has a slide show of historic maps, paintings and sketches that add to the sense of authority of the site. But for the historian well-versed in Red River history, several errors are evident in the text. I’ll point out a few right now:

1. Lord Selkirk agreed that he would provide settlers and militia for the region over the next decade. According to Bumstead’s biography of Lord Selkirk (Lord Selkirk: A Life, 2008), Selkirk was constantly stymied by the British and Canadian Governments in his efforts to provide military protection for the RRS. He overcame the obstacle by settling retired Swiss soldiers in the Colony. They came (officially) as settlers, not soldiers. I wonder who the author of this site is inferring the agreement was between?
2. In 1811, a hundred Scots emigrants set sail for Hudson’s Bay under the leadership of Miles MacDonnell [sic]. The first Scottish (and Irish) settlers set sail in 1812. The group of 1811 was a work party made up of mostly Irish, Scottish and Orcadian men, and certainly fewer than 100! According to the list in the Miles Macdonell Papers as reprinted in Martin (p.10), 18 men were included in the work party. The 1812 group of Scottish settlers engaged was 56, according to A list of Settlers and Servants engaged in Ross, Brolas, Greenburn in the Island of Mull, for the service of the Honorable H. B. Coy and the Right Honorable Earl of Selkirk. [Selkirk Papers M-734 Vol. 2 pp. 558-559].
3. They arrived in Canada too late to make the 60-day trek inland to Red River before winter and were forced to camp near York Factory. The Scots barely survived the harsh winter. By spring, only 22 men were healthy enough to make the 1300-mile trek to Red River. The work party of 1811 did winter near York Factory, and encountered the usual hardships of winter life in the far north. There was a lot of strife and unrest in the two camps (one mainly Irish, the other mainly Scottish), and several Irish men were sent home on the next available ship as a result. The work party was never intended to be much larger than the group that headed for the intended site of the RRS in 1812, although there was some argument in the spring of 1812 about who would be part of it and whether HBC employees would augment the numbers. According to the list mentioned in the point above, 18 men left York Factory in 1812 as a work party for the RRS.
4. Nor’Westers refused to trade with the Scots settlers… On the contrary, NWCo. officials at Red River did everything they could to coerce the settlers to accept relocation to Canada from the RRS, and providing them with food was one of the main methods of dividing the settlers and the RRS officials and creating a rebellious spirit among the settlers. Metis and First Nations hunters supplied food for the RRS and were paid or traded for their services and provisions.
5. MacDonnell [sic] called himself the Governor of the Red River Colony. Of course he did. He was appointed such by Lord Selkirk himself! This site is pretty hard on Miles Macdonell, who, although he was admittedly not the best man for the job and made several serious mistakes in his leadership, was working in circumstances that even he would have had difficulty forseeing. Answers to his reports, which could only be sent out once annually with the ships from York Factory, were only received a year after he requested instructions, when the next ships arrived with the mail! How much can occur under volatile situations over the period of a year!
6. Cameron tried to convince the settlers to relocate but most refused. Actually, the majority (about three quarters of the settlers, according to lists made at the time of the events) accepted Cameron’s offer to relocate to Canada in 1815. Several families were forced by officials/servants of the NWCo. Only a handful removed to Jack River at the north end of Lake Winnipeg to await aid, instructions and the 1815 group’s arrival to augment their numbers and to start all over again.
7. Cuthbert Grant and 60 of his men massacred a group of 25 Hudson’s Bay Company employees at a place called Seven Oaks. Settlers were also slain in this massacre. Cuthbert Grant and ‘his’ men were acting under orders of NWCo. officials.

Having said all that (and more could be said…), the same site provides a link to an interesting educational page on the Red River Settlement, one that would be of interest to teachers and young people. It is simply written and hazy on detail. But it would be a good starting point for introducing children to their Red River roots! Check it out: The Red River Colony: Lord Selkirk has a Plan.

I picked up a Biblio Life reprint of this 1910 publication the other day. It is an interesting little booklet for anyone studying the settlers of the pre-1915 desertions. Essentially, it consists of copies of documents in the Selkirk Papers that help to identify exactly which people arrived as settlers in the 1811, 1812, 1813 and 1814 groups.

You’d think that would be a pretty straightforward thing to figure out – just look at the ships’ lists! In actual fact, though, it isn’t very easy at all. Some of the ships’ lists have gone missing. Not all the people who were recruited and show on those lists embarked on the journey. Some of those changed ships during the voyage. Some decided to work for the HBCo. before joining the settlement, others went directly to the Colony. Some were sent home before the rest made the trek from York Factory inland. Several died on the voyage and at Churchill Creek.

Although this booklet presents the extant lists as they occur either as lists proper or as part of a longer document, all the information presented is available on the Internet for free, or through interlibrary loan of the Selkirk Papers microfilms. A good detective will want to look at other documents to further determine who was actually present at the RRS in the early days and not limit themselves to what Martin has collected here. There is little biographical material on any of the settlers here – just lists.

This is a handy reference for the RRS research library, perhaps, but the lists are printed in other books. You might want to save $15 and invest it elsewhere!

[McRae] Told me a Skin was wanting of the Number he gave me to put under me for a bed, they were in Captn. McDonell’s tent where I slept I told him I did not take it, nor had not it, & that it was surprising any person would go into Captn. McDonell’s tent to take it out, that perhaps he did not count them well that it must be among the others, upon which he said he did, I must pay for the one that is lost. I told him he spoke very peremptorily, & that stil a tryal ought to be made, but the word was I must pay for it. I then told him I would not that he gave them, & I did not reckon them, & as he gave them that he took them. That if he required so many from me, he ought as he was so particular to receive them, from my hands, & not take them himself. Upon this He told me go be damned. Upon which I told him but that I was a Clergyman I would kick him. He wanted me to box him. I told him I was no Blackguard, but that he was a Comissary had a sword & pistols & that if Captn. McDonnell would lend me either of his, I would try him at either. There was no Man on the ground I could depend on for arms but Capts. McDonell. I brought none myself, thinking I’d have no occasion for any, for which I was sorry & more so that I should be under the necessity of calling to Captn. McDonell for his, Captain McDonell was out at the time, when he came in I told him what happened, & that in McRea’s presence, & that I was sure McRea was no Gentleman, tho’ he had the arms of a Gentleman, sword & pistols. I guess’d from the Doctor & McReas being always with Hillier, that perhaps they were put up to this, & I was resolved to try what the best of them could do. In fact I heard some days after, that McRea went to Mr. Hillier & requested he would be is Friend in a day or two, when he would call on him But I understand Hillier gave no reply whatever, but changed colour.

- Journal of the Rev. Charles Bourke

(reference: pages 17848-9 of the Selkirk Papers, M187, Manitoba Archives)

Miles Macdonell and Mr. Hillier made two camps near York Factory over the winter of 1811/12, where the men who were to be the work crew for the Red River Settlement lived until moving south after break-up. Even from Macdonell’s journal, which is often somewhat brief and lacking detail in its daily record of events, it is clear that the winter was full of malcontent.

With the men was a Roman Catholic priest, Charles Bourke – Irish, like many of the men of the working party. He, too kept a journal, a journal that is far more outspoken about the tensions between the Irish and the Orkneymen, and the outright prejudice and abuse the former suffered. Several times violence erupted and, on occasion, serious injury occurred. While it seems that the Irish were doing the erupting, the entries in the ailing priest’s diary over the next three days show that they were well and truly goaded.

This ill feeling carried over into later years at the RRS, as these Irishmen formed most of the working party and were joined later by some Irish immigrants.

[A Bad Cough & sore breast] increases I observe a great deal of impertinence in McRea & a bad disposition in general towards the Irish

- Journal of the Rev. Charles Bourke

(reference: pages 17867 of the Selkirk Papers, M187, Manitoba Archives)

Miles Macdonell and the 1811 Work Crew are still at sea – in Hudson’s Bay now and heading south. In his journal, he records:

Very fine weather & favorable moderate winds & smooth water which has been the Case since entering the Bay.

Hart was cobbed by his associates for stealing Provisions.

Stealing provisions was a serious offence, as provisions were rationed in order to last the entire passage or until the next stop at a port where fresh provisions could be taken on board. If someone took more than his ration, everyone would go short later as provisions ran low. If the journey lasted longer than anticipated, and this could easily happen, then rations would be cut, and the theft would be felt even more.

What made it even worse was the fact that the crime was not committed agains just one individual, but against the entire crew and, perhaps, the passengers as well. This is probably why Hart suffered his punishment at the hands of his peers on the ship. To cob someone on a ship (and this is a nautical term) is to hit him across the buttocks with a piece of wood or a leather strap. Depending upon how angry his ‘associates’ were, poor Hart might have had some difficulty sitting down to eat for a while!

(reference: pages 16610 of the Selkirk Papers, M186, Manitoba Archives)

The 1811 Work Party is en route to their North American Assignment, nearing the mouth of Ungava Bay:

“Fine mild weather with flying fogs wind N. Westerly variable & light great part of the day a dead calm. Visited in the afternoon by Mr. Davidson & Mr. Edwards from the Edward & Ann In the evening a light air from N. E. Commodore would not carry sail at night. In afternoon he made the signal for seeing Ice. the other ships were nearer to the direction & would not see it.”  – Miles Macdonell’s Journal 1811

(references: page 16066 of the Selkirk Papers, M186, Manitoba Archives)

“The Carpenter work of our Boats was done- they are of the required shape but slightly put together & every part of the work but indifferently executed. a piece of the stern post was split off one in taking it out from the place it was built.”  – Miles Macdonell Journal

Although the first boats Macdonell inspected in April looked better than expected, the last ones he ordered, built according to his modified plans, disappointed him. Tensions between the Mr. Auld at Churchill, Cook, who was Auld’s ‘lieutenant’ at York Factory, and Macdonell may have filtered down to the workers. The carpenters also may have resented the colony Governor inspecting their work, telling them how new boats could be improved and how he wanted the finished boats altered to suit him. They had, after all, been building boats for transporting goods up and down the trade routes from Hudson’s Bay much longer than the colony Governor!

(references: page 16660, 16654 and 16652 respectively of the Selkirk Papers, M186, Manitoba Archives)

“Set my men to repack the seed grain in iron hooped Rundlets- the Casks it was in were not sufficient.”  – Miles Macdonell Journal

The work party is making ready to head inland from York Factory.

“Mr. Auld after returning on foot from Churchill paid us a Visit. I gave the Men a sound lecture on Sunday in his presence, he seemed to like the discourse well, & said it was much to the purpose. He hoped for good results from the practice of such moral good instructions.”  – Rev. Charles Bourke Journal 1812

Throughout the winter of 1811/2 there had been tension between the Orkneymen and Irish of the two work party camps. On several occasions, the tension broke into violence or deliberate destruction of property. Each of the officials seemed to have his own idea about discipline and how to maintain order…

(reference: 17868 of the Selkirk Papers, M186, Manitoba Archives)

“Indians came with fresh Killed venison they went off very soon after getting payment…”  – Miles Macdonell Journal, 1812

Macdonell, together with the 1811 work party, was camped in the vicinity of York Factory, waiting for the waterways leading to Red River to become navigable again. Throughout the winter the party relied on First Nations hunters to provide game – in this case, caribou. It was a relationship that continued at Red River with the native people of that region throughout the early period of the settlement’s history.