JOHN JAMES SMITH (21289)

John James Smith was born in London, England, in 1791 and entered the service of the HBC in 1808. He sailed on the Prince of Wales to Fort Albany on James Bay near the mouth of the Albany River. Fort Albany was in the area referred to as the Southern Department and during his sixteen years with the Company, his service was at various posts in that Department. When the HBC and the NWC merged in 1821, many employees were redundant and John James was one of them. He was discharged in 1822 and spent a year as a ‘free hunter’ in the Albany district.
In 1824, he moved to Red River with his country wife Mary, a First Nations woman from the Albany District. They were accompanied by three children and settled in the St. Andrews area. They would have five more children at the settlement. Mary died in 1832 and John married Nancy Favel in 1835. They would have seven children. John James Smith died in October 1850 and was buried in St. Andrews Cemetery. Nancy died in 1901.