Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk

Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk
Baron Daer and Shortcleuch; The Trading Lord
Born	1771-06-20 St Mary's Isle, near Kirkcudbright, Scotland
Died	1820-04-08 Pau, France
Occupation	Colonizer, author, peer
Father	Dunbar Hamilton Douglas, 4th Earl of Selkirk
Mother	Helen Hamilton
Partner	Jean Wedderburn

Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk ((1771-06-20)20 June 1771 – 8 April 1820(1820-04-08) (aged 48)) was a Scottish peer and colonizer best known for establishing the Red River Colony and for his dramatic occupation of Fort William in 1816 during the conflict between the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company.

Early life

Douglas was the seventh son of Dunbar Hamilton Douglas, 4th Earl of Selkirk, born on 20 June 1771 at St Mary's Isle near Kirkcudbright, Scotland. He was not expected to inherit the earldom, but between 1794 and 1797 his four remaining brothers died — two from yellow fever in the Caribbean and two from tuberculosis — and he succeeded to the title upon his father's death in 1799.

He entered University of Edinburgh at the age of fourteen, studying humanities and law alongside Walter Scott, who later recalled him as "one of the most generous and disinterested of men." A formative experience came in 1778, when the American privateer John Paul Jones raided his family's estate — an episode that left a lasting impression on the young Douglas.

Colonization schemes

Following travels through the Scottish Highlands in 1792 and across Europe until 1794, Douglas developed theories about emigration as a remedy for the displacement caused by the Highland clearances. In 1801 he visited Ireland to study famine conditions and proposed resettlement plans to the Colonial Office. After initially considering Irish emigrants, he turned to Highland Scots. By the summer of 1802 he was planning a settlement in Upper Canada, but redirected his efforts to Prince Edward Island in July 1803 when government funding did not materialize. His ship Dykes arrived on 9 August 1803, and the resulting settlements on lots 57, 58, 60, and 62 proved a relative success.

During travels through North America in 1803–04, Douglas explored further settlement possibilities. He engaged Alexander McDonell as manager for a project at Baldoon, near Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River. Construction began in June 1804, but the swampy location and administrative difficulties made the venture a costly failure, though a number of settlers persisted there.

In 1805 Douglas published Observations on the present state of the Highlands of Scotland, setting out his emigration arguments. On 4 December 1806 he was elected a representative Scottish peer and began parliamentary engagement on abolition, national defence, and reform. In 1807 he was appointed lord lieutenant of Kirkcudbright and married Jean Wedderburn at Inveresk, Scotland, on 24 November of that year. Her brother Andrew Wedderburn and cousin John Halkett became important allies in his later ventures.

Red River Colony

Beginning in July 1808, Douglas and associates purchased depreciated Hudson's Bay Company stock at low prices during the market disruptions of the Napoleonic period. By 1811, with Wedderburn on the HBC governing committee, they secured approval for an agricultural settlement at Red River. In June 1811 the HBC granted Douglas approximately 116,000 square miles of territory — an area five times the size of Scotland — for the nominal sum of ten shillings, establishing what became known as the Red River Colony.

Miles Macdonell, appointed first governor of Assiniboia in June 1811, arrived with the first settlers in the summer of 1812. The colony faced severe natural hardships, and the situation worsened when Macdonell issued a pemmican ban intended to address food shortages, provoking fierce opposition from the North West Company. Senior NWC partners, including William McGillivray, rejected compromise attempts. By the autumn of 1815, the settlement had been destroyed, its colonists scattered to Upper Canada or expelled.

Fort William occupation, 1816

Douglas reached New York in October 1815 and learned of the colony's destruction. He organized a response, securing the support of a small regular force and about ninety recruits from De Meuron's Regiment. In March 1816, word arrived that Colin Robertson had managed to restore the colony, and Governor Robert Semple had arrived with additional settlers. On 25 July 1816, at Sault Ste. Marie, Douglas received news that Cuthbert Grant's Métis forces had destroyed the settlement a second time at the Battle of Seven Oaks, killing Semple and approximately twenty colonists.

Douglas immediately led his force to Fort William — then the principal interior depot of the North West Company — and in August 1816 arrested nine NWC partners, including William McGillivray, impounded furs worth a considerable sum, and occupied the fort. He subsequently purchased additional company furs and supplies from Daniel McKenzie, an arrangement he later acknowledged was ill-judged.

Legal difficulties

The occupation of Fort William set off years of litigation. Douglas refused to submit to arrest warrants from Upper Canada, judging one spurious and another legally invalid. His position hardened when he learned that his agent Owen Keveny had been murdered after surrendering to an NWC warrant. Governor-in-chief Sir John Coape Sherbrooke appointed commissioners in October 1816; the senior commissioner, William Bacheler Coltman, questioned the validity of the HBC charter and the feasibility of the settlement, suggesting it was primarily a fur-trade stratagem.

Douglas returned via the United States, arriving at York on 10 January 1818, and faced proceedings at the Sandwich (present-day Windsor) assizes. Preliminary hearings at Quebec found true bills for murder and destruction, but witnesses and prisoners escaped. Chief Justice William Dummer Powell adjourned Douglas's August trial sine die. Around the same time, Douglas lost his seat as a representative Scottish peer, suggesting a withdrawal of government favour.

Final years

Seriously ill, Douglas returned to London, where he completed his last publication, A letter to the Earl of Liverpool ([London], 1819), arguing his case from his sickbed. His brother-in-law Sir James Montgomery secured a parliamentary motion in February 1819 requesting the production of papers relating to Red River; the documents eventually produced — including Coltman's report and Colonial Office correspondence — exposed the North West Company's methods, but arrived too late to affect the outcome for Douglas.

In September 1819, Douglas and his family departed for southern France, settling at Pau in October. His health briefly improved but the climate proved unsuitable for his chest condition. He declined offers from the NWC to purchase his HBC stock on terms that would not protect the colonists' welfare. He died at Pau on 8 April 1820 and was buried in the Protestant cemetery at Orthez. He did not live to see the 1821 amalgamation of the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company.

External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography