William MacKintosh
| William MacKintosh | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1784 |
| Died | 1842-02-16 Lachine, Lower Canada |
| Occupation | Fur trader; North West Company partner; HBC chief factor |
| Partner | |
William MacKintosh (c. 1784 – 16 February 1842) was a Scottish-Canadian fur trader who rose from clerk to wintering partner in the North West Company and later served as a chief factor under the Hudson's Bay Company. He is best remembered for his aggressive campaign to starve out Hudson's Bay Company brigades competing for the Athabasca fur country in the years before the union of the two companies in 1821.
Early career in the North West Company
MacKintosh entered the service of the North West Company around 1802 as a clerk. He spent the winter of 1803–04 at Lesser Slave Lake, in present-day Alberta, and moved to the Peace River district the following year when he replaced John Clarke there.[1] He remained on the Peace River for approximately fourteen years, becoming one of the NWC's most determined operatives in the region.
Conflict in the Athabasca country
The period from roughly 1815 to 1819 brought intense conflict between the North West Company and a resurgent Hudson's Bay Company in the Athabasca fur country, and MacKintosh was central to the NWC's effort to drive out its rival. When John Clarke — now in HBC service — established Fort Wedderburn on Lake Athabasca in 1815 and attempted to obtain provisions from Indigenous traders in the district, MacKintosh used "all his influence, and some force" to block him.[1] Nor'Wester Willard Ferdinand Wentzel reported from Fort Chipewyan that no fewer than fifteen men, one clerk, and a woman and child died of starvation along Peace River as a result. Three additional deaths occurred near MacKintosh's post of Fort Vermilion during the following winter, and every HBC post in the district was compelled to surrender trade goods to NWC neighbours in exchange for provisions.[1]
The NWC rewarded MacKintosh for this campaign by making him a wintering partner on 22 July 1816. Nicholas Garry later described him as "the man who arranged the starving of Mr. Clarke's Men in Athapascow," and Colin Robertson characterized his entire conduct during the contest as marked by "the most deliberate and wanton acts of cruelty."[1]
By 1818 the HBC had reinforced its Athabasca expeditions, and Clarke managed to surprise Fort Vermilion and briefly capture MacKintosh before HBC authorities secured the return of goods MacKintosh had earlier seized. NWC prestige on the Peace River fell sharply through the spring of 1819.[1]
Arrest and flight, 1819
In late June 1819, HBC Governor William Williams intercepted and arrested a party of Nor'Westers — including MacKintosh, Benjamin Joseph Frobisher, Angus Shaw, and John George McTavish — at Grand Rapids in present-day Manitoba, as they traveled to the annual NWC council at Fort William. On 23 June, MacKintosh, suffering from illness, escaped into the woods, built a raft, and fled the scene, leaving behind written notes in the manner of a suicide.[1] He was the only one of those seized who remained available for NWC field service in 1819–20. The company reassigned him to Fort Dunvegan rather than Fort Vermilion.
Near Frog Portage in the autumn of 1819 he was seized again by HBC officers, though they subsequently released him. By January, Robertson reported that MacKintosh had sent his family away and was living at the post in reduced circumstances.[1]
Service under the Hudson's Bay Company
At the 1821 union of the North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company, MacKintosh was retained as a chief trader, with the understanding that he would eventually be promoted to chief factor — promotion that came in 1823. He and his old adversary John Clarke reportedly settled a personal dispute with a pistol duel across a campfire, likely in the winter of 1821–22.[1]
His subsequent career was marked by difficulty. In 1822 the Northern Department Council posted him to Fort Dunvegan, but subordinate officers and the chief factor of the Athabasca district, Edward Smith, resisted his authority. An epidemic that year killed a large proportion of the local Indigenous population. A plan to relocate Fort St John is thought to have antagonized Beaver Indians in the area, and five HBC employees were murdered as a result.[1]
George Simpson moved MacKintosh in 1824 to serve under Clarke at Lesser Slave Lake; when conflicts arose between the two men, Simpson transferred him in 1825 to the Nelson River district — a posting largely stripped of fur and game. A colleague wrote to Simpson alleging that MacKintosh's wife exercised undue influence over him to the detriment of HBC interests.[1]
In the summer of 1829 MacKintosh took charge of Cumberland House, a more tranquil posting on the main northern transport routes. He was transferred back to Fort Dunvegan in 1832, after which his health began to fail. He was granted sick leave in 1834–35, followed by two years of furlough, and he formally resigned on 1 June 1837.[1]
Personal life
MacKintosh took Sarah Gladu as his partner according to the custom of the country at some point before 1820. Their union was formally solemnized on 28 June 1836 at the Red River settlement by the Reverend David Thomas Jones. He had at least five children: a son William who predeceased him closely, at least three married daughters, and one unmarried daughter. His estate left the bulk of his property to a surviving son, with smaller bequests to his daughters.[1]
Death
MacKintosh died on 16 February 1842 at Lachine, Lower Canada, "after a short illness." His elder son William died just nine days afterward.[1][2]
John Tod recalled that he had once suspected MacKintosh of a plot to poison James Murray Yale, and remembered his "ever shifting countenance & restless black eye" as suggesting "nature had designed him the harbinger of plots, treasons, & strategems." Tod concluded that MacKintosh and Clarke had formed "the advance guard of the two opposing bodies, who had kept the country in a state of civil war so long."[1]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 Philip Goldring."Philip Goldring, "MacKintosh, William," Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 7."[website].Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 7 (University of Toronto/Université Laval).1988.University of Toronto/Université Laval.Link.(Rights: copyrighted | Access: open)
- ↑ "Death notice for William MacKintosh."[newspaper].Montreal Gazette.1842-02-17.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "ANQ-M, CE1-80, 1842."[record].CE1-80, 1842.Archives nationales du Québec, Montréal.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "PAC, MG 19, A38; B1, 3."[record].MG 19, A38; B1, 3.Public Archives of Canada.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "Hudson's Bay Company Archives."[record].A.33/4: ff.191–97; B.39/b/2: 33–40, 44–47, 52, 60; B.141/e/2: ff.1–2d; B.239/k/1–2; D.5/7: f.273d; E.4/1b; E.11/1: f.170d.Provincial Archives of Manitoba (HBCA).(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ L. R. Masson."Les bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest."[book].vol. 1, pp. 117, 123.University of Toronto Fisher Library, ms coll. 31, box 25, file 7.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ W. S. Wallace (ed.)."Documents Relating to the North West Company."[book].Documents Relating to the North West Company.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "Hudson's Bay Record Society series."[book].HBRS vols. 1 (Rich), 2 (Rich and Fleming), 3 (Fleming), 30 (Williams).(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ George Simpson; ed. Frederick Merk."Fur Trade and Empire: George Simpson's Journal … 1824–25."[book].Fur Trade and Empire: George Simpson's Journal … 1824–25.1931.Cambridge, Mass..(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ Edwin Ernest Rich."The Fur Trade and the Northwest to 1857."[book].1967.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ J. N. Wallace."The Wintering Partners on Peace River from the Earliest Records to the Union in 1821."[book].1929.Ottawa.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)