Sir James Douglas
John Innes' painting of the inauguration of the Crown Colony of British Columbia. The event took place in the Big House at Fort Langley on November 19, 1858, when Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie, the newly appointed Chief Justice, swore in James Douglas as the first Governor of the Crown Colony of British Columbia.
Lieutenant Governor, Vancouver Island: 1 Sep 1851 - 25 Mar 1864
Governor, British Columbia: 22 Mar 1838 - Oct 1839 and Nov 1845 - 11 Mar 1850
Lieutenant Governor, British Columbia: 19 Nov 1858 - 20 Apr 1864
Sir James Douglas 1803–77, Canadian fur trader and colonial governor, b. British Guiana (now Guyana). As a young man, he went to Canada in the service of the North West Company; soon after its merger (1821) with the Hudson's Bay Company, he accompanied the noted John McLoughlin to the Columbia River country. Rising eventually to chief factor, he succeeded (1846) McLoughlin in command of the Hudson's Bay Company territory W of the Rockies. On Vancouver Island, on the site of the present Victoria, he built (1843) Fort Camosun (later Fort Victoria), which became (1849) the western headquarters for the company. In 1851 he was appointed governor of Vancouver Island, and in 1858 he also became governor of the new colony of British Columbia on the mainland. At this time Douglas severed his long association with the Hudson's Bay Company. His governorship, which extended until 1864, was marked by a firm control of the colonies' affairs, made particularly turbulent by the gold rushes to the Fraser River and to the Cariboo region. Shortly before his retirement he was knighted (1863).
Source: AllRef.com
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It was in 1857 that the British and American governments decided to do the actual survey to establish the boundary between the United States and British Columbia. Survey gangs working east had no problems other than mosquito plagues. Problems did arise with those working west. According to the Oregon Boundary Treaty of 1846 the line was to follow the 49th parallel to the middle of the channel separating Vancouver Island from the mainland. From there it was to follow the middle of the channel southward about Vancouver Island to the Pacific Ocean. The initial treaty totally ignored the many islands between the two which were naturally claimed by both sides. This blunder almost brought the United States and Britain into a war. Governor Douglas was in favour of going to war against the Americans and went so far as to have Moody's engineers taken away from their many projects and placed on standby in case of an attack. The British government discouraged any hostilities because Britain was involved in wars in other parts of the world.
It took Governor Douglas until February 4, 1859 to issue the first Pre-emption Act whereby land could be purchased at the upset price of ten shillings per acre, half cash and the balance in two years. A second one passed on January 4, 1860, provided for pre-emption of rectangular blocks, of which the shorter should be at least two-thirds the length of the longer side. The settler had to stake out the four corners of his property and pay a registration fee of eight shillings to the nearest magistrate. These acts were amended from time to time over the next couple of years. The first man to pre-empt land in Langley was Kenneth Morrison. He pre-empted 160 acres just upriver from the fort. He called his home Barvis, in honour of his birthplace, and operated it as a stopping house for the miners. His friend John McIver also pre-empted on the south side of the river. He took up land west of the fort opposite the Katzie Indian Reserve.
Both Morrison and McIver were present at the Crown Colony of British Columbia's birth. As the boats came up the river with the dignitaries the pair posted themselves in the fort's bastions and (44) fired salutes of welcome. Later McIver, like so many others, left to prospect in the Kamloops area. He mined at Cherry Creek, just outside Kamloops, where he lived with an Indian girl and fathered her child. When the 'Chilcotin War' broke out in 1864 he joined a punitive party headed by Donald McLean, ex-Chief Trader at Kamloops, to go after the Indians accused of murdering the Alfred Waddington road building party. McLean, upon leaving the company had built the Hat Creek Stopping House on the Cariboo Road out of Ashcroft. McLean, upon going into battle, always wore a bullet-proof steel-plated breastplate for protection. Unfortunately for him he bragged to one too many Indians about it. A Chilcotin Indian killed him with a bullet in the back. McIver was closest to him at the time of the shooting. Upon returning to Langley, McIver learned that his original pre-emption had previously been a potato patch belonging to Chief Michel of Katzie. The Royal Engineers had investigated the dispute and issued McIver a piece of land on the opposite side of the river while he was away.
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James Douglas is a legendary figure in British Columbia, from his fur trade days at Fort St. James to his dual governorship of Vancouver Island and British Columbia.
In his official capacities as a Chief Factor with the Hudson’s Bay Company and as governor, Douglas earned a reputation for discipline and sternness. Old Square Toes was a most appropriate nickname if the dour, haughty expression we see in his photographs was how he appeared in everyday life.
As important as his public contributions were, Douglas is also of great interest to historians for his personal life. He was born in 1803, the illegitimate son of a Scottish sugar planter and a “free coloured woman”, in British Guiana. His mother was probably a descendant of a black, slave woman and a European man stationed in the West Indies. James Douglas lived in the planter and slave society in British Guiana until the age of nine. In 1812, his father sent him to Scotland to attend school. There he met many of his father’s extended family, members of the well-to-do planter and merchant class in Glasgow. But it was the fur trade that attracted young James and so he headed for Canada at age sixteen not to return to Scotland for 45 years.
After several years in the fur trade, Douglas was posted to Fort St James, B.C. This northern outpost became his centre of activities during his first years in British Columbia. At Fort St James, he met Amelia Connolly, the daughter of Irish-born Chief Factor William Connolly and Suzanne, a Cree woman of the Fort Churchill area of Hudson Bay. In the absence of clergy they were married “in the custom of the country” and together had 13 children, of whom only 6 lived to adulthood.
Through the 1830s and ’40s the Douglas family resided at Fort Vancouver, then they moved to Fort Victoria. In Victoria they built a large home at James Bay where domestic life was kept quite separate from the routine of the fort. The marriages of their daughters and the arrival of many grandchildren occupied the home life of Sir James and Lady Amelia through the 1860s. Douglas experienced grave disappointment over his son James, who was a sickly lad and did not do well in school. Each of the children’s families add fascinating new stories to the Douglas family history. For example, Cecilia Douglas married Dr J.S. Helmcken through whose reminiscences and descendants we have learned a great deal about the Douglas family and days in early British Columbia.
Upon his retirement in 1864 Sir James took a year-long holiday to Britain and continental Europe where he visited relatives and saw the grand sights. When death came in 1877, Douglas was buried in the large family vault at Ross Bay Cemetery where his bones still lie surrounded by those of other family members.
