Rupert's Land
Prince Rupert's Land | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Territory of British North America | |||||||
1670–1870 | |||||||
Map of Rupert's Land, showing the location of York Factory | |||||||
Government | |||||||
• Type | Trading company | ||||||
Monarch | |||||||
• 1670–1685 (first) | Charles II | ||||||
• 1837–1870 (last) | Victoria | ||||||
Stafford Northcote | |||||||
Historical era | Age of Discovery | ||||||
• Established | 1670 | ||||||
• Disestablished | 15 July 1870 | ||||||
| |||||||
Today part of | Canada ∟ Alberta ∟ Manitoba ∟ Northwest Territories ∟ Nunavut ∟ Ontario ∟ Quebec ∟ Saskatchewan United States ∟ Minnesota ∟ North Dakota ∟ South Dakota ∟ Montana |
Rupert's Land (French: Terre de Rupert), or Prince Rupert's Land (French: Terre du Prince Rupert), was a territory in British North America which comprised the Hudson Bay drainage basin. The right to "sole trade and commerce" over Rupert's Land was granted to the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), based at York Factory, effectively giving that company a commercial monopoly over the area. The territory operated for 200 years from 1670 to 1870. Its namesake was Prince Rupert of the Rhine, who was a nephew of King Charles I and the first governor of HBC. In December 1821, the HBC monopoly was extended from Rupert's Land to the Pacific coast.
The areas formerly belonging to Rupert's Land lie mostly within what is today
History
English Royal Charter of 1670
In 1670, King Charles II of England granted a royal charter to create the Hudson's Bay Company, under the governorship of the king's cousin Prince Rupert of the Rhine. According to the Charter, the HBC received rights to:
The sole Trade and Commerce of all those Seas, Streights, Bays, Rivers, Lakes, Creeks, and Sounds, in whatsoever Latitude they shall be, that lie within the entrance of the Streights commonly called Hudson's Streights, together with all the Lands, Countries and Territories, upon the Coasts and Confines of the Seas, Streights, Bays, Lakes, Rivers, Creeks and Sounds, aforesaid, which are not now actually possessed by any of our Subjects, or by the Subjects of any other Christian Prince or State [...] and that the said Land be from henceforth reckoned and reputed as one of our Plantations or Colonies in America, called Rupert's Land.[1]
The Charter applied to all lands within the drainage basin of Hudson's Bay. It spanned an area of about 3,861,400 square kilometres (1,490,900 sq mi), more than a third of all modern Canada[2]
The royal charter made the "Governor and Company ... and their Successors, the true and absolute Lords and Proprietors, of the same Territory...", and granted them the authority "...to erect and build such Castles, Fortifications, Forts, Garrisons, Colonies or Plantations, Towns or Villages, in any Parts or Places within the Limits and Bounds granted before in these Presents, unto the said Governor and Company, as they in their Discretion shall think fit and requisite...".[1] In 1821, following the merger with the North West Company, the Hudson's Bay Company's monopoly privileges and licence were extended to trade over the North-Western Territory.[3]
The
In 1927, the Supreme Court of Canada held that the terms of the Charter had granted ownership of all the land in the Hudson Bay drainage to the company, including all precious minerals.[8][9]
However, this ruling did not settle the issue of
Surrender of the territory
In 1869–1870, when the Hudson's Bay Company surrendered its charter to the British Crown, it received £300,000 in compensation. Control was originally planned to be transferred on 1 December 1869, but due to the premature action of the new lieutenant governor, William McDougall, the people of Red River formed a provisional government that took control until arrangements could be negotiated by leaders of what is known as the Red River Rebellion and the newly formed government of Canada. As a result of the negotiations, Canada asserted control on 15 July 1870.[citation needed]
The transaction was three-cornered. On 19 November 1869, the company surrendered its charter under its letters patent to the British Crown, which was authorized to accept the surrender by the Rupert's Land Act. By
The company retained its most successful trading posts and one-twentieth of the lands surveyed for immigration and settlement.[citation needed]
Economy
The Hudson's Bay Company dominated trade in Rupert's Land during the 18th–19th centuries and drew on the local population for many of its employees. This necessarily meant the hiring of many First Nations and
Morton (1962) reviews the pressures at work on that part of Rupert's Land where
Governance
Before 1835, the Hudson's Bay Company had no formal legal system in Rupert's Land, creating "courts" on an ad hoc basis.[16] The Hudson's Bay Company's "laws" in the 17th century and 18th centuries had been the regulations setting out the rules governing the relationships between various employees in the company's posts in Rupert's Land and to interact with Indigenous peoples.[17] The 1670 charter granting the company control of Rupert's Land had said trials were to be conducted by the governor of Rupert's Land together with three of his councillors.[18] There were only three cases before the 19th century with the one with the most detailed notes being the trial of one Thomas Butler in 1715 at the York Factory who was convicted of theft, slander and fornication with a native woman.[18] In the early 19th century, the HBC had waged a violent struggle with the rival North West Company based in Montreal for the control of the fur trade culminating in the Battle of Seven Oaks of 1816, which led to an investigation by the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, and which in turn led to the Second Canada Jurisdiction Act of 1821, ordering the Hudson's Bay Company to establish justice of the peace courts in Rupert's Land.[16] Instead of establishing courts, the company directed the governor and the council of Assiniboia to mediate disputes as they arose.[17]
In 1839, the Hudson's Bay Company were convinced of the need to dispense formal justice throughout Rupert's Land and established a court at the Red River Colony, in the "District of Assiniboia", south of Lake Winnipeg. A Recorder and President of the Court would act as legal organizer, adviser, magistrate, and councillor and be responsible for the rationalization and formalization of Rupert's Land's judicial system. The first Recorder was Adam Thom, who held the post until 1854, although relieved of most of his duties by his deputy some years before.[19] He was succeeded as President of the Court from 1862 to 1870 by John Black.[20]
Baker (1999) uses the Red River Colony, the only non-native settlement on the northwest prairies for most of the 19th century, as a site for critical exploration of the meaning of "law and order" on the Canadian frontier and for an investigation of the sources from which legal history might be rewritten as the history of legal culture. Previous historians have assumed that the Hudson's Bay Company's representatives designed and implemented a local legal system dedicated instrumentally to the protection of the company's fur trade monopoly and, more generally, to strict control of settlement life in the company's interests. But this view is not borne out by archival research. Examination of Assiniboia's juridical institutions in action reveals a history formed less through the imposition of authority from above than by obtaining support from below. Baker shows that the legal history of the Red River Colony – and, by extension, of the Canadian West in general – is based on English common law.[21]
Following the forced merger of the
Religious missions
Peake (1989) describes people, places, and activities that were involved in 19th-century Anglican missionary activities in the prairie areas of Rupert's Land, that huge portion of Canada controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company and inhabited by few Europeans. Early in the century, fur trade competition forced the company to expand into this interior region, and some officials saw advantages in allowing missionaries to accompany them. Officially they did not discriminate among denominations, but preference was often granted to the
There were also Roman Catholic missions in Rupert's Land. One notable missionary was
See also
- 49th parallel north
- Archives of Manitoba
- British Arctic Territories
- Canadian canoe routes
- Former colonies and territories in Canada
- Royal eponyms in Canada
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Morice, Adrian Gabriel (1912). "Alexandre-Antonin Taché". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- ^ a b "Royal Charter of the Hudson's Bay Company". Hudson's Bay Company. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
- ^ "Canada Drainage Basins". The National Atlas of Canada, 5th edition. Natural Resources Canada. 1985. Archived from the original on 4 March 2011. Retrieved 24 November 2010.
- ^ "Hudson's Bay Company, Struggle for Control of the Fur Trade: 18th Century". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
- ^ Government of Canada (3 November 1999). "Rupert's Land Act, 1868 – Enactment No.1". Department of Justice. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
- ^ Government of Canada (1886). "Sessional Papers of the Parliament of the Dominion of Canada". Retrieved 3 January 2017.
- ^ "Rupert's Land, Massive Land Transfer". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
- ^ Plamondon 2013.
- ^ Reference re Precious Metals in certain lands of the Hudson's Bay Co., [1927] SCR 458, at p. 466.
- ^ Marjorie L. Benson and Don Purich, "Real Property", Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan, Canadian Plains Research Centre, University of Regina, 2006.
- ^ St. Catharines Milling and Lumber Co. v. R., 1886 CanLII 30, 13 Ont. App. R. 148 (20 April 1886), Court of Appeal (Ontario, Canada)
- ^ Calder et al. v. Attorney-General of British Columbia, 1973 CanLII 4 at p. 423, [1973] SCR 313 (31 January 1973), Supreme Court (Canada)
- ^ "Rupert's Land and North-Western Territory Order". solon.org. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011.
- ^ "Constitution Act, 1867 s. 146". Justice Laws Website. Department of Justice. 18 October 2015.
- ISSN 0226-5036.
- ISSN 0005-7517.
- ^ a b Baker 1999, p. 213.
- ^ a b Baker 1999, p. 214.
- ^ a b Baker 1999, p. 215.
- ^ "THOM, ADAM". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
- ^ "John Black (1817–1879)". Black, John (1817–1879). Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
- ^ Baker 1999.
- ^ Spry, Irene M. (1968). "The Transition from a Nomadic to a Settled Economy in Western Canada, 1856–1896". Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada. 6 (4): 187–201.
- ^ a b Sarah Tucker (1851). "The Rainbow in the North A Short Account of the First Establishment of Christianity in Rupert's Land by the Church Missionary Society: Chapter XIII. Rev. R. and Mrs. Hunt—Summary of the Missions—Ordination of the Rev. H. Budd". London: James Nisbet. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
- ISSN 0008-3208.
- ^ Morice, Adrian Gabriel (1912). . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Bibliography
- Plamondon, Bob (2013). "Chapter 2: Forging a Nation". Blue Thunder: The Truth about Conservatives from Macdonald to Harper. eBookIt.com. ISBN 9781456620523.
- Baker, H. Robert (1999). "Creating Order In The Wilderness: Transplanting the English Law to Rupert's Land, 1835–51". Law and History Review. 17 (2). American Society for Legal History: 209–246. S2CID 145502145." Summer.
Further reading
- Ens, Gerhard John; Macleod, R. C.; Binnema, Theodore (2001). From Rupert's Land to Canada. University of Alberta. ISBN 978-0-88864-363-6.
- Grant, Cuthbert (1990). The English River Book: A North West Company Journal and Account Book of 1786. McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 978-0-7735-6213-4.
- Davis, Richard Clarke (1988). Rupert's Land: A Cultural Tapestry. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. ISBN 978-0-88920-976-3.
- Gillespie, Greg (2007). Hunting for Empire: Narratives of Sport in Rupert's Land, 1840-70. UBC Press. ISBN 978-0-7748-4038-5.
- Hudson's Bay Company. An Ordinance for the More Effectual Administration of Justice, In the Colony of Rupertsland. London: J. Brettell.
- Stubbs, Roy St. George (1967). Four Recorders of Rupert's Land; A Brief Survey of the Hudson's Bay Company Courts of Rupert's Land. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada: Peguis Publishers.
- Tucker, Sarah (1851). The Rainbow in the North: a Short Account of the First Establishment of Christianity in Rupert's Land by the Church Missionary Society. London: James Nisbet & Co. ISBN 9780665414213.
External links
- The Centre for Rupert's Land Studies - The University of Winnipeg
- "Canada Buys Rupert's Land", CBC
- Stout Hearts for Stey Braes: Life, People and Events in an outside Rupert's Land in the Closing Years of the Hudson's Bay Company and a Glance at the Group of Sturdy Men Who Labored to Hold the Fort for the Fur Trade Manuscript at Dartmouth College Library