Colonial Despatches

Barkley Sound is on the west coast of Vancouver Island, north of the entrance to the Juan de Fuca Strait. It was named after Charles William Barkley, though a common misspelling on early charts was Barclay.1

Barkley, apparently not the humblest of gentlemen, named the sound after himself in 1787, during an independent trade adventure to the area.2 On this trip, he carried aboard his young wife, Frances Hornby Trevor, thought to be the first European woman to set eyes on the British Columbia coast.3 The Spanish called the sound Baia de Carrasco, after naval officer Juan Carrasco.4

• 1. Andrew Scott, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2009), 59.
• 2. Ibid.
• 3. Ibid.
• 4. Ibid.