institute a militia, adopt a standard of weights and measures, and survey a new road into the Willamette Valley.4 Amongst his propositions, Abernethy was also a strong advocate for: strong schools, a pilot service to assist ships attempting to travel across the Columbia River, and an easier system for land claims.5
immediate and prompt actionmindset after the Whitman Massacre.7 In 1849, Oregon officially became a territory and along with this change, Abernethy's position of provisional governor ended; however, he remained in Oregon City until a flood destroyed his house in 1861 which pushed him to move to Portland.8
active and conspicuous in laying the foundation of a great common-wealth.9 During his life -- before and after his move to Portland -- Abernethy was a major philanthropist. In 1847, he contributed to the Clackamas County Female Seminary, and in 1856 he purchased Portland's first fire engine. Today, Abernethy's (also spelt “Abernathy”) name appears on a school and neighborhood in Portland, and a creek and island in Clackamas County.10
from the 1st day of June to the 1st day of October, the Company have taken up 10,000 ounces, equal to One Hundred and Sixty Thousand Dollars,approximately $3 million today.1 This is an impressive revenue for a man who, according to Douglas, had no previous mining experience.
… federation has in this case specially been a matter of most delicate treaty and compact between the provinces,became one of legal bases in the ongoing debate concerning the nature of Confederation.4 Raised to the peerage in 1878, he continued to make speeches in the Lords and write letters to the Times on educational and colonial affairs.5
testifying to Lord's capabilities and worth,in a document enclosed within the application.
the emigrators rules or conditionsrequired for Vancouver Island.1
Queen Charlotte Islandsin 1852.
a very hearty breakfastthat might have included sturgeon.3 A report of his journey was published in 1802,4 and though Galiano's conclusions about the economic potential of the area were generally positive, the Spanish government declined a massive colonial effort there, since Galiano did not find the Northwest Passage.5 He thus concluded his naval career in other parts of the world, with which these despatches are not concerned.6
free grantsof land in the colony based on their years of service.2 Alexander was informed that as he was a chaplain, and not a regular officer, he did not qualify for the grants. Henry Pelham Fiennes Pelham Clinton, the fifth Duke of Newcastle, noted in the file that
Chaplains have not the qualifications for settling a country which Military & Naval Officers have…3
Not Known.5 He was ordained deacon in 1852, priested in 1853, and held the position of Rector of Colwick from 1874 until his death in 1896 at the age of seventy.6
formerly Commander of the Niger exploring expeditionof 1841-42. The mission was considered unsuccessful due to high mortality rates from disease. Allen, then captain of the Wilberforce, was not blamed for the expedition's failure but placed on half pay when he returned to England.1 He retired from the Navy in 1855 and promoted to retired rear-admiral in 1862.2
Mr. Allison's claim produces £10 a day, for each man employed.4
got rid of the House of Apes,the Assembly of Vancouver Island.2 When British Columbia joined confederation in 1871, he requested that the imperial government transfer him since he could see
no hope of preferment within the Colony, inasmuch as a Responsible form of Government has been established, in which all vacancies will be filled by the political friends of the ministry of the day.3 He left British Columbia in August 1871 and served as queen's advocate in Sierra Leone for a year before succumbing to African fever.4
testifying to Lord's abilities as a veterinary surgeon,in a document enclosed within the application.
not only never thinks of what he is going to say […] he is utterly incapable of remembering what he has said.3 During Anderson's 15 years as bishop, the Red River Settlement was torn by a series of religious and socio-ethnic conflicts, some exacerbated by his junior clerics, and some by the bishop himself.4
far worse than a Venetian oligarchy.3 Angelo became a clerk in the Victoria Customs Office, where he received duties for the province and recorded the transactions in the department books.4 In the summer of 1859, colonial officials discovered
certain irregularities and apparent fraudsin the Customs Office.5 They determined that $800 was missing from the account books.6 In a despatch to Sir Lytton, James Douglas recounts that
suspicion [attaches] strongly to [Angelo].7 Swift proceedings were enacted by the Attorney General and Crown Solicitor against Angelo.8 He was tried and found guilty on 11 August 1859 for embezzling and falsifying the Customs Office accounts.9 Angelo was imprisoned for two months, despite several petitions of release from the public.10 In the Daily Evening Bulletin, Angelo is described as
the life and soul of the Custom House Department… [returning] to the world as a wiser man.11 After his imprisonment, Angelo returned to California as a journalist for a local newspaper, and then joined the Idaho gold rush in 1863, the inspiration for his book, Idaho.12 On30 May 1875, Angelo passed away at the age of 64.13
Arrowsmiths improved map of Vancouver's Island.Mount Arrowsmith on Vancouver Island is named after John and his uncle, Aaron Arrowsmith.2
in the Constabulary or other servicein British Columbia, Atherley was an officer who Bedford had served under
at the time when in consequence of peace the reduction of the army was intended.1 In Atherley's letter, written from his station in Gibraltar at the time, he expresses his regret that Bedford did not remain in his regiment, since Bedford's service gave Atherley
every satisfaction.2
Judge-Advocate of the Fleet, and standing counsel to the Admiraltyin 1855. He was knighted,
as a matter of course,when he was given the position of Solicitor General in 1859. In 1861 he was promoted to Attorney General. He died on 22 January 1864, at the age of fifty-eight.1
will do away with him.After noticing violent intentions from the group, they docked on land where White
refused to go any furtherwith the group. They left White on the island with
clothes…and a little flourwhereupon he was left alone for two days. Subsequently, White was taken 20 miles away from Fort Rupert by a few Indigenous men where they promised to
take [him] to their home.White was ordered to make a fire and then was shot in the shoulder by one of the Indigenous men. White then ran away and hid in a bush for days before he was found by Aylash and three other Indigenous people. Aylash took White to her home, gave him food, and, according to his account,
treated [him] very well.Aylash and the others moved White to various villages before stopping at Sabassah. On 3 October 1862, White was removed from the village of the Kithrahtalah by Commander John Pike. White gave Aylash and her partner, Quoshawahl $15
for their humanity in rescuing him from starvation and providing him with food and lodging for more than 6 weeks.
testifying to Lord's abilities as a veterinary surgeon, and his additional scientific knowledge, as a great benefit during service in the Crimea,in a document enclosed within the application.
no report had been received from the colony on the fate of Pfeiffer,and they should contact the Governor of BC directly.
engage the services of Mr. Bacon as Melter.1 Newcastle's despatch to Douglas, and Douglas's subsequent reply, confirms that Bacon was employed as a melter at the Government Refinery and Assay Office in British Columbia. The office, which had been recently moved from Victoria to New Westminster, processed 1600 ounces of gold dust in one month and, according to Douglas, was
in a state of efficient organization.2 After two years of employment there, Bacon and his co-workers earned Douglas's ire when they requested a salary increase that was deemed
to bear very much the complexion of an attempt upon their part to coerce the Government into a compliance with their demands.3 Bacon and his co-workers claimed that they had
been led to expect by the Master of the Mint that [their] salaries would be increased at an early periodand refused to continue working until the raise was granted.4 The Assay Office insisted on the entitlement promised them by Professor Thomas Graham, but, with an understanding that was
simply a verbal one,Douglas continuously denied their application. In the minutes of Douglas's despatch, Elliot criticizes the assayers and refiners for their
comparative idlenessand calls for
effective discouragementof the Assay Office's strike. Newcastle's reply agrees with Elliot, stating that
to yield to an official strike in such a colony as B.C. would be fatal.5
captives in the hands of the Indians, who had stripped them of everything.4 The crew sent the HBC a plea for help, but they were ignored because the HBC viewed them as an American threat to their gold prospects at Haida Gwaii.5 Captain Balch went to their aid and managed to safely ransome all the detainees.6
a shrewd careful magistrate, extremely methodical and correct in all his official transactions.3 He served in a similar capacity in the Kootenays and Quesnel.4 In 1867 he was appointed a member of the BC Legislative Council for Cariboo West.5 He retired in 1881 and spent the rest of his life in San Francisco.6
great excitement among the American population of that quarterat the discovery of gold in Haida Gwaii.
daily activitiesand languages of these Indigenous communities.1 Publishing his ethnographic writings in the Daily Victoria Gazette, academics and politicians at that time regarded Banfield
a foremost authority on the cultures and territories of the [Indigenous] people.2 For those reason, Sir James Douglas selected Banfield as
the idea candidate for Indian Agent for the southwest coast of Vancouver Islandin 1859, shortly after the “Swiss Boy affair”—in which the merchant brig was “plundered” by the Huu-ay-aht and Tseshaht peoples in Barkley Sound—had damaged relations between the British and the Huu-ay-aht.3
agreement for land usein Barkley Sound, where colonial investors wanted to
build and operate a forestry milland settle on the
productive land.4 In 1859, Chiefs Tliishin and Howeesem “assented” to Banfield's land purchase agreement by
affixing strips of sacred cedar barkto the document; however, considering the conventions of Huu-ay-aht law,
Tliishin likely considered Banfield's payments as rent or homage rather than purchase.5 As one scholar argues, Banfield effectively
prepared the ground for and managed the arrival of colonistsin Barkley Sound, using violence, and threats thereof, when “necessary.”6
accusations of foul playinvolving Chief Tliishin.7 After threatening violence against the Huu-ay-aht community, the British arrested three men who were supposedly involved in the death of Banfield, but who were all acquitted before a judge on account of weak evidence.8
It's good to be getting the land back, but we had to pay a lot more for it than the blankets and beads in those days.9
It is the last place in the globe to which (were I going to emigrate) I should select as an abode(Galbraith, 285).
another respectable traveller from Carriboo,there to mine for gold, and who knew, reports Douglas, of
one company of four men working on Antler Creek, who each receive 1000 dollars a week from their mining claim.
gentlemen who bear a high character in the Colony, for general intelligence and integrity.5
succeeded to the baronetcyin 1848, became chief clerk in 1870, and retired in 1872.5
merry fellow of rather affected mannerwith a
genial nature.7
dead or alive.4 This incident would evolve into a complex and dramatic court-case in which Beardmore would give testimony, which Pelly mentions in this letter to Grey.
nearly resembling that of proconsul and consul than that of judge and governor.5 Begbie was appointed as the first Chief Justice of the province of British Columbia in 1871.6
an autocrat of autocrats, hard, irascible, and given to handing down the most extraordinary judgements.7 Posthumously, he became known as “The Hanging Judge,” but popular opinion is divided on this title.8 Biographer David R. Williams argues that Begbie
was stern, but the criminal law of the time was also stern and Begbie could do little to soften its rigours,and he asserts that
Begbie from his earliest days in British Columbia admired Indians as a race and liked them as individuals.9 However, Begbie's inflexible application of English Law on Indigenous communities resulted in a disproportionate number of executions of Indigenous Peoples: 22 out of the 27 people he sentenced to death were Indigenous.10
to act as a law unto himself, and as there was no Court of Appeal nearer than London, he generally got his way.11 One example of this is Bebgie's sentences following the Chilcotin War, in which a group of Tŝilhqot'in individuals killed men who were working on the Bute road in 1864.12 Although the Tŝilhqot'in were protecting their territory from encroachment, Judge Begbie sentenced six Tŝilhqot'in Chiefs to death.13 In a conversation with James Douglas, Begbie revealed his approach to sentencing practices:
My idea is that, if a man insists upon behaving like a brute, after fair warning, and won't quit the Colony, beat him like a brute and flog him.14 Begbie established a British law in Canada that prioritized justice for European settlers but not for Indigenous Peoples. This disproportionate incarceration of Indigenous Peoples continues today.15
whether Government offers to approvable Emigrants free passages to British Columbia.At the time of his enquiry, he was living on Blackness Farm in Dundee, Scotland. In reply, Bell was informed that the government did not provide free passage for approvable emigrants.
Ordinance or Actestablishing a Supreme Court on the island could not
be properly assented to by the Crownnor could it
have the force of law.5 In 1856, Bethell wrote Permanent Under Secratery Merivale discussing the legal limits of the Governor's power on Vancouver Island.6 The same year, Bethell was involved in the discussion about which offices would be the benefactors of the revenue from the purchase of the Hudson's Bay land on Vancouver Island by the British government. Also, the Hudson's Bay Company wanted to know if they had any claim to land on British Columbia, as their trading rights there predated the terms set by the Treaty of Oregon of 1846. Bethell responded that they had no claim to land in British Columbia.7
a native of Francethat left Cariboo on 1 August 1861.1 He had spent about a month mining in Cariboo and in that time acquired $4500 worth of gold dust. According to Bijou, he was not so fortunate, as others were making as much as $1000 a day. Bijou had mined in California before,
but never saw a Gold-field so rich as Cariboo.2