Colonial Despatches

What is known of Hicks appears in several newspaper articles.According to one report, George Cade, secretary of a miner's meeting at Hill's Bar, chaired a meeting to have Richard Hicks, the assistant commissioner of crown lands at Fort Yale, dismissed from his post.1 Hicks posts a rather personal statement: Notice. My wife, Orinda Hicks, having left me this day, without cause, I will not be accountable for any debts she may incur in her own or my name. Richard Hicks.British Columbia, March 16, 1859.2

Nefarious accounts haunt Hicks again, this time in the following scathing accusation: Hicks, in common with Travalie, (the Commissioner at Thompson river) has been guilty of many acts of wholesale corruption since his appointment by Governor Douglas…. Can there be a more striking illustration of the unfitness of Governor Douglas for the high and responsible position he at present holds, than the appointment of two such men as Hicks and Travalie?.3

• 1.Victoria Gazette, 26 October, and 6 November 1858.
• 2.Victoria Gazette, May 14, 1859, 2.
• 3. Fort Yale, Feb. 24, 1859, British Colonist, 5 March 1859, 3.

Biographical information for this person is not yet complete.