A immigrant from Perthshire, Scotland, Archibald McKinlay was hired as an apprentice
clerk by
George Simpson in 1832. After periods in York Factory and
New Caledonia, he rose in the ranks in the
Columbia District where he attained the rank of chief trader in 1846. In 1848, HBC Governor
Pelly recommended him to
Earl Grey for a commission as justice of the peace in the new colony of
Vancouver Island. He retired from the company in 1851 and entered into partnership with
G. T. Allan as a commission merchant in Oregon City. Ruined financially by floods in 1860, he
moved to Lac La Hache in
British Columbia to become a farmer for approximately twenty years.