William Bletterman Caldwell began his military career in
1814. In
1846 he was promoted to major, and two years later led a small contingent of army pensioners
from Chelsea to the
Red River Settlement. He was subsequently appointed governor of the District of Assiniboia.
1It was hoped that as an outsider, he would blunt the settlers' charges that the council
and its officers were creatures of the Hudson's Bay Company.2 In the following year, however, Caldwell presided over the Sayer trial, which effectively
broke the HBC monopoly on furs in the colony.3
In
1850, he mismanaged the Foss-Pelly trial, splitting the community along ethnic lines,
and five hundred residents petitioned for his removal.
4 He was replaced as governor by
Eden Colvile, but resumed his position in
1851. He retired four years later.
5
- 1. W. L. Morton, Caldwell, William Bletterman, Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.
- 5. Ibid.