Alexander MacKay (fur trader)
Encyclopedia
Alexander MacKay (also spelled McKay in some records) was a Canadian fur trade
r and explorer who worked for the North West Company
and the Pacific Fur Company
. He co-founded Fort Astoria
near the mouth of the Columbia River
on the Pacific coast.
area of central New York
, where his father Donald MacKay had brought the family after the Seven Years' War
. Loyalists
during the American Revolutionary War
, the family departed the area and first lived in the Trois Rivières area of Lower Canada
. They settled in the Glengarry
region of Upper Canada
about 1792.
Alexander MacKay married Marguerite Waddens and had one son, Thomas McKay
, and three daughters. His natural son Alexander Ross MacKay was borne by another woman.
(NWC) sometime before 1791. In 1792 he was transferred to Fort Fork (Peace River, Alberta
) on the request of Alexander Mackenzie. MacKay accompanied Mackenzie on his 1793 overland journey to the Pacific Ocean
, the first such journey north of Mexico.
From 1793 to 1800 MacKay was probably a clerk in the NWC's Upper English River
(now called Churchill River
) fur district near Lac La Loche, present-day Saskatchewan
. In 1800 he was made a NWC partner and worked in the English River district until 1804. In 1808 MacKay resigned from the NWC and returned to the East to retire wealthy at age 38 in Montreal
. This was an indication of the scale of income which partners received in the fur trade.
, signed a preliminary agreement with the American businessman John Jacob Astor
. Astor intended to establish a new fur trading company to operate in the Columbia River
region. MacKay, McKenzie, and McDougall recruited additional workers in Montreal for Astor's company, the Pacific Fur Company
.
MacKay enlisted a number of people, including Gabriel Franchère
, David Stuart, Robert Stuart
, and MacKay's own son Thomas, who was 13 at the time. All of these people joined MacKay in his 1811 sea voyage to the mouth of the Columbia River on the Tonquin
. During the voyage, enmity developed between MacKay and Jonathan Thorn
, captain of the Tonquin. Thorn tried to maroon MacKay and others at the Falkland Islands
.
Along with Alexander Ross
, MacKay was instrumental in founding Fort Astoria
in early 1811. MacKay led a trading and exploring party up the Columbia River in May 1811. Then in June 1811 he sailed as supercargo
on the Tonquin, and led an expedition that attempted to acquire furs from natives along the coast to the north. In a conflict in 1811 with the indigenous people of Clayoquot Sound
, the Tonquin was attacked and blown up. Nearly everyone on board, including Alexander MacKay, was killed.
As MacKay's son Thomas had stayed at Fort Astoria, he survived. MacKay's wife Marguerite Waddens MacKay had not journeyed to the west with the expedition. As a widow, she later married John McLoughlin
and came to the Columbia River region. McLoughlin cared for Thomas MacKay as his stepson.
Fur trade
The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of world market for in the early modern period furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most valued...
r and explorer who worked for the North West Company
North West Company
The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what was to become Western Canada...
and the Pacific Fur Company
Pacific Fur Company
The Pacific Fur Company was founded June 23, 1810, in New York City. Half of the stock of the company was held by the American Fur Company, owned exclusively by John Jacob Astor, and Astor provided all of the capital for the enterprise. The other half of the stock was ascribed to working partners...
. He co-founded Fort Astoria
Fort Astoria
Fort Astoria was the Pacific Fur Company's primary fur trading post in the Northwest, and was the first American-owned settlement on the Pacific coast. After a short two-year term of US ownership, the British owned and operated it for 33 years. It was the first British port on the Pacific coast...
near the mouth of the Columbia River
Columbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
on the Pacific coast.
Early life
MacKay was probably born in the Mohawk ValleyMohawk Valley
The Mohawk Valley region of the U.S. state of New York is the area surrounding the Mohawk River, sandwiched between the Adirondack Mountains and Catskill Mountains....
area of central New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, where his father Donald MacKay had brought the family after the Seven Years' War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
. Loyalists
Loyalist (American Revolution)
Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the Kingdom of Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. At the time they were often called Tories, Royalists, or King's Men. They were opposed by the Patriots, those who supported the revolution...
during the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
, the family departed the area and first lived in the Trois Rivières area of Lower Canada
Lower Canada
The Province of Lower Canada was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence...
. They settled in the Glengarry
Glengarry County, Ontario
thumb|right|Glengarry located within OntarioGlengarry County , an area covering , is a county in the Canadian province of Ontario, and is historically known for its settlement of Scottish Highlanders due to the Highland Clearances.Glengarry was founded in 1792 by Scottish loyalists, mainly from...
region of Upper Canada
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...
about 1792.
Alexander MacKay married Marguerite Waddens and had one son, Thomas McKay
Thomas McKay (fur trader)
Thomas McKay was a Anglo-Métis Canadian Fur trader who worked mainly in the Pacific Northwest for the Pacific Fur Company , the North West Company , and the Hudson's Bay Company . He was a fur brigade leader and explorer of the Columbia District and later became a U.S. citizen and an early settler...
, and three daughters. His natural son Alexander Ross MacKay was borne by another woman.
North West Company career
MacKay was working for the North West CompanyNorth West Company
The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what was to become Western Canada...
(NWC) sometime before 1791. In 1792 he was transferred to Fort Fork (Peace River, Alberta
Peace River, Alberta
Peace River is a town in northwestern Alberta, Canada, situated along the banks of the Peace River, at its confluence with the Smoky River, the Heart River and Pat's Creek. It is located northwest of Edmonton, and northeast of Grande Prairie, along Highway 2. The Peace River townsite is nearly ...
) on the request of Alexander Mackenzie. MacKay accompanied Mackenzie on his 1793 overland journey to the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
, the first such journey north of Mexico.
From 1793 to 1800 MacKay was probably a clerk in the NWC's Upper English River
English River
English River may refer to:* English River , United States* English River , Canada, a river* English River, Ontario, a town* English River, Seychelles, known as La Rivière Anglaise in French...
(now called Churchill River
Churchill River (Hudson Bay)
The Churchill River is a major river in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Canada. From the head of the Churchill Lake it is 1,609 km long. It was named after John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and governor of the Hudson's Bay Company from 1685 to 1691...
) fur district near Lac La Loche, present-day Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
. In 1800 he was made a NWC partner and worked in the English River district until 1804. In 1808 MacKay resigned from the NWC and returned to the East to retire wealthy at age 38 in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. This was an indication of the scale of income which partners received in the fur trade.
Pacific Fur Company career
In 1810 Mackay, along with several other retired NWC personnel, such as Donald McKenzie and Duncan McDougallDuncan McDougall (fur trader)
Duncan McDougall was a native of Scotland who first appears in history as a clerk with the North West Company in 1801. This position was likely as a result of his uncles, Angus Shaw and Alexander McDougall, who were both partners in the NWC....
, signed a preliminary agreement with the American businessman John Jacob Astor
John Jacob Astor
John Jacob Astor , born Johann Jakob Astor, was a German-American business magnate and investor who was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-millionaire in the United States...
. Astor intended to establish a new fur trading company to operate in the Columbia River
Columbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
region. MacKay, McKenzie, and McDougall recruited additional workers in Montreal for Astor's company, the Pacific Fur Company
Pacific Fur Company
The Pacific Fur Company was founded June 23, 1810, in New York City. Half of the stock of the company was held by the American Fur Company, owned exclusively by John Jacob Astor, and Astor provided all of the capital for the enterprise. The other half of the stock was ascribed to working partners...
.
MacKay enlisted a number of people, including Gabriel Franchère
Gabriel Franchère
Gabriel Franchère was a French Canadian author and explorer of the Pacific Northwest.Franchère was a native of Montreal and joined the Astor Expedition as merchant's apprentice, arriving at Fort Astoria on the Tonquin. After Astoria was sold to the North West Company, Franchère returned to...
, David Stuart, Robert Stuart
Robert Stuart (explorer)
Robert Stuart was the son of Charles Stuart, a partner of John Jacob Astor who as one of the North West Company men, or Nor'westers, enlisted by Astor to help him found his intended fur empire...
, and MacKay's own son Thomas, who was 13 at the time. All of these people joined MacKay in his 1811 sea voyage to the mouth of the Columbia River on the Tonquin
Tonquin
The Tonquin was an American merchant ship involved with the Maritime Fur Trade of the early 19th Century. The ship was used by John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company to establish fur trading outposts on the Northwest Coast of North America, including Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River...
. During the voyage, enmity developed between MacKay and Jonathan Thorn
Jonathan Thorn
Jonathan Thorn was an officer of the United States Navy in the early 19th century. He was born on 8 January 1779 at Schenectady, N.Y.. He was appointed a midshipman on 28 April 1800...
, captain of the Tonquin. Thorn tried to maroon MacKay and others at the Falkland Islands
Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...
.
Along with Alexander Ross
Alexander Ross (fur trader)
-Fur trader and explorer:Ross emigrated to Upper Canada, present day , from Scotland about 1805.In 1811, while working for John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company, Ross took part in the founding of Fort Astoria, a fur-trading post at the mouth of the Columbia River...
, MacKay was instrumental in founding Fort Astoria
Fort Astoria
Fort Astoria was the Pacific Fur Company's primary fur trading post in the Northwest, and was the first American-owned settlement on the Pacific coast. After a short two-year term of US ownership, the British owned and operated it for 33 years. It was the first British port on the Pacific coast...
in early 1811. MacKay led a trading and exploring party up the Columbia River in May 1811. Then in June 1811 he sailed as supercargo
Supercargo
Supercargo is a term in maritime law that refers to a person employed on board a vessel by the owner of cargo carried on the ship...
on the Tonquin, and led an expedition that attempted to acquire furs from natives along the coast to the north. In a conflict in 1811 with the indigenous people of Clayoquot Sound
Clayoquot Sound
Clayoquot Sound is located on the west coast of Vancouver Island in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is bordered by the Esowista Peninsula to the south, and the Hesquiaht Peninsula to the North. It is a body of water with many inlets and islands. Major inlets include Sydney Inlet,...
, the Tonquin was attacked and blown up. Nearly everyone on board, including Alexander MacKay, was killed.
As MacKay's son Thomas had stayed at Fort Astoria, he survived. MacKay's wife Marguerite Waddens MacKay had not journeyed to the west with the expedition. As a widow, she later married John McLoughlin
John McLoughlin
Dr. John McLoughlin, baptized Jean-Baptiste McLoughlin, was the Chief Factor of the Columbia Fur District of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver. He was later known as the "Father of Oregon" for his role in assisting the American cause in the Oregon Country in the Pacific Northwest...
and came to the Columbia River region. McLoughlin cared for Thomas MacKay as his stepson.