Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk
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Thomas Douglas (June 20, 1771 - April 8, 1820) was the 5th Earl of Selkirk, born at Saint Mary's Isle, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. He was noteworthy as a Scottish philanthropist who sponsored immigrant settlements in Canada.
Early background
Thomas Douglas was the seventh son Dunbar Douglas, 4th Earl of Selkirk and Helen Hamilton. As he had not expected to inherit the family estate, he went to the University of Edinburgh to study to become a lawyer. While there, he noticed poor Scottish farmers who were being displaced by their landlords. Seeing their plight, he investigated ways he could help them find new land in the then British colonies. After his father's death in 1799, Douglas, the last surviving son (two brothers died in infancy, two died of tuberculosis and two died of yellow fever), became the 5th Earl of Selkirk.Involvement in Canada
When he unexpectedly inherited the estate, he used his money and political connections to purchase land and settle poor Scottish farmers in Prince Edward Island in 1803 and Upper Canada in 1804. Douglas asked the British government for a land grant in the Red River Valley, a part of Rupert's Land. The government refused, as the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) had been granted a fur trading monopoly on that land. However Douglas was very determined, and he and Sir Alexander Mackenzie bought enough shares in HBC to let them gain control of the land. This position of power, along with his marriage conections (his wife Jean, was the sister of Andrew Wedderburn, a member of the HBC governing committee) allowed him to acquire a land grant called Assiniboia to serve as an agricultural settlement for the company.
He traveled extensively in North America, and his approach and work gained him some fame; in 1807 he was named Lord-Lieutenant of Kirkcudbright District in Scotland, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London.
As part owner, Douglas wanted to stop the North West Company from competing with HBC for furs in the region, and he spent much of his later life defending his actions in court.
References
- Phyllis A. Arnold Canada Revisited 8, Arnold Publishing Ltd.
External links
- [Detailed biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online]
- , by George Bryce 1909
- [Peerage of Thomas Douglas]
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