Charlotte Small Thompson (1785-1807)
How Explorer David Thompson Met and Married His Wife
Jun 19, 2009
David Thompson’s name has been memorialized in highways, schools, and landmarks across Canada, particularly since his bicentennial in 2007. His wife, Charlotte Small, is less well known, despite the fact that she accompanied him on several of his voyages, remained with him until death parted them, and bore him thirteen children.
Charlotte Small’s Family
Charlotte Small was born in 1785 to Patrick Small and an unknown Aboriginal woman. Patrick was a trader with the North West Company (NWC), posted at Isle a la Crosse. He served the NWC for fifteen years before returning to London, leaving behind his wife and three children: Patrick, Nancy, and Charlotte. Patrick, Jr., later became a clerk with the NWC and Nancy, like Charlotte, married a fur trader.
David Thompson Meets Charlotte Small
David Thompson stopped briefly at Isle a la Crosse in September 1798, when Charlotte was thirteen. D’Arcy Jenish, author of Epic Wanderer: David Thompson and the Mapping of the Canadian West (Doubleday, 2003), hypothesizes that David met the Smalls at this time and “thought often of Charlotte Small that winter and was tempted to write. . . He wondered how such a fleeting acquaintance could have made such a powerful impression.”
In the spring of 1799, David returned to Isle a la Crosse. Jenish suggests that he “began courting her immediately, and she was taken with this man who was handsome and sincere and different from most she had known.” Whether David actually courted her or their marriage was arranged by Charlotte’s family and company officers, David and Charlotte were married on June 10th. All that the great explorer put in his journal of that momentous event was “This day married Charlotte Small.”
In his later years, when he was attempting to write his biography, he tells a bit more about Charlotte: “My lovely wife is of the blood of these people, speaking their language, and well educated in the English language, which gives me a great advantage” (Jack Nisbet, Sources of the River: Tracking David Thompson Across Western North America, Sasquatch Books, 1994).
David and Charlotte Thompsons’ Early Years Together
Charlotte and David immediately left Isle a la Crosse, bound for Grand Portage, the meeting point for all NWC employees. There, they may have met Nancy and her husband. The Thompsons were then posted to Fort George, located near present-day Elk Point, Alberta, for the winter. David was a fur trader, but was more interested in exploration.
The next summer, Charlotte followed David to Fort William and then on to Rocky Mountain House. From here, David would search for a way over the mountains to the coast. Charlotte remained at Rocky Mountain House this time, giving birth to their daughter Fanny on their second anniversary. The births of their children track their travels across Alberta. Samuel was born in 1804 in Peace River during David’s brief stint there as a trader and Emma was born in Reed Lake House in 1806.
In 1807, they returned to Rocky Mountain House, where David was finally allowed to pursue his dream: explore and map the Rocky Mountains and their rivers.
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