Trading Partners and Aboriginal Country Wives

Interpreters and Guides Contributions to Successful Fur Trade

Oct 27, 2009

The fates of women referred to as 'country wives' were determined by men who could abandon them, stay with them, take them to home countries or arrange a turning off.

Throughout the years of the great fur trade, the women and their families were extremely important to the men and the companies.

Contributions of Canada’s Indigenous People

Trade partnerships with the indigenous people were often formed through marriages. The arrangements were known as marriage “à la façon du pays” (after the custom of the country). What, besides loyalty and the comforts of family, did the women bring to the relationships?

Merged Companies and George Simpson

George Simpson of Scotland was in control of the northern section of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) from 1821. In that year, the HBC and North-West Company (NWC) merger occurred. In 1839 Simpson officially became Governor-in-Chief of Rupert’s Land, the large area held by the HBC.

He was extremely ruthless in his treatment of Native women, particularly those with whom he had alliances. When he tired of them, he got rid of them. During his first ten years in the territory, he fathered at least five children with four women. Margaret Taylor, mother of his two sons, believed as his associates had, that he would marry her. They had lived together for four years.

Prior to making a trip to England to find a wife in 1830, Simpson sent Margaret (who was pregnant) to the minor post at Bas de la Riviere in the Winnipeg River basin. According to the Manitoba Historical Society, it functioned as a place to send unwanted country wives while the HBC men “thought of a ‘gentlemanly’ way to dispose of them”.

Employee Performance Management in Rupert’s Land

Simpson, known as ‘the Little Emperor’, saw the employees' work and personal relationships as his to control. When women were too influential, he sent the men away to remote locations. In some instances, he demoted them. While he described women as distracting encumbrances, Simpson also exploited the domestic relations.

In 1821, he directed a match between a trader and a woman whose “services were absolutely required”. The woman was a good interpreter who spoke Cree and French and an excellent guide.

He also provided extra flour and luxuries for a clerk and his Native wife who was a valued interpreter and well connected among the Chipewyan and Yellow Knife tribes.

After many years of excellent service, Chief Factor John Stuart was sent in 1832 to the Mackenzie River district in 1832. The order was seen as a punitive act by Simpson. Stuart had criticized his lack of decency in the abandonment of his country wives. Simpson ignored the custom of “turning off” by which arrangements were made for a former partner before a new one was taken.

John Stuart and Country Wife Mary Taylor

Stuart had three children before 1827 when he entered a relationship with Mary Taylor. Prior to his retirement, he travelled to Scotland where Mary joined him in 1836. She returned to Rupert’s Land in 1838 when he broke his promise of a formal marriage. Simpson arranged winter quarters for her, and then while living with relatives at Red River, she was married.

When Stuart died in 1847, his original will written in 1832 was challenged by his family in Britain. They managed to reduce her legacy from 500 to 300 pounds.

George Simpson and his young British wife resided at Red River between 1830 and 1833. They allowed no “half-breed” women in their home.

Chief Factor George Keith returned to Scotland with his country wife, Nanette, in 1844. Prior to the journey, they were married in Lachine near Montreal, Quebec. It was said that with some difficulty, she adapted successfully to her new life.

Many Tender Ties: Women in Fur-Trade Society, 1670-1870 by Sylvia Van Kirk,University of Oklahoma Press, 1983

The Chief Factor: A Tale of the Hudson’s Bay Company by Gilbert Parker, Home Publishing Company, 1893

The copyright of the article Trading Partners and Aboriginal Country Wives in Canadian History is owned by Kathleen Airdrie. Permission to republish Trading Partners and Aboriginal Country Wives in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.