Amelia Douglas was one of the founding mothers of
British Columbia - and one of the most well-known women in fur trade
society. She was born at Fort Churchill to a fur trader of Irish and
French Canadian ancestry called William Connolly, and his Cree wife Miyo
Nipiy. Amelia grew up in a household where her mother commonly spoke
Swampy Cree and her father (born in Quebec) usually spoke French. Amelia
was raised in fur trading posts.
When Amelia was living with her family at Fort St. James she met an
enterprising young Scottish clerk who worked for her father (at the time
chief factor of the post). In the spring of 1828 sixteen-year-old Amelia
married James Douglas, who was twenty-five. Douglas was a competent man
who rose quickly in the fur trade, becoming a chief factor by November
1839. The couple settled at Fort Vancouver and Douglas later became
chief factor and governor of Vancouver Island. He eventually became
governor of British Columbia. Throughout the impressive career of James
Douglas his wife Amelia was his number one supporter and advisor on
aboriginal traditions and politics.
Early in their married life the courageous Amelia risked her life trying
to rescue Douglas from an attack by some angry natives; Douglas had not
understood some customs of the Carriers and Amelia saved her husband by
throwing bales of trade goods to their chief to restore his honour. The
warriors released James Douglas.
The Douglas family became the most prominent in British Columbia - and
also the wealthiest. Amelia had given birth to thirteen children, though
seven died as infants and she saw two others die in adulthood. She
conveyed some of her aboriginal traditions to her offspring, though they
grew up with primarily European customs. Amelia lived in Victoria for 40
years but often avoided its social life, perhaps because she was
sometimes shunned because of her mixed-blood heritage and she had
problems communicating in English. When James Douglas was knighted in
1863, the shy and modest Amelia became Lady Douglas.
Sir James died in 1877 and Lady Douglas lived a quiet life until she
passed away in 1890 at the age of 78. The remaining Douglas family then
consisted of her four daughters, 16 grandchildren and five
great-grandchildren.
Of their
13 children, only 6 survived childhood:
| Name |
|
Born |
Married |
| Cecilia |
 |
1834 |
Dr. John Sebastian Helmcken7
in December 1852. Cecelia's life was cut short. She died at the age of
31, leaving behind young children for her husband to raise by himself.
They had seven children altogether, though only four of them survived. |
| Jane |
 |
1839 |
A.G. Dallas in March 1858, who succeeded Douglas as head of the
Western Department of the Hudson's Bay Company. After the death of her
first child in 1860, Jane and her husband left Victoria for Rupert's
Land, where A.G. Dallas had been appointed Governor.
Jane died in 1909 |
| Agnes |
 |
1841 |
Arthur Thomas Bushby May 1862. She was
engaged for three years to Arthur Bushby, an Englishmen serving as
private secretary and clerk of the court to Judge Begbie. In 1862 her
husband was promoted to Registrar General of British Columbia. The
couple lived in New Westminster.
Agnes died in 1928. |
| Alice |
 |
1844 |
Charles Good in Canada August 31,
1861, and in the US just prior to August 31, 1861. They later
divorced and remarried.
Alice caused a scandal in Victoria
when at the age of seventeen she eloped with Douglas' private
secretary Charles Good. Douglas sent a government agent after them,
but it was too late. The couple had been married by an American
Justice of the Peace at Port Townsend.
When they returned the next day,
Douglas insisted they go through a second marriage ceremony, as he was
uncertain about the validity of it, so on August 31, 1861, they
re-exchanged their vows in Victoria. The marriage was not a happy one,
however, and eventually obtained a divorce, and later remarried.
"Had she trusted her Father
more, and put less faith in God, how different, and how much more
happy would her lot in life have been"
-James Douglas Alice died in
1928. |
|
James William |
 |
1851 |
Mary Elliott in 1877. He was sent to
school in England. It had been Douglas' aspirations that he graduate
from a respected university and pursue law, but his health was never
good enough to fulfil his fathers aspirations for him. His father felt
that he lacked application, and moved him from one school to the next.
In 1870, James came home for a holiday and never came back, though his
health somewhat improved. James studied law for a time with the first
premier of BC, J.F. McCreight. He was eventually elected to the
Provincial Legislature, serving as a junior member for Victoria from
1876 to 1878. The year of his fathers death, James wed Mary Elliott,
the daughter of BC's Attorney General A.C. Elliot. James died at the
age of thirty two. |
| Martha |
 |
1854 |
Dennis Harris in 1878.
Between 1872 and 1874, Martha was sent to school in England to, as
her father says ". . . get rid of the cobwebs of colonial
training and give you a proper finish." He would write he a few
lines to her almost daily, and send them in a letter once composed.
These "Letters to Martha" are available in the British
Columbia Archives (BCARS EB 124A 1866-1869), and provide fascinating
insight into the Victorian era and the Colonies early civic and
provincial development.
Martha married Mr. Dennis Harris in 1878, a grand affair in high
Victorian style. Martha died in 1933. |
|
