Letters from Rupert's Land, 1826-1840: James Hargrave of the Hudson's Bay Company

James Hargrave left an economically depressed Scotland in 1819, found work as a North West Company wintering clerk, and went on to survive the company's 1821 merger with the rival Hudson's Bay Company and subsequent downsizing to spend most of his forty years in the fur trade at York Factory on the desolate shores of Hudson Bay in the service of Governor George Simpson.

A prodigious letter writer, Hargrave saved drafts of his business and personal correspondence in letterbooks. He wrote to f...