Long before explorers such as Anthony Henday, David Thompson, Alexander Mackenzie or Lewis and Clark were born, there was a young man with a sense of adventure that took him to North America as an apprentice for the Hudson’s Bay Company.
He was the perfect man for the Company to send out on a two-year mission to survey what would become Canada and see things no European had ever seen to that point.
Resourceful and driven, he loved the country and the Indigenous People who inhabited it.
It was a hard journey, and one that cemented his name in history.
I’m Craig Baird, this is Canadian History Ehx and today I’m sharing the story of Henry Kelsey!
[TRANSITION]Before we begin a quick note, this episode features colonial and outdated language referring to the Indigenous Peoples which is being used indirect quotes from Henry Kelsey’s diary.
On May 2, 1670, King Charles II incorporated The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England, Trading Into Hudson’s Bay.
Most commonly known as, The Hudson’s Bay Company.
After incorporation by the English royal charter in 1670, King Charles II gave the Hudson’s Bay Company a monopoly over the Hudson Bay basin, also known as Rupert’s Land —a 3.8 million square kilometres area one-third of modern-day Canada, stretching from Labrador and Baffin island, to the Rocky Mountains.
If this sounds familiar, you will remember I covered Rupert’s Land about a month ago in my episode on the Manitoba Schools Question. Be sure to check it out.
[1] Within that land were many First Nations who didn’t realize their land had been claimed by a monarch half a world away.
The day the charter was signed in London, England, a young boy of six, maybe seven, was just beginning his life.
That boy was Henry Kelsey, born sometime around 1664.
Who his parents were is mostly lost to history but there is evidence Henry Kelsey spent part of his young life on the streets of London.
If true, there’s no surprise if the survival skills he picked up then served him well as he ventured the North American wilderness later in life.
We don’t know much of young Kelsey’s life but at some point, he joined the Hudson’s Bay Company, and some records show it could’ve been in 1677, at the tender age of 13, when he was referred to as “the boy Henry Kelsey”.
Then 7 years later on May 17, 1684, Kelsey left England for a land he had never seen or known.
He crossed the Atlantic Ocean and, and arrived at York Factory, a settlement located on the southwestern shore of Hudson Bay in northeastern Manitoba, Canada, at the mouth of the Hayes River, approximately 200 kilometres south-southeast of Churchill to become an apprentice, which would earn an £8 bonus at the end of his contract, and two suits.
Kelsey arrived at York Factory, a brand-new fort, built that same year and the fifth one built by the company between 1668 and 1684.
Life was hard. Kelsey wrote that in one week several men died when a party went looking to find two missing men all they found was a shirt and a bone.
These shocking tales didn’t dissuade him, and he was described as someone who made easy friends and was well-liked.
As an apprentice for the Hudson’s Bay Company, he wasn’t allowed to hunt or speak with Indigenous People. I couldn’t find a specific reason for this, but I can only assume it’s because hunting and getting to know Indigenous People could offer apprentices at the time options for a life different from the rigidity of the fort. Despite the rule, Kelsey did what he wanted.
His superiors wrote he was quote.
“a very active lad delighting much in Indian’s company, being never better pleased than when traveling among them.”
The feeling seemed mutual as Indigenous People in the area seemed to like and respected Kelsey for his daring nature when he was out on hunts with them but hiss disregard for rules eventually earned him a thrashing at the fort and according to legend, he left the fort soon after.
Search parties looked for him for several weeks and when he wasn’t found they gave him up for dead.
A few months went by, then, an Indigenous man arrived at the fort with an English message written on birch bark stating that Kelsey was well and traveling with Indigenous people. The message asked if he could return to the fort for the winter.
Kelsey’s past transgressions were forgiven, and he was given permission to return.
His away from the fort proved that he could survive and that would send his life into a new trajectory.
It did not take long for Kelsey to become fluent in Assiniboine and Cree as he also compiled an early Cree dictionary.
When he returned to the fort his superiors recognized Kelsey’s adventurous spirit his love for travel along with his comfort among Indigenous People. Those skills likely played a role in the Hudson’s Bay Company sanctioning his first official trip away from the fort.
. The journey would be simple and take a month to complete.
He had to travel 200 kilometres to deliver mail to Fort Severn and come back while accompanied by a Dene boy.
With this mission his time as an apprentice ended in 1688 and he was given a £15 bonus, two suits and £36 in wages.
He signed a new contract with the Company, now earning £15 per year.
One year later, Kelsey and the same Dene boy travelled to the north on an expedition to find the Chipewyan people and initiate trade negotiations.
From June 17 to 26 they journeyed 111 kilometres north of York Factory on the Hopewell, before they were dropped off on the coast, where they travelled along the western edge of Hudson Bay but found no one to trade with.
Along the way, the Dene boy became apprehensive as they moved closer to Chipewyan territory and could be in danger.
Unable to convince the boy otherwise the pair turned back towards York Factory on July 12 but the journey, despite being summer, was far from easy.
Kelsey wrote in his diary on July 25,
“Today put from ye shore it being dreadful to behold ye falls we had to pass considering we had nothing to tye of raft but small logline and were forced to shoot three desperate falls.”
Kelsey and the Dene boy travelled back 142 kilometres to their initial drop off stop, and then the other 111 kilometres back to the fort.
Despite the failure of this mission, another one was on the horizon.
In 1690, Hudson’s Bay Company Governor George Geyer instructed Kelsey to embark on his greatest journey.
He had to travel to the interior of the continent, where no European had ever been before, and convince First Nations to trade with the Hudson’s Bay Company.
Kelsey had a keen sense of adventure, survival skill and good relations with Indigenous People because unlike many other traders of the time, he treated Indigenous People as equals and was willing to learn from them.
On June 12, 1690, Kelsey left York Factory with a group of Indigenous men and carried with him items to trade including hatches, beads, and tobacco.
He wrote in his journal,
“Then up ye river I with heavy heart
Did take my way and from all English part.
To live amongst ye natives of this place
If God permits me for one two years space
The inland country of good report hath been.
By Indians but by English not yet seen.”[2]
Up until Kelsey’s mission in 1690 and for the first 150 years the Hudson’s Bay Company’s did not care about the interior of the continent.
The company had convinced Indigenous Peoples to come to their forts and every spring, flotillas of canoes carried Indigenous traders and thousands of furs.
For First Nations like the Cree, this was an excellent arrangement.
The forts were within their territory, and served as the middle ground for trading with the Hudson’s Bay Company where they gave furs and in return received European goods such as guns and tools, which greatly increased their power.
They quickly expanded their territory over other Indigenous nations because of this shift in the balance of power.
Kelsey’s journey into the interior wasn’t meant to be a land survey or for exploration, he was meant to trade in the name of the Hudson’s Bay Company.
Essentially, he was the continent’s first traveling salesperson.
On July 10, he stopped for winter and named the area Deering’s Point after Sir Edward Derring, the Deputy Governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company who had died the previous year.
He wrote in his diary,
“At Deering’s Point after the frost
I set up a certain cross.
In token of my being there
Cut out on it ye date of year.
And likewise, for it verify the same.
Added to it my Master’s name.”[3]
Why he named it after Derring is not known.
There is no record that Kelsey ever knew him, but some historians speculate that Derring may have sponsored him as an apprentice with the Hudson’s Bay Company.
Two hundred years later, geologist Dr. J.B. Tyrell did a geological survey of the area and believed that Deering’s Point was located near The Pas, Manitoba, 520 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.
He wrote,
“This was probably the neck of the land visited by Henry Kelsey in 1690-91.”
From Deering’s Point, Kelsey instructed his Indigenous guides to return to York Factory with a letter, detailing his journey and listing the nations he had met so far.
After a long winter his Indigenous guides returned in the spring of 1691 carrying trade goods from the fort and instructions to obtain beaver pelts and return with representatives of the First Nations that he encountered so trade negotiations could be initiated.
One item the guides brought with them was a peace pipe, something that proved important on the rest of Kelsey’s journey.
On July 15, 1691, the group set out further into the interior by now the Indigenous people with him called him Miss-top-ashish, meaning The Little Giant.
Kelsey knew that his success depended on the Indigenous People with him. He wrote in his diary while on the prairie,
“Because I was alone, and no friend could find.
And once in my travels I was left behind.
Which struck fear and terror into me?
But still I was resolved this same country for to see.”[4]
Kelsey and the Indigenous people with him journeyed up the Carrot River into present-day northeast Saskatchewan.
This is when he noticed nature around him looked different from the northern forest he was used to. He wrote in his diary,
“The ground begins for to be dry with wood,
Poplo and birch with ash that’s very good.
For the Natives of this place which knows
No use of better than their wooden bows.”[5]
A group of Indigenous guides had gone ahead of him ten days earlier leaving Kelsey with only a few men and women and as they journeyed south their trip became more difficult.
The land was swampy, and food scarce as winter turned to spring which became summer, yet food was still difficult to find, and starvation became a very serious concern.
He wrote on July 19,
“This morning we set forward into the woods and having travelled about 10 miles, pitched a tent and went out hunting all returning in the evening having killed nothing but two wood partridges and one squirrel.”
As the smaller group moved southwest into the interior, they slowly gained on the group ahead of them.
From Deering’s Point, they journeyed 320 kilometres, reaching near to where Humbolt is today in two weeks.
During that time, they only ate three fish, two partridges, a squirrel, three pigeons, two swans and some berries.
The group ahead of Kelsey ate grass to stay alive.
Things improved as Kelsey left the swampy land and reached what he called solid ground. The landscape had changed to grasslands, and game was more plentiful.
On July 24, 1691, Kelsey caught up with the group ahead of them.
That same day, a moose was hunted, and Kelsey received its gut which was considered an honour.
News spread of their arrival, and before long Indigenous People arrived at Kelsey’s camp to meet him.
The location of this camp is a little hard to pinpoint as Kelsey wrote little of geographical features, one of those rare instances came on Aug. 9 when he wrote,
“The river bends away much to the southward and runneth through a great part of the country.”
Today this is believed to be the South Saskatchewan River, which means Kelsey was traveling towards present-day Saskatoon.
This is where, he encountered an animal he, nor any other known European had ever seen, the bison which covered North America’s Great Plains.
From present-day Northern Alberta to Mexico, they numbered in the millions and were a vital source of food and supplies for First Nations prior to the 19th century.
Kelsey wrote of them with the colloquial name buffalo,
“Buffalo likewise is not like those to ye northward. Their horns grow like English ox but black and short.”
On Aug. 9 Kelsey killed his first bison which resulted in a huge feast that lasted until Aug. 11.
The following day Kelsey reached a location just north of Saskatoon.
On Aug. 20, 1691, he met the Assiniboine, whom he referred to as the Stone a name that came from a transliteration into French from Ojibwe.
The Ojibwe called the Assiniboine asinii-bwaan, meaning Stone Sioux.
The Assiniboine called themselves Hohe Nakota.
The day of the meeting, he described the land around him as barren and made up of short, sticky grass, most likely bunch grasses.
And although Kelsey called the land barren, he probably meant that it was bare, free of trees and open.
The Hudson’s Bay Company used that wording to their advantage though.
For 200 years, the company resisted settlement in Rupert’s Land because they would disrupt the lucrative fur trade and called the land barren, and not fit for agriculture.
It was not until the 1850s and 1860s when the Palliser Expedition traveled there that the image of the Prairies changed, and settlement began.
In the fertile land of the Canadian Prairie, Kelsey wrote of what is possibly the first European encounter with a grizzly bear. Quote
“A great sort of a bear which is bigger than any white bear and is neither white nor black but silver haired like our rabbit.”
Today, we associate the apex predator with the Rocky Mountains, but there was a time when their habitat extended to the Canadian Prairies.
Prior to European arrival grizzlies were found on the western portions of central and southern Saskatchewan until they were hunted to near extinction.
In his diary, Kelsey stated he killed two grizzlies with two gunshots.
While he quite possibly killed two grizzlies, only using two gunshots is likely an exaggeration.
The guns at the time were not incredibly accurate, especially at a long distance.
By now it was the end of August, and Kelsey noticed scattered groups of Indigenous Peoples coming together west of present-day Saskatoon for a huge gathering.
There were upwards of 80 tents and 500 people.
Kelsey used the opportunity to speak with many leaders and plan future trading.
At the beginning of September, Kelsey reached the Eagle Hills, a small rise in the prairie west of North Battleford, Saskatchewan.
Kelsey had moved into Naywatame territory.
Modern scholars believe that they were the Nakota or Blackfoot People, but it is not known for sure.
Regardless, this was a new territory and Kelsey camped in the hills, while eight Indigenous men stayed on guard in case of an attack.
None came, and on Sept. 9, 1691, Kelsey reached present-day Cut Knife, Saskatchewan.
Almost two hundred years later, in 1885, Cut Knife became the scene of a major battle of the North West Resistance. The Canadian militia under Lt. Col. William Otter attacked a Cree and Assiniboine encampment at the hill. It was a disaster for the Canadians, who were routed by the Indigenous warriors.
Upon Kelsey’s arrival at Cut Knife, two Naywatame scouts reached him.
He explained his mission through an interpreter, and they informed him of a Naywatame camp two days behind them.
Kelsey turned around and ventured east.
So far Kelsey’s mission from July 15 to Sept 12 had taken him 941 kilometres southwest of York Factory.
When he found the Naywatame camp on Sept. 12, 1691, a large gathering was held, with 11 tents with 60 people and Kelsey spoke with an unnamed Naywatame Chief.
Together, the two men shared a peace pipe.
Then, Kelsey said that the Naywatame could not kill the Governor’s friends anymore and then gave the chief a gift.
He wrote in his diary,
“I presented him with a present coat and sash cup, and one of my guns with knives and tobacco and small quantities of powder and shot.”
In return the chief agreed to meet Kelsey at Deering’s Point in the spring.
With the meeting concluded, Kelsey made the journey back to Deering’s Point which only took a few weeks as they traveled on the South Saskatchewan River and then the Carrot River.
Kelsey wintered from 1691-92 with the Assiniboine and when spring arrived, he awaited for the Naywatame arrival, but they never came.
He found out later that soon after he left, several of the chief’s men were killed by the Nayhaythaways, today known as the Cree.
As a result, the beleaguered chief chose not to venture out of his territory.
Kelsey wrote,
“In September I brought those Natives to a peace.
But I had no sooner form those Natives turned my back.
Some of the home Indians came upon their track.
And for old grudges and their minds to fill
Came up with them six tents of which they killed.”[6]
The summer of 1692 is when Kelsey finally returned to York Factory, accompanied by some Assiniboine and Cree.
The Hudson’s Bay Company officials were very happy with Kelsey’s journey, but their enthusiasm quickly disappeared.
There was little interest among the higher-ups in venturing farther into the continent.
It took another 60 years before another employee of the Company ventured again into the interior of present-day Canada.
Not until the 1770s when the North West Company was established that the Hudson’s Bay Company finally moved inland.
The North West Company built forts closer to Indigenous People to cut off trade networks to the Hudson Bay and The Company had to adjust its strategy or perish.
Before long, Company forts dotted the interior of Canada.
At the time Kelsey made his journey, the Company held a massive monopoly over the fur trade on the continent and had no reason to change its methods.
In their myopic view, if Indigenous people in the interior wanted to trade, they would go to The Company, otherwise the company would find others to trade with instead.
Meanwhile Kelsey returned to England briefly on Sept. 12, 1693, when his contract with the Hudson’s Bay Company ended.
He signed again on April 25, 1694, and returned to York Factory soon after.
His arrival coincided with an escalation of King William’s Nine Year’s War, over the North American theatre.
The Nine Years’ War was a much larger conflict fought between the Grand Alliance consisting of the Dutch Republic, England, Scotland, the Spanish Empire, and the Holy Roman Empire against France.
On Sept. 14, 1694, the war reached The Hudson’s Bay Company’s shore.
Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville reached Nelson River and by Oct. 14, York Factory surrendered to the French.
Kelsey assisted in negotiating the Terms of Surrender.
York Factory was renamed Fort Bourbon, but it was winter, and with nowhere to go The French, and their English captives were forced to spend winter together at the fort.
By the time spring arrived, both sides had lost several men to scurvy.
D’Iberville waited months to capture the annual English supply ships but by September 1695, they had not arrived.
With no other option, he left 70 of his men behind to hold the fort and sailed for France with a load of furs.
Ten months later, the English recaptured York Factory and Kelsey was back in the employ of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and once again earning a paycheck.
Unfortunately, King William’s War raged on and d’Iberville would NOT let York Factory slip from his fingers again.
On Sept. 5, 1697, d’Iberville arrived at York Factory with his flagship, the Pelican, to recapture the fort that he had once lost.
In the distance, he saw a ship approaching believing it was part of the fleet that had sailed with him from France.
What he did not know was that three ships, La Profond, Le Vesp and Le Palmier, had engaged in a battle with the English ship, the Hampshire only days earlier.
The approaching ship was not one of the one he was waiting for, but the Hampshire.
What followed was The Battle of Hudson Bay, the largest naval battle in the history of the North American Arctic.
D’Iberville was heavily outgunned, 44 French guns to the 114 the English had at their disposal, yet he headed into battle with guns blazing.
For two-and-a-half hours, the two sides engaged in a ferocious sea battle.
The Pelican was able to disable the mainsail of the Dering early in the battle, while the Royal Hudson’s Bay, which came to the aid of the Dering, was crippled by the Pelican through a volley of shots.
With those two ships out of contention Hampshire, a more powerful ship took over.
the Pelican and the Hampshire, the two biggest ships in the battle, fought a vicious and brutal broad-side battle and as it raged on it looked as though the French were about to lose but Captain d’Iberville was not about to surrender.
The captain of the Hampshire respected and admired d’Iberville bravery and raised a glass of wine to toast him on his ship.
Then, everything changed.
A shot from the Pelican hit the powder magazine of the Hampshire igniting the powder and causing an explosion which quickly sunk the ship beneath the waves.
The captain, who raised his glass out of respect minutes earlier, went down with the ship.
The French ship was in bad shape. It was fatally damaged and much of it was below the waterline. Even though the Pelican had won the battle, the crew had to abandon ship.
As the ship sank, d’Iberville ran aground, and his men walked through neck-deep icy cold water to shore.
They then spent the next several days hauling everything they could from the ship ashore, including its cannon which came at a loss as 18 of his men died from exposure.
The missing French ships La Profond, Le Vesp and Le Palmier arrived a few days later which allowed D’Iberville to coax the surrender of York Factory using the cannons from the Pelican as leverage.
On Sept. 13, 1697, Henry Baley, factor, or head, of York Factory, surrendered the fort.
Henry Kelsey was once again on hand before he was sent back to England where he only remained a short time before he was called back to Canada.
He spent enough time in England to marry Elizabeth Dix of London on April 7, 1698.
Then, only a month and a half into his marriage, he signed a new contract with the Hudson’s Bay Company and sailed over the Atlantic.
Now earning £35 per year, he returned to Hudson Bay and was stationed at Fort Albany in James Bay, in 1698. It was one of the few forts still under English control.
In 1701, Kelsey was made the master of a trading frigate, which traded beaver pelts with the Indigenous People along the coast of the Hudson Bay, two years later he returned to England. At the time, he was making £50, equivalent to $17,000 today.
And it could be that he thought it to be low wages because he did not return to the Hudson’s Bay Company for another two years, the longest stretch away from the company in his adult life.
In 1705, he was made Chief Trader of Fort Albany by The Company and now he had a salary of £100, or $35,000 in 2023.
He stayed in Fort Albany for t seven years until 1712, when he returned to England.
A year later the Treaty of Utrecht was signed and, York Factory was returned to the English by the French.
On Sept. 11, 1714, Henry Kelsey returned to York Factory after being 17 years away from the place he had called home.
He was now the Deputy Governor and wrote in his diary that the fort was,
“rotten and ready to fall, not scarce defensible against the natives if they have mind to attack us.”
In 1717, Kelsey was promoted to Governor of York Factory. A year later he was made the Governor of all the Hudson’s Bay Company settlements.
This new title also meant a big bump in pay to £200 per year.
The young boy who arrived as an apprentice at York Factory over three decades earlier was now a seasoned veteran of the company and the most powerful person in Rupert’s Land.
But as Governor, he did not get along well with another prominent man in the Company, James Knight.
James Knight was the chief factor of Fort Albany and became rich through trading.
By 1711 he had a seat on the Board of Directors of the Company and by 1719, he was the head of York Factory.
He appeared in my episode on Thanadelthur a few months back, as the man who sent her out on her mission to bring peace between the Cree and Chipewyan.
The same year Knight took over York Factory, he accused Kelsey of selling furs privately, rather than through the Company.
Whether this was true or not, the Company did not pursue charges.
Regardless of it caused tensions between the men as Kelsey embarked on a trip to the Arctic later in 1719.
He left on the Prosperous to explore and prospect for copper on the coast north of Marble Island, a small island on northwestern Hudson Bay.
Today, the closest community to it is Rankin Inlet, located 50 kilometres to the west.
Unknown to Kelsey at the time, his nemesis, Knight, was also travelling into the Arctic to find the Northwest Passage.
Knight outfitted two ships, the Albany and the Discovery, because aa Chipewyan interpreter said there was a mineral-rich route across the North.
When Kelsey returned to York Factory, he found Knight had ventured off on his expedition.
He wrote that Knight wintered off the coast in 1719-20, which spoiled trade with the Inuit because he took up their land.
During that winter, Knight’s ships encountered the shallow water between Marble Island and the Canadian mainland.
They were wrecked but the crew was able to offload several cannons, coal, and food.
In 1721, Kelsey took a second trip to Marble Island, for trade and not to look for Knight despite knowing he was overdue, Kelsey did not attempt a search.
He was given items by the Inuit from the Knight expedition and instead of venturing further to Marble Island, he turned around due to poor winds and returned to York Factory.
According to evidence found later, several members of Knight’s expedition were still alive on Marble Island but because no search was launched Knight, and his crew were never seen alive again.
Half a century later, Samuel Hearne heard from an elderly Inuk man that only five men were alive through the second winter, and the last man died digging a grave for his companion.
From 1684 to 1722, Kelsey had only spent three years away from Canada: 1704, 1705 and 1713.
In 1722, Kelsey left the land he had devoted so much of his life to for the final time and returned to England on Oct. 31. Over the course of his career with the Hudson’s Bay Company, Kelsey earned £2,500 through wages and bonuses, about $778,000 today.
A lot of money, but not enough for retirement, which turns out would be far too short.
Henry Kelsey died on Nov. 1, 1724.
He left his wife and son with little money and Six years after his death, his widow Elizabeth petitioned the Hudson’s Bay Company to help pay for her son’s apprenticeship.
The Company gave her 10 guineas, equal to two ounces of gold.
Four years later, the Company gave her six guineas to buy clothes for her son.
It is not known what happened to her or her son after that.
The first European to see a bison and a grizzly bear didn’t leave much to his family but Kelsey has been honoured extensively in Canada.
Kelsey Lake, two schools, a rose and a dam are all named for him.
A stamp was issued honouring him in 1970 by Canada Post.
The call letters of CBC Radio in Saskatchewan are CBK, with the K standing for Kelsey.
That is the story of Henry Kelsey, but there is one more interesting thing to add to his tale.
Little was known two hundred years after Henry Kelsey died, beyond some records kept by the Hudson’s Bay Company.
His legendary expedition into the Canadian West had long since been forgotten by everyone but the most ardent researchers.
Then in 1926, Archibald Dobbs was cleaning the library in Castle Dobbs in Northern Ireland where he found papers kept by his ancestor Arthur Dobbs, prior to him leaving to become Governor of North Carolina in 1765.
Archibald quickly realized that the papers were likely very important and sent them off to the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.
The Public Record Office discovered that within the papers was Henry Kelsey’s journal.
In 1929, The Kelsey Papers were published by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and the Public Archives of Canada.
That book proved to be an invaluable resource in crafting this episode.
As for how that journal, written in the Canadian West, wound up in Ireland so long after Kelsey died?
Well…that is a mystery, and it is the mystery we will end this episode on.
