Letters from Rupert’s Land, 1826–1840: James Hargrave of the Hudson’s Bay Company (review)

Reading Helen E. Ross’s introduction to her edited collection of James Hargrave’s letters initially confused me: Hargrave, who ‘served almost forty years in Rupert’s Land,’ retired in 1859 as the Hudson’s Bay Company chief factor at York Factory, but Ross’s introduction deals in as much – if not more – detail with Hargrave’s family history, religious background, and attitudes toward women than with his experience at the gateway to the HBC’s vast Northern Department. What became clear upon reading the letters was that Ross, a respectful editor, was following Hargrave’s lead. Though readers interested in HBC history may be intrigued by the book’s title (McGill-Queen’s University Press makes it a handsome book to behold), they may be surprised by the contents.

Hargrave’s letters are from Rupert’s Land, but the location of their creation is almost the only connection they have with York Factory. The presiding impression of Hargrave’s life at and around the Hudson’s Bay Company post is that he continually longs to be elsewhere. Moreover, though he professes contentment at his post – and his letters do occasionally speak of social pleasures to be had, most often around the table and involving a bottle – he only rarely feels compelled to describe his experiences. Part of his reticence may be prim professionalism; he simply doesn’t want to share company secrets with others. But the consistency with which he declines to offer any detailed anecdote – even against his correspondents’ express wishes to hear more details about his life – suggests that he is, in fact, uninterested in the events that fill his days. He excuses himself from playing the northern raconteur in many of his letters, lamenting that ‘month follows month without one story occurring worth telling.’ When adventures do occur, he is often just as reticent: ‘The account of my journey from lake Superior hither [. . .] I am sorry to say I can now recall so lamely that every feature of interest has been blotted from it.’ These moments are disappointments, since Hargrave is so ideally placed to tell the story of life at York Factory and in the Hudson’s Bay Company: he is literate, articulate, and obviously has the gift of the gab, but he is excessively choosy about his topics.

The collection contains numerous letters, especially to Hargrave’s family, that repeat each other, but the information in them remains interesting: Hargrave’s constant advice to his parents and siblings – about what to purchase and the price they should pay, how to arrange their houses, why never to lend money – reveals much about settler life in Lower Canada during the period. On occasion, his letters also contain some fascinating details of northern life in the 1830s, and almost against his will a narrative of HBC life emerges. These details are mostly found in the infrequent but regular letters to John George McTavish, chief factor at York Factory from 1821 to 1830. In his correspondence with McTavish, Hargrave describes HBC personalities, social factions, the quality of stores, and the fallout of McTavish’s decision to marry a Scottish woman after starting a native family. These comparatively short letters give a tantalizing peek into the commercial as well as social practices of company men, and their sprinkling throughout the book perks up the narrative considerably.

In spite of his refusal to describe his life at York Factory, Hargrave’s correspondence reveals what is perhaps the essence of life in Rupert’s Land: it is a place to work but not to live. Hard-working and dreaming of his future, Hargrave devotes his youth to the stores at York Factory in order to live out his later years among family and friends. His greatest pleasures are the packages he receives that have nothing to do with work: personal letters and the occasional book. He is an...