The Fur Trade Revisited: Selected Papers of the Sixth North American Fur Trade Conference, Mackinac Island, Michigan, 1991

Roots in the Mohawk Valley: Sir William Johnson’s Legacy in the North West Company

Roots in the Mohawk Valley: Sir William Johnson's Legacy in the North West Company Heather Devine Several fur-trade researchers have attempted to identify the factors influencing the rapid rise of the Scottish Nor'Westers to business prominence. A shared ethnic identity, military experience, and the adoption of effective trading practices from the French have all been cited as sources of the effective corporate behaviors demonstrated by the Scottish expatriates who comprised the bulk of the North West Company's directorship. However these factors do not adequately account for the considerable speed and success of the Scots' adaptation to the North American fur trade, particularly in light of their relatively brief residency in British North America as compared to their French and Dutch competitors . Sylvia Van Kirk,l in her examination of research trends within the field of fur-trade history, noted that much of the research revolves around three major themes: the differing organizational and personnel structures of the North West and Hudson's Bay companies; the nature of HBC and NWC interactions with the Indians, particularly concerning intermarriage; and the divergent experiences of mixed-blood children from the Hudson's Bay Company and North West Company traditions. In summarizing the major research studies dealing with these areas of interest, Van Kirk went on to identify those areas of fur trade social history that are poorly understood and require further investigation. The bulk of these topics lie within the study of the organizational and personnel structures of the two companies. Van Kirk noted, for example, that there are no studies of the social antecedents of the Nor'Westers which might identify or incorporate useful models for understanding the organizational/personnel hierarchy of the company, such as Peter Laslett's patriarchal household model,2 which was utilized by both Jennifer Brown3 and John Foster4 in their studies of the Hudson's Bay Company traditions. She went on to suggest that perhaps the study of the social structure of the Highland Scots clan might serve as a useful model for assessing NWC structures.5 A second area for further investigation concerns the concepts of horizontal versus vertical integration as applied to the interpretation of company hierarchical 217 HEATHER DEVINE Figure 1. Sir William Johnson, c. 1772, attributed to Matthew Pratt. Courtesy of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Johnson Hall State Historic Site. 218 SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON'S LEGACY IN THE NORTH WEST COMPANY structures. Jennifer Brown has argued that the life of the Hudson's Bay employee was based largely on kinship and employment ties forged within the context of the company itself.6 The North West Company employee, on the other hand, brought his prior personal and familial relationships with him into the company, and these prior associations subsequently influenced the personnel and hierarchical patterns within the company. Van Kirk cautions, however, that the concepts of vertical and horizontal integration require further investigation in order to assess their validity, particularly as applied to the experience of the laboring classes within the two companies. In the case of the North West Company, further research into the sociocultural influences affecting company partners and employees is essential. The suggestion that the North West Company's socioeconomic structures were influenced by prior personal and family relationships may reflect on the assumption that the elan-based socioeconomic relationships of some Scottish Nor'Westers were m?intained after emigration to North America and persisted as an influence over any other sociocultural relationships in which they might subsequently have engaged.7 Further investigation into the ethnohistorical background of the Scots partners of the North West Company serves to shed new light on these issues. Two significant events occurred in the forty years prior to the formation of the North West Company in 1779-1784. One was the legislated dismantling of the Highland clan system after the Jacobite defeat at Culloden in 1746 and the subsequent dislocation of clan members. The other was the development of new patronage relationships in Britain and North America. The layperson might assume that traditional loyalties between clan chieftains and their followers persisted despite the punitive legislation introduced by the British after the violent suppression of the Jacobites in 1746. It might also be assumed that the dismantling of the elan system was an event that was regretted by all the participants involved.s A considerable body of scholarly research dealing with eighteenth-century...