Alexander MacKay (fur trader)

Alexander MacKay (c. 1770 – 15 June 1811) was a fur trader and explorer (he also appears in written records as "McKay").

Early life

MacKay was probably born in the Mohawk valley area in the state of New York, where his father had brought the family after the Seven Years' War. After the American Revolutionary War the family departed the area as United Empire Loyalists and settled in the Glengarry region of Upper Canada about 1792. [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=2519&interval=25&&PHPSESSID=ce6sc9s08k8608rkmd3or6ia15 Alexander MacKay] , Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online]

Alexander MacKay married Marguerite Waddens and had one son, Thomas McKay, and three daughters.

North West Company Career

MacKay was working for the North West Company (NWC) sometime before 1791. In 1792 he was transferred to Fort Fork on the request of Alexander Mackenzie. MacKay then accompanied Mackenzie on his 1793 overland journey to the Pacific Ocean, the first such journey north of Mexico.

From 1793 to 1800 MacKay was probably a clerk in the NWC's Upper English River fur district. In 1800 he was made a NWC partner and worked in the English River district until 1804. In 1808 he resigned from the NWC and retired to Montreal.

Pacific Fur Company Career

In 1810 Mackay, along with several other retired NWC personnel such as Donald McKenzie and Duncan McDougall, signed a preliminary agreement with the American businessman John Jacob Astor, who intended to establish a new fur trading company operating in the Columbia River region. MacKay, McKenzie, and McDougall recruited in Montreal for Astor's company, the Pacific Fur Company. MacKay enlisted a number of people, including Gabriel Franchère, David Stuart, Robert Stuart, and MacKay's own son Thomas, who was 13 at the time. All of these people joined MacKay in the 1811 sea voyage to the mouth of the Columbia River on the "Tonquin". During the voyage enmity developed between MacKay and the Jonathan Thorn, captain of the "Tonquin". Thorn tried to maroon MacKay and others at the Falkland Islands.

MacKay was instrumental, along with Alexander Ross, in founding Fort Astoria in early 1811. MacKay led a trading and exploring party up the Columbia River in May 1811. Then in June 1811 he sailed as supercargo on the "Tonquin", which attempted to acquired furs along the coast to the north. In a conflict with the indigenous people of Clayoquot Sound the "Tonquin" was attacked and blown up, killing nearly everyone on board, including Alexander MacKay.

MacKay's son Thomas remained at the Fort Astoria. His mother, Alexander's wife Marguerite Waddens had not journeyed to the west with the Astorian expedition. Widowed, she later married John McLoughlin and came to the Columbia River. Thomas became McLoughlin's step-son.

References