The Fur Trader Trades Careers In 1850, after thinking about it for more than a few years, John Tod finally retired from the fur trade. Like some other former Hudson's Bay Company men, he chose to settle in the British Colony of Vancouver Island. He bought land along the seashore, a few kilometres to the east of the Hudson's Bay Company's fort, Fort Victoria...

British Columbia Archives, A-00903

"The new fort at Victoria, Vancouver Island, which had been begun in 1843, had been finished now several years. The company in 1849 transferred its headquarters thither from Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River, and in the same year obtained a ten years' conditional grant of Vancouver Island from the home government for purposes of colonization, save the mark!" (Sproat, 229).

It wasn't long before an entirely different career opportunity came John Tod's way. Even though he was retired, he looked forward to more challenges... "...I regarded all the past as an apprenticeship, leading not to a reposeful, but to an inquisitive new life on which I proposed to enter" (Sproat, 229).

In 1851, the Governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island, Richard Blanshard, appointed John to the colony's new executive council. To read a transcript of the instrument in which the council is established, click here. James Cooper and James Douglas were the other two councillors. Their task: to act as advisors to Governor Blanshard.

British Columbia Archives GR-0820, Box 1, File 2

Things didn't go smoothly for the new governor. Blanshard had been appointed by the Hudson's Bay Company, but he wasn't a company man. He found it difficult to govern a colony that was based around a company fort, populated by company people, and all but run by the company. The Hudson's Bay Company had chosen him to be governor in order to avoid conflicts of interest. This means they didn't want a Hudson's Bay Company man in charge of the colony because many colonists were from the company as well, and a Hudson's Bay Company governor might have favoured them over other colonists.

British Columbia Archives A-01112

The Hudson's Bay Company was the only retailer in the area, and people not from the Hudson's Bay Company couldn't afford their "stranger" prices for essential supplies. Meanwhile, John Tod and other Hudson's Bay Company people were given discounts. The fuel for discontent was plentiful. In the end, Blanshard decided he didn't like Vancouver Island. He thought the colony was impossible to administrate, and so he quit within a year... "The home government...sent out a governor, one Mr. Richard Blanshard, a worthy man, suffering from neuralgia, who tried to fill an impossible position in the front of the great fur company. Some of the books which he left on going home I added to my library" (Sproat, 229).

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