James Douglas (governor)

Sir James Douglas
James Douglas with Order of the Bath honours
Governor of British Columbia
In office 1858–1864
Succeeded by	Frederick Seymour
Governor of Vancouver Island
In office 1851–1864
Preceded by	Richard Blanshard
Succeeded by	Arthur Edward Kennedy
Personal details
Born	(1803-08-15)August 15, 1803 Demerara
Died	August 2, 1877(1877-08-02) (aged 73) Victoria, British Columbia

Sir James Douglas KCB (August 15, 1803 – August 2, 1877) was a company fur-trader and a British colonial governor of Vancouver Island and British Columbia (B.C.) in northwestern North America, now part of Canada. Douglas had started working in Canada at age 16 for the North West Company, and later for the Hudson's Bay Company, becoming a high-ranking company officer. In the trade he was known as a Scottish West Indian.

From 1851 to 1864, he was Governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island. In 1858, he also became the first Governor of the Colony of British Columbia, in order to assert British authority during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, which had the potential to turn the B.C. Mainland into an American state. He remained governor of both Vancouver Island and British Columbia until his retirement in 1864. He is often credited as "The Father of British Columbia".

James Douglas was born in 1803 in Demerara (later part of Guyana). His father was John Douglas, a Scottish Planter and Merchant from Glasgow in business with three of his brothers. His mother was Martha Ann Telfer and was a Creole of mixed race from Barbados, according to the Dictionary of Canadian Life Story. The couple had three children together; Alexander, born 1801 or 1802; James, born 1803, and Cecilia, born 1812, but never formally married. Telfer was classified as free coloured, which in that time and place meant a free person of mixed African and European family history. James Douglas and his brothers and sisters were all mixed race. He appeared mostly Caucasian.

In 1812, John Douglas returned to Scotland with his children and put James into school at Lanark to be educated. John later married Jessie Hamilton in 1819, and had more children with her, making a second family. James went to school or was taught by a French Huguenot in Manchester, England, where he learned to speak and write in fluent French, which helped him in North America.

At the age of sixteen, James Douglas signed on to join the North West Company (NWC). The NWC was a major organization active in the North American fur trade. He sailed from Liverpool, United Kingdom for Lachine, Lower Canada, in the spring of 1819. From here Douglas was assigned as a clerk at Fort William, now located within modern Thunder Bay. The following year in 1820 he was moved to Île-à-la-Crosse on the Churchill River in northern contemporary Saskatchewan. The Hudson's Bay Company was also active in this area, and Douglas was caught up in at least one argument with the fighting fur traders. At this post Douglas continued a policy of self-education by reading books brought from Britain and meeting with many First Nations people.