William Pinchbeck

William Pinchbeck
William Pinchbeck (1880)
Born	1831 Yorkshire, England
Died	July 1893 British Columbia
Occupation	Provincial Police Constable, entrepreneur
Spouse(s)	Chulminick (m. 1863–81) Alice Kilham (m. 1884–93)
Children	William (1867), James (1872), Robert (1885), Fredrick (1887), Cyril (1889),

William Pinchbeck (1831 – July 1893) was one of the original settlers in the Cariboo region of British Columbia, Canada. He was a member of the British Columbia Provincial Police and owned a roadhouse and many other properties in Williams Lake, British Columbia.

Pinchbeck was born in Yorkshire, England in 1831 and at the age of 18, he moved to San Francisco, USA where he operated a roadhouse during the California Gold Rush. He would later travel north to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada where he joined the British Columbia Provincial Police.

In 1860, during the Cariboo Gold Rush, Pinchbeck accompanied Gold Commissioner Philip Henry Nind to Williams Lake to create a local government and bring law and order to the area. Nind had originally considered Fort Alexandria for this purpose but chose Williams Lake instead as it was at a junction of two main pack trails: one from the Douglas Road and another through the Fraser Canyon.

Like many provincial policemen of the era, Pinchbeck had to fulfill a variety of duties including Justice of the Peace, lawyer, judge, and jailer.

Throughout 1861-1863, Pincheck, in partnership with Thomas Meldrum and William Lyne, formed Pinchbeck and Company and built a roadhouse, a general store, a sawmill a flour mill, a distillery and a horse racing track. The horse races often drew large crowds of spectators and on some of the biggest races the stakes could be as high as $100,000.