Swanston, Thomas

Person

Swanston, Thomas

fl. 1868-1888

Thomas Swanston, of Scottish descent, was a fur trader and employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company for twenty years, 18 of which were spent in the Mackenzie River District, until retiring in 1880. Based on archival notes, he was most likely born in 1849 though whether this occurred in Canada or Scotland is unclear as he travelled from the UK with his mother and three sisters in the summer of 1855, at the age of 6, to rejoin his father in Canada, an employee of the HCB. A note makes reference to his mother and ‘children’ having arrived in Aberdeen, Scotland in the autumn of 1852 from Moose Factory making it reasonable to assume he may have been born in Canada. As an adult he is described as a ‘wealthy and prominent citizen’ who ‘lived in a state with a great many servant in a fine house with extensive grounds and stables, altogether in the manner of an English country gentleman’. He and his wife, who was part Cree, had ‘a great many children’ though all but one passed away early in life. His only surviving child was a daughter named Frances who married a Red River colony McBeth, a family that had settled at Prince Albert during the 1870’s and were distantly related to the author Rev. R.G. McBeth.

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