It was published in by A. The notoriety is a result of the journal being written partly in rhyme. Whatever his actual route, he was the first European to travel extensively west and north of the Bottom of the Bay, and the first to record descriptions of many things, including buffalo and grizzly bears. Kelsey remained at the Bay almost continuously until , one of the most enigmatic of the early European figures of the region. He was well known for his expertise in Native languages, and he made several subsequent forays into the North.
He is commemorated by the Rural Municipal of Kelsey. Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. Kelsey was now clearly recognized as a competent seaman as well as an efficient officer. Kelsey left Albany for England in August in his old ship, the Knight , though as passenger not master. His intention was to return to the bay in the following year, and he was appointed to go as deputy to Knight at York, which was about to be handed back to the HBC under the treaty of Utrecht.
Kelsey left England — for the sixth and last time — in June and was present at the handing over of York on 11 September. For the next three years he played second fiddle to Knight. Knight, back in England, made certain complaints against Kelsey, full particulars of which have not survived.
Kenney, Rich, and others have suggested that the accusations centred upon private trade, but the few facts on record are not conclusive. One of the charges, we know, referred to theft by Indians as long before as — These are the only complaints against Kelsey recorded in the whole of his service, and it is clear that he strongly resented them. He was an ex-shareholder and member of the London committee, so one would expect the charges he laid against Kelsey to have been taken seriously; but there is no evidence that they were pressed very far, and it is unlikely that the HBC would have left Kelsey in command till if they had lost confidence in him.
Knight set out on his last voyage in this same year to search for gold and the northwest passage and to find death, tragic but not unapt for the fierce old man whose first employment in the bay had been in Scroggs certainly brought back information sufficient to convince the HBC that Knight and his ships had been lost. Kelsey reached England on 31 Oct. In January he petitioned for appointment as captain of the HBC ship Hannah , which suggests that while he may have had enough of continuous residence in the bay he was still game for a summer voyage.
In fact the Hannah did not sail in so Kelsey did not get the job. On professional grounds his appointment would have been entirely credible for he was an experienced mariner.
When and how he gained this competence is not clear: we know that he commanded the Knight in and was mate in the Pery on her Atlantic crossing in The first was in when the Pery , out from England, grounded on sand off Albany and was wrecked by a gale.
He had married Elizabeth Dix of East Greenwich on 7 April soon after returning from his second spell as a prisoner of the French; she survived him and was the executrix of his will. Three children are known to have been born to the marriage: Elizabeth b.
Not surprisingly the provision left for his widow was slight. The Kelsey papers , which were not known to historians before and which are now the chief source of information concerning the life of Henry Kelsey, leave a number of questions unanswered. How and where did these papers come into the hands of the Dobbs family, descendants of Arthur Dobbs, the leader of the critics of the HBC in ? A contrary view is pressed by E. There is also disagreement about the handwriting of The Kelsey papers.
Some of these mysteries may in time be cleared up, but it is not rash to say that the HBC archives are unlikely to yield much more information of substance concerning the life of Henry Kelsey. Scraps of biographical information concerning his parentage, early life, and descendants may be found elsewhere, but we must not expect to know a great deal more of the man himself than we do now.
It is little enough. What he did is in outline clear, but his character remains, as A. We seldom know what choice was open to him. He had, one thinks, little formal education; his composition does not rise above the rather low level of HBC officers of the time. That he was a man with whom it was possible to quarrel is suggested by the dispute with Beale in and the break with Governor Knight, but we know the rights and wrongs of neither case. With men under his command Kelsey could certainly be severe, as he showed by flogging two men on Boxing-day and two more on 10 May following: the journal entries are consistent with his having administered these punishments in person.
Perhaps Kelsey preferred Indian to white society; perhaps he pitied the natives and wanted to protect them. There are two versions of the journal of in G. Burpee, The search for the western sea London, ; rev.
General Bibliography. To encourage such a trade, the company required employees who were skilled in Indian languages and willing to travel inland. As these proved hard to find, company directors were happy to learn that "the boy Henry Kelsey [was] a very active lad delighting much in Indians' company, being never better pleased than when he is traveling amongst them.
On June 12, , Kelsey set forth from York Factory with a group of Indians who had come to the post to trade. Without their help, and that of the other Indian men and women with whom Kelsey traveled, his great journey would not have been possible. Kelsey himself recorded that it was "with a heavy heart" that he headed off to the "Inland Country of Good Report [which] hath been by Indians but by English yet not seen. He spent the winter of — 91 in the neighborhood and returned there in the spring, where he received orders and a fresh supply of trade goods from Geyer.
Equipped with such items as guns, Brazilian tobacco, and a brass kettle, he began the second stage of his journey to "discover and bring to a Commerce the Naywatame poets.
It is not likely that Kelsey's route will ever be definitely established. There is a well-argued case that he traveled south of what is now the town of Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan, as far as the Yorkton area and ventured into both the Beaver and Touchwood Hills.
What is beyond doubt is that he was the first European to see the Northern Plains and to witness a buffalo hunt, conducted on foot by people among whom the horse had yet to be introduced. Kelsey did reach the Naywatame, although he was unable to persuade them to suit the interests of the Hudson's Bay Company by concentrating less on making war and more on hunting beaver. Nonetheless, he returned to York Factory in the summer of "with a good Fleet of Indians," much to Geyer's pleasure.
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