David thompson biography explorer

David was educated at the Grey-coat school, until, inhe was apprenticed to the Hudson Bay Company. After serving for five years as clerk and fur-trader, he came, inunder the influence of the company's surveyor, Philip Turnor, who taught him the elements of astronomy and of triangulation. Surveying and exploration now became his passion, despite the company's disapproval; he learned several Indigenous languages, and 'with Bible and sextant in hand' he was also an aggressive 'teetotaller' he diligently explored and mapped.

With two Ojibwe guides, he surveyed a shorter route to Lake Athabasca. In he transferred his services to the North-Western Company which, though it granted him two years' leave for exploring, was yet not too willing to see him relegate fur-trading to a secondary place. Meantime, he had traced the Red river and the Assiniboine river to their sources, had followed the Assiniboine to its confluence in the Winnipeg region with theRed, had followed the downward course of the Red, and had found the source of the Mississippi.

It is not clear if he learned from them that this was not the case, but at least one of the PFC men at the fort, Alexander Ross, perceived Thompson and his party as competitors. The two groups parted company at the Dalles and Thompson hurried on to the mouth of the Snake River, which he ascended as far as the Palouse River Wash. From that point he returned to the Columbia at Kettle Falls and followed the river upstream back to the Canoe River, thus completing the survey, begun inof the river from its source to the sea.

In the spring he retraced his steps and crossed the Rockies for the last time, bound for Montreal and retirement from active participation in the fur trade. The generosity of the NWC towards Thompson in the terms of his retirement suggests the high regard they had for the work he had accomplished. Upon his arrival at Montreal, one of his first preoccupations was to see to the baptism of his wife and four of their five children, performed at the Scotch Presbyterian Church, Montreal, on 30 Sept.

Over the next 25 years he would go to considerable trouble to provide for the education of all his children. He moved with his family in October to Terrebonne, where he spent most of the next two years fulfilling his obligation to the NWC. In he completed a large map of the northwest from Lake Superior to the Pacific which was forwarded to the NWC and hung for many years in the great hall at Kaministiquia, renamed Fort William in Thompson accepted in January a position as astronomer and surveyor for the boundary commission created under the 6th and 7th articles of the Treaty of Ghent to determine the precise location of the border with the United States.

Relations between the American and British commissioners and their parties were sometimes cool, but Thompson won the respect of fellow surveyors, scientific observers, and political appointees on both sides. In agreement was reached on the boundary surveyed under the 6th article, but Upper Canadian opinion widely regarded it as a sell-out of Canadian davids thompson biography explorer.

Both Anthony Barclay, the second British commissioner, and Thompson were subjected to a good deal of personal criticism. For the next four years the commission, with Thompson as its only official astronomer, proceeded with surveys under the 7th article, west from Lake Superior to Lake of the Woods. In Thompson remained in the employ of the commission, drawing maps and preparing position papers, but the claims of the two governments had become so divergent that no further agreement was possible.

As the work of the commission came to an end, Thompson turned his attentions to his family and to his responsibilities in Glengarry County as a landowner and as a justice of the peace, a commission he had held since The good fortune that had smiled on him through most of his life now deserted him. He would find no lasting satisfaction either in the accomplishments of his children, eventually numbering seven sons and six daughters, or in his life as a landed proprietor.

Most of his remaining wealth was invested in land, but attempts in the late s to clear it and bring it into commercial production were costly and unsuccessful.

David thompson biography explorer: David Thompson (30 April – 10

He turned to other activities such as potash production and the operation of two general stores, one at Williamstown in and the other at Nutfield near Maxville inin order to supplement his income and provide his sons with a livelihood, but these efforts met with similar results. The most disastrous of all his ventures was the contract he accepted to supply the British army at Montreal with cordwood in — The project was dogged by misfortune from the beginning: labour was expensive and scarce; cordwood obtained from jobbers was too short and therefore unsaleable; rafts ran aground and broke up in the rapids below Coteau-du-Lac, Lower Canada; and finally he was forced to fill the shortfall in his contract with wood purchased at Montreal for prices far higher than he was to receive for it.

By his capital resources had been depleted; two years later he was so deeply in debt that he had to assign his lands to his creditors in order to avoid bankruptcy and, at the age of 63, he was forced to seek employment as a surveyor in order to maintain himself and his family. With his third son, Henry, as assistant, Thompson found fairly steady employment for the next three years carrying out hydrographic surveys for proposed canal projects and exploratory land surveys in the Eastern Townships for the British American Land Company.

In he was employed by the government on a survey of the waterways between Lake Huron and the Ottawa River but continuing resentment in Upper Canada over the boundary decision 15 years earlier damaged his reputation and his findings were shelved.

David thompson biography explorer: David Thompson was an

Over the next eight years employment became increasingly sporadic and, between such projects as the mapping of Lac Saint-Pierre and street surveys in Montreal, he was frequently in financial difficulty. He had already moved from Williamstown to a rented house in Montreal. There he was forced to move several times into progressively meaner quarters and on more than one occasion was reduced to pawning his instruments; once he even had to pawn his coat.

His desperation was such that in Augustat age 70, he unsuccessfully applied for a position as clerk with the HBC. Pleas for pensions or positions in recognition of his past services fell on deaf ears and he found no ready publisher for his maps. Reluctantly, he moved in with his daughter and son-in-law, in in Montreal and in in Longueuil.

In the small whitewashed rooms he shared with his wife in Longueuil, Thompson wrote an account of his travels in North America. This work of his final years is in many ways his greatest achievement, but he never had the satisfaction of seeing it completed and published. Already in the sight in his remaining good eye had begun to fail; by he was completely blind and the manuscript remained unfinished.

Through all these years of misfortune, Thompson retained his strong religious convictions and his belief in the ultimate goodness of Providence, and he found solace and support in the unfailing care of his wife. The Narrativesomewhat flawed because it was written so long after the events, remains a major work of autobiography and an invaluable source for historians.

Tyrrell Toronto, ; a new edition, prepared by R. Hopwood Toronto, Dempsey, Alberta Hist. White Missoula, Mont. Elliott, Wash. Elliott, Oreg. Quarterly Eugene26 : 23— Regis to Sault Ste. Burpee, CHR4 : — Poverty-stricken in his david thompson biography explorer years, he began drafting a narrative of his experiences, which historians have found an invaluable view of exploration and fur-trading in the early nineteenth-century West.

It is more interestingly written and refreshingly different from most of the official reports and histories put out over the years by the Hudson's Bay Company. Unfortunately, he was unable to complete it because he became completely blind in Fortunately, his wife was strongly supportive of him until the end. When he died inhe was almost forgotten.

His manuscript, dealing with events in his life and career down towas edited and published by J. Tyrell in In70 years after his death, a monument was placed over his hitherto-unmarked gravesite in Montreal. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. January 8, Retrieved January 08, from Encyclopedia. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list.

Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia. David Thompson was a Canadian explorer, cartographer, and surveyor. He was the first white man to descend the Columbia River from its source to its mouth. David Thompson was born at Westminster, England, on April 30, After a surprisingly good education at Grey Coat School, a charity school near his home, he was apprenticed to the Hudson's Bay Company at the age of He was sent out immediately and spent the years from to as a clerk, either at the bay or at various locations in the interior.

He left the company's employ inin circumstances that virtually amounted to desertion. It was a poor repayment to an employer that had treated him well and trained him as a surveyor. It was his surveying skill and his wilderness experience which made Thompson welcome at the North West Companythe great rival of the Hudson's Bay Company for the fur trade of the Northwest.

The wealth of the company allowed him to devote most of the time from to to surveying and exploring with only infrequent periods of actually engaging in the fur trade. In he was made a partner in the company. For several years Thompson made extensive journeys through the western plains, the Rocky Mountainsand along the Pacific slope, mapping and surveying as he traveled.

In he undertook the expedition for which he is best known. The Columbia River had long been a magnet for western traders, and Thompson was the first to travel the river from its source to its mouth. In one sense, his trip was a failure since his company had hoped that he would establish a post at the point where the Columbia emptied into the ocean before the arrival of the American Fur Company of John Jacob Astor.

After excessive and unnecessary delay, he found Ft. Astoria already built when he came to the Columbia's mouth. The following year,Thompson retired from the company and settled at Terrebonne, Lower Canada, later removing to Williamstown, Upper Canada. His surveying skills were employed in the establishment of the boundary between these two provinces.

References [ edit ]. HBC History Foundation.

David thompson biography explorer: David Thomson was called “the

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