Thomas Douglas was a male Caucasian from Scotland born on June 20th, 1771, and died April 8th, 1820. Lord Selkirk was born at Saint Mary's Isle, Scotland. Thomas Douglas was the youngest of 13 children. Lord Selkirk was the 5th Earl of Selkirk. He was a well known Scottish philanthropist. He was also a lawyer, and owned land. Mr. Douglas became Earl when he inherited all of his family's wealth. Thomas Douglas was very angry about the treatment of the Scottish Clearance victims, and wanted to help. So, he bought enough shares of the Hudson's Bay Company, that he could buy a lot of land. He then offered this land to Scottish Clearance victims for free. The land he bought is now known as "The Forks" in Winnipeg. At the time however, it was Rupert's Land. Lord Selkirk bought about 40468 hectares of land. After the Battle of Seven Oaks, Thomas Douglas had four offence charges due to him taking over Fort William from the North West Company. A lot of money was spent by Selkirk defending his name in court against his charges. Not long after his court battle, he died (April 8th, 1820). Ironically, the two companies (HBC) and (NWC) merged only a year after his death.
References: Wikipedia, Thomas Douglas 5th Earl of Selkirk
last modified November 14th, 2016
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Douglas,_5th_Earl_of_Selkirk
