Lord Selkirk: A Life

Canada has seen a lot of changes and improvements stretching over the last few centuries, and a lot of important people are responsible, including Lord Selkirk.

J.M. Bumstead’s scholarly look at Thomas Douglas’ life leading up to and including his position as the fifth Earl of Selkirk consists of a good body of information for those interested in his contribution to Canadian history. Bumstead’s work shows that he is a clearly educated man, perfectly capable of compiling an impressive body of research into a biography that expresses a great deal of knowledge.

Lord Selkirk: A Life covers Douglas’ life from the time he attended the University of Glasgow in 1739, to the vision of populating Canada, up until his merciful death at Pau in 1820. This biography highlights Selkirk’s main accomplishments, including the reconstruction of the Hudson’s Bay Company, the Red River Settlement and the settlement on Prince Edward Island.

Although this biography is chock full of extensive information, it often jumps sporadically from date to date, causing a lot of confusion about which events took place during which period of time, and which time periods are more important to pay attention to than others.

“Before he inherited the earldom from a grand-uncle in 1744, Dunbar Hamilton Douglas had in 1739 enrolled at the undergraduate college of the University of Glasgow. The college and the university were a late medieval establishment, founded in 1449, with a small enrolment in a city that had grown from a population of 12,000 in 1708, to over 18,000 in 1743.”

Passages like that are found throughout the biography, causing a strain to follow the rapidly jumping time periods, distracting from the more important information being provided. More of a chronological collection would be easier for the average reader to follow.

If you’re looking for a more simplistic overview of Lord Selkirk’s history, this book may not be the best way to go. For university history students, though, Lord Selkirk: A Life is an excellent read.

Published in Volume 63, Number 21 of The Uniter (February 26, 2009)

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