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Joseph Fortescue
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Fur trader.
Born at Dawlish, Devonshire, England in 1833, the eldest son of an English judge, he entered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1852. He was stationed at Moose Factory for about three years then, in 1855, he was sent to Upper Fort Garry and shortly after became accountant there for the District of Red River. A few years later he was appointed Northern Department Accountant at York Factory. While resident there, he married Sarah Jane Mason, eldest daughter of Rev. William Mason, on 14 September 1864. They had 11 children, including nurse Margaret Jane Fortescue (1878-1918).
He served successively as Chief Trader (1871-1872), Factor (1872-1879), and Chief Factor (1879-1884) in the York Factory District then, in 1885, he took charge of the English River District, with headquarters at Isle a la Crosse. In 1889 he was put in charge of the Moose Factory District. During this time he was a member of the Manitoba Historical Society. In 1882 he was elected a delegue stationaire de l'Institution Ethnographique de Paris. He wrote a paper on the ethnography of Hudson Bay, for which he won a medal in 1890.
He retired to Kingston, Ontario in 1892 where he died on 15 June 1899.
1899 Annual Report, Manitoba Historical Society.
Ontario death registration, Ancestry.
Joseph Fortescue, HBC Biographical Sheets.
Nursing Sister Margaret Jane Fortescue, Canadian Virtual War Memorial.
We thank Kenneth Ingram for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 5 April 2025
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