Who was David Thompson?
David Thompson was born in London on April 30, 1770. His father died when he was two and his mother placed him in the Grey Coat Hospital, a school for disadvantaged children, when he was seven. He graduated from the mathematical school in 1784 and became an indentured servant with the Hudson Bay Company. He was assigned as a clerk to their Churchill Factory post on Hudson Bay. In December 1788, Thompson broke his leg along the North Saskatchewan River and spent two years recovering at Cumberland House. While there he met Hudson's Bay Company surveyor Philip Turnor who expanded Thompson's surveying skills.
1820 painting of Fort Ile-a-la-Crosse by Sir George Back
Thompson joined the Northwest Company (NWC) in 1797. David's travels took him to Ile-a-la-Crosse where he met Charlotte Small. Charlotte was Cree, the daughter of NWC fur trader Patrick Small and a Cree woman. She was 13 years old when they married in 1799. During his career with the NWC, he explored and mapped the entire length of the Columbia River. He traveled south to the Mandan villages in the Dakotas and north to Fort Chipewyan in northern Alberta. During this time he travelled over 56,000 miles and mapped 1.9 million sq. miles, about 1/5th of North America.
You cannot talk about David Thompson without talking about Charlotte Small. Charlotte traveled over 12,000 miles with David. She could speak English, French and Cree. Often when traveling with David, she had their three small children with her. An oft quote excerpt from Thompson's journal describes descending the Blaeberry River and states "The water descending in innumerable Rills, soon swelled our Brook to a Rivulet, with a Current foaming white, the Horses with Difficulty crossed & recrossed at every 2 or 300 yards, & the Men crossed by clinging to the Tails & Manes of the Horses, & yet ran no small danger of being swept away & drowned. What the journal did not say was that Charlotte made the same crossings with their three small children. Learn more about Charlotte here.
David and Charlotte retired to Terrebonne, north of Montreal in 1812. After retirement he was employed to survey the Canada/US border from Lake of the Woods to eastern Quebec as defined by the Treaty of Ghent (War of 1812). In 1815, David, Charlotte and family moved to Williamstown, Ontario. Later in life, he had financial problems and died a pauper in 1857 at the age of 86. Charlotte, his wife of 57 years died shortly after and they are both buried in Mount Royal Cemetery, Montreal.
David and Charlotte had thirteen children. A sixth-generation descendant, Lavern Thompson, participated in the Brigade as a member of Charlotte's Crew.