The Rev. James Evans and the social antagonisms of the fur trade society, 1840-1846

Abstract

In 1839 the Hudson's Bay Company invited four Methodist missionaries, James Evans, William Mason, Robert T. Rundle and George Barnley, to educate the heathen in Rupert's Land. By 1848 only Mason remained, and in 1854 he defected to the Church Missionary Society. Evans stormed out of the West accused of most "unmethodistical and unclerical" intercourse with three Indian maidens. George Barnley left because of a quarrel with Chief Factor Miles over the use of the Company's mess for tea parties. Only Robert T. Rundle departed under more auspicious circumstances; he broke his arm. Yet even he was engaged in a continuing battle with Fort Edmonton's Chief Factor over the Cree translation of the Seventh Commandment.