Henry Newsham Peers

Captain Henry Newsham Peers (1821 – 1864) was a Canadian fur trader, military officer and British Columbia pioneer. He became a clerk in the Montreal Department of the Hudson's Bay Company, eventually rising to the rank of chief trader. He also established Fort Hope in British Columbia, and served as Captain under Gov. Isaac Stevens during American Indian Wars of 1855-1856.

Early life

Henry Newsham Peers was born on March 17, 1821, at Lymington, England, to Captain H. Peers, son of Count Julianus Petrus de Linnée, member of a noble family from Brittany, France. He later sold the estate, having no direct male heir, for about £39,500 in 1810. He started his career in the Hudson's Bay Company with his brother Richard Augustus, who would become a fur trader and post manager. During his time in politics, he launched a petition to Oregon, asking the Congress of the United States to confirm properties, educational policies and navigational facilities related to the trade on the Columbia River. In the same year, he discovered a new trading route from Kamloops to the Coquihalla River, bypassing the custom duties of the Americans on goods normally shipped to Fort Vancouver.

Around 1858, Capt. Peers retired from the Hudson's Bay Company, and settled on his 205 acres farm. Around 1859, his father-in-law, chief trader James Murray Yale, provided him financing for a saw and grist mill, as he lived on a neighbouring property. Peers's aunt Augusta married Rev. Thomas Robinson, a Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford.