DCB/DBC Mobile beta
+

As part of the funding agreement between the Dictionary of Canadian Biography and the Canadian Museum of History, we invite readers to take part in a short survey.

I’ll take the survey now.

Remind me later.

Don’t show me this message again.

I have already taken the questionnaire

DCB/DBC News

New Biographies

Minor Corrections

Biography of the Day

ROBINSON, ELIZA ARDEN – Volume XIII (1901-1910)

d. in Victoria 19 March 1906

Confederation

Responsible Government

Sir John A. Macdonald

From the Red River Settlement to Manitoba (1812–70)

Sir Wilfrid Laurier

Sir George-Étienne Cartier

Sports

The Fenians

Women in the DCB/DBC

The Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences of 1864

Introductory Essays of the DCB/DBC

The Acadians

For Educators

The War of 1812 

Canada’s Wartime Prime Ministers

The First World War

WAGGONER, ROWLAND, HBC employee; d. 1740.

Waggoner, an illiterate labourer, came to York Fort with Governor James Knight in 1714. In 1717 he was a member of the advance party with William Stuart for the founding of Churchill. He returned to York Fort in 1718. In 1721 he accompanied John Scroggs in the Whalebone sloop to winter at Churchill. However it is unlikely that Waggoner continued on the expedition from Churchill in the following year as the York Fort account book shows that he made heavy expenditures in 1721–22. He probably returned to England in 1722 or 1723. In 1724 Waggoner was at Albany, and except for the 1735–36 season which he spent in England he stayed there until his death in 1740. Though illiterate, Waggoner was one of those jacks of all trades so indispensable in the north. He worked as a sawyer, was handy with the broadaxe, and could do a cooper’s work. He could hunt, trap, and shoot as well as an Indian; in 1729 he shot a French spy lurking around the factory. In addition to his versatility as a workman, the Albany journals show him possessed of a warm and hearty personality. Much of his wages went for brandy and tobacco; in a ten-year period at Albany he averaged 13.6 gallons of brandy yearly, and it has been suggested that his death was hastened by his hard drinking.

Because of his usefulness his wages were advanced steadily. In 1737 he was put on the council; in 1739 he succeeded Thomas Bird as chief, a position he held until his death on 23 April 1740. The London committee must have been satisfied with his performance for in 1740 he was appointed chief for three years, but he died before the orders reached Albany.

G. E. Thorman

HBC Arch. A.6/4 (letters outward, 20 May 1724); A.6/5 (letters outward, 21 May 1729, 15 May 1730, 11 May 1732, 10 May 1733, 3 March 1734,.2 May 1735, 20 May 1737); A.6/6 (letters outward, 18 May 1738, 11 May 1739, 1 May 1740, 23 April 1741); B.3/a/15–23, 25, 27–29 (Albany journals between 1726 and 1740); B.3/d/33–43, 45–46, 48 (Albany account books between 1724 and 1740); B.42/d/1 (Churchill account books, 1717–18); B.239/a/1, 3 (York journals between 1714 and 1717); B.239/d/7–12 (York account books, 1714-22). HBRS, XXV (Davies and Johnson).

General Bibliography

Cite This Article

G. E. Thorman, “WAGGONER, ROWLAND,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 2, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed March 19, 2024, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/waggoner_rowland_2E.html.

The citation above shows the format for footnotes and endnotes according to the Chicago manual of style (16th edition). Information to be used in other citation formats:


Permalink:   http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/waggoner_rowland_2E.html
Author of Article:   G. E. Thorman
Title of Article:   WAGGONER, ROWLAND
Publication Name:   Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 2
Publisher:   University of Toronto/Université Laval
Year of publication:   1969
Year of revision:   1982
Access Date:   March 19, 2024