Edward Ermatinger (February 1797 – October 1876) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal ecosystem, boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals h ...

r, businessman and political figure.

Biography

He was born on the isle of

Elba Elba (, ; ) is a Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino on the Italian mainland, and the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. It is also part of the Arcipelago Toscano National Park, a ...

in 1797, as his father, Lawrence Edward Ermatinger, was a

commissary A commissary is a government official charged with oversight or an ecclesiastical official who exercises in special circumstances the jurisdiction of a bishop. In many countries, the term is used as an administrative or police title. It often c ...

officer in the British Army. His grandfather was the Swiss-born merchant, Lawrence Ermatinger (1736-1789).Dictionary of Canadian Biography
/ref> His mother, of Italian origin, died when he was an infant. He was educated in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and went to

York Factory York Factory was a settlement and Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) factory (trading post) on the southwestern shore of Hudson Bay in northeastern Manitoba, Canada, at the mouth of the Hayes River, approximately south-southeast of Churchill. York ...

in 1818 with his brother Francis as a clerk for the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

. He served with the company until 1828 in what is now

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

and the Columbia district. He visited England in 1828 and then returned to

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada () was a Province, part of The Canadas, British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the Province of Queb ...

the following year. He settled in St. Thomas, where he served as postmaster, reeve, owned a general store and was manager for the

Bank of Upper Canada The Bank of Upper Canada was established in 1821 under a charter granted by the legislature of Upper Canada in 1819 to a group of Kingston merchants. The charter was appropriated by the more influential Executive Councillors to the Lt. Governor, t ...

, then the Commercial Bank and finally the

Bank of Montreal The Bank of Montreal (, ), abbreviated as BMO (pronounced ), is a Canadian multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company. The bank was founded in Montreal, Quebec, in 1817 as Montreal Bank, making it Canada ...

. He was elected to the

Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada The Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada was the lower house of the Parliament of the Province of Canada. The Province of Canada consisted of the former province of Lower Canada, then known as Canada East (now Quebec), and Upper Canada ...

for

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

in 1844 as a Conservative. He was editor and owner of the ''St. Thomas Standard''. In 1851, he helped found the Bank of the County of Elgin. Ermatinger published ''The Hudson’s Bay territories; a series of letters on this important question'' in 1858 and an autobiography of Colonel

Talbot Talbot is a dormant automobile marque introduced in 1902 by British-French company Clément-Talbot. The founders, Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 20th Earl of Shrewsbury and Adolphe Clément-Bayard, reduced their financial interests in their Clément ...

in 1859. He was a member of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

, a

Freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

and a fervent anti-

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. Ermatinger died at St. Thomas in 1876. His uncle, Charles Oakes Ermatinger (1776-1833), was also a member of the Hudson's Bay Company. His son Charles Oaks served in the

Legislative Assembly of Ontario The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA; ) is the legislative chamber of the Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). Bills passed by the Legislative Assembly are given royal as ...

References

* Munnick, Harriet D. "Edward and Francis Ermatinger", featured in "Trappers of the Far West",

Leroy R. Hafen LeRoy Reuben Hafen (December 8, 1893 – March 8, 1985) was a historian of the American West and a Latter-day Saint. For many years he was a professor of history at Brigham Young University (BYU). Biography He was born on December 8, 1893, in B ...

, editor. 1972, Arthur H. Clark Company, reprint University of Nebraska Press, October 1983.

Bibliography

* Ermatinger, Edward. ''Life of Colonel Talbot, and the Talbot Settlement Its Rise and Progress, with Sketches of the Public Characters, and Career of Some of the Most Conspicuous Men in Upper Canada, Who Were Either Friends or Acquaintances of the Subjects of These Memoirs''. St. Thomas, Ont.?: s.n, 1982. * Ermatinger, Edward. ''The Hudson's Bay Territories A Series of Letters on This Important Question''. Toronto?: s.n.], 1858. * Ermatinger, Edward, C. O. Ermatinger, and James White. ''Edward Ermatinger's York Factory Express Journal, Being a Record of Journeys Made between Fort Vancouver and Hudson Bay in the Years 1827-1828''. 1912.

External links

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''''Life of Colonel Talbot and the Talbot settlement'', E. Ermatinger
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ermatinger, Edward 1797 births 1876 deaths People from the Province of Livorno Canadian fur traders Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada from Canada West Mayors of St. Thomas, Ontario Canadian people of Swiss descent People from Rupert's Land 19th-century mayors of places in Ontario

Biography

References

Bibliography

Further reading

External links