Indigenous peoples have inhabited what is now Manitoba, Canada for thousands of years. In the early 17th century, British and French fur traders began arriving in the area and establishing settlements.

In 1611, Henry Hudson was one of the first Europeans to sail into what is now known as Hudson Bay, where he was abandoned by his crew. Thomas Button travelled this area in 1612 in an unsuccessful attempt to find and rescue Hudson. When the British ship Nonsuch sailed into Hudson Bay in 1668–1669, she became the first trading vessel to reach the area; that voyage led to the formation of the Hudson’s Bay Company, to which the British government gave absolute control of the entire Hudson Bay watershed. This watershed was named Rupert’s Land, after Prince Rupert, who helped to subsidize the Hudson’s Bay Company.

York Factory was founded in 1684 after the original fort of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Fort Nelson (built in 1682), was destroyed by rival French traders.

Rupert’s Land, which included all of present-day Manitoba, grew and evolved from 1673 until 1869 with significant settlements of Indigenous and Métis people in the Red River Colony.

As French explorers entered the area, a Montreal-based company, the North West Company, began trading with the local Indigenous people. Both the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company built fur-trading forts; the two companies competed in southern Manitoba, occasionally resulting in violence, until they merged in 1821.

A federation of colonies in British North America – New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Ontario – joined together to become the Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867.

In 1869, negotiations with the Government of Canada for the creation of the province of Manitoba commenced. During the negotiations, several factors led to an armed uprising of the Métis people against the Government of Canada, a conflict known as the Red River Rebellion.

My 4th Great Grandfather Thomas Favell was a part of the Red River Rebellion.

Rupert’s Land was ceded to Canada by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1869 and incorporated into the Northwest Territories; a lack of attention to Métis concerns caused Métis leader Louis Riel to establish a local provisional government which formed into the Convention of Forty and the subsequent elected Legislative Assembly of Assiniboia on 9 March 1870. This assembly subsequently sent three delegates to Ottawa to negotiate with the Canadian government.

The resolution of the conflict and further negotiations led to Manitoba becoming the fifth province to join Canadian Confederation, when the Parliament of Canada passed the Manitoba Act on July 15, 1870.

The name Manitoba possibly derives from either Cree manitou-wapow or Ojibwe manidoobaa, both meaning ‘straits of Manitou, the Great Spirit’. Alternatively, it may be from the Assiniboine minnetoba, meaning ‘Lake of the Prairie’ (the lake was known to French explorers as Lac des Prairies).

The name was chosen by Thomas Spence for the new republic he proposed for the area south of the lake. The Republic of Manitobah was a short-lived, unrecognized state founded in June 1867 by Thomas Spence at the town of Portage la Prairie. Spence and a group of local settlers formed a provisional government in January 1868, first calling it the Republic of Caledonia before changing the name later to the Republic of Manitobah. The following month, Spence and his group wrote to the British Colonial Office asking for the republic to be recognized as a political entity, but there was no reply.

By late spring 1868, the republic had been informed by the Colonial Office in London that its government had no power. Thomas Spence served in the council for Louis Riel’s provisional government, whose actions led to the formation of the Province of Manitoba within Canada on July 15, 1870.

Métis leader Louis Riel preferred the name over the proposed alternative of “Assiniboia”. It was accepted in Ottawa under the Manitoba Act, 1870

John Norquay played only a minor role in the events of Louis Riel‘s Red River Rebellion (1869–70), but decided to enter public life shortly thereafter. John Norquay (May 8, 1841 – July 5, 1889) was the fifth premier of Manitoba from 1878 to 1887. He was born near St. Andrews in what was then the Red River Colony, making him the first Premier of Manitoba to have been born in the region.

John Norquay adopted Annie Norquay – she is my 3rd Great Grandmother.

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Reference Links:

• Wikipedia
• https://www.redriverancestry.ca/NORQUAY-JOHN-1841.php
• https://indigenouspeoplesatlasofcanada.ca/article/fur-trade/