Date Published:
March 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Matthew Cocking

Cocking, Matthew (d. 1799), fur-trader, was engaged by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1765 as a "writer" at York Factory, and in 1770 was appointed second-in-command at York Factory. He was sent inland in 1772 and was one of the first of the Hudson 's Bay Company's servants to come into touch with the " Canada pedlars". From 1774 to 1781 he was master at Severn House; and later he became master at York Factory. He died in 1799. An incomplete version of the journal of his expedition into the interior in 1772-3 has been published by L. J. Burpee, under the title An Adventurer from Hudson bay (Trans. Roy . Soc. Can., 1908).

Source : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., p. 96.