Date Published:
July 2005

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

Nicholas Garry

Garry, Nicholas (1782?-1856), deputy governor of the Hudson's Bay Company (1822-35), was born in England about 1782, the natural son of Nicholas Langley (d. 1783) and Isabella Garry, whose name he took. He was brought up by his uncle, Thomas Langley, who became a director of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1807; and he himself became a director in 1817. In 1821 he was selected to visit Canada to supervise the amalgamation of the Hudson's Bay Company with the North West Company; and the Diary of his journey has been printed in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada for 1900. From 1822 to 1835 he was deputy-governor of the Hudson's Bay Company; but in 1835 he became of unsound mind, and his affairs were administered by the master in chancery from about 1839 until his death at Claygate, Surrey, England, on December 24, 1856. Fort Garry and other places in western Canada were named after him.

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. III, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 396p., p. 10.