Date Published:
March 2005

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

Ross Cox

Cox, Ross (1793-1853), author, was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1793, the son of Samuel Cox, of the Ordnance Office, and his wife Margaret Thorpe. He emigrated to America about 1811, and took service as a clerk in J. J. Astor's American Fur Company. He reached Astoria in the spring of 1812 and was present at the surrender of Astoria to the North West Company, in 1813. He then took service as a clerk with the North West Company; but he retired from the fur-trade in 1817, returning to Ireland by the overland route from the Columbia to Montreal. His Adventures on the Columbia river (London, 1831; 2nd ed., 1832; New York, 1832) is one of the most important documents relating to the later history of the North West Company. On his return to Dublin, he became the Irish correspondent of the London Morning Herald and a clerk in the Dublin police office. He died in Dublin in 1853. In 1819 he married Hannah Cumming, and by her had a large family.

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., p. 143.