Battle of Fort Albany (1693)

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The Battle of Fort Albany in 1693 was the successful recapture by English forces of the Hudson's Bay Company trading outpost at Fort Albany in the southern reaches of Hudson Bay. The fort, captured by a French expedition in 1686 and held by them in a battle the next year, was briefly defended by five [1] Frenchmen, who then abandoned the fort and its stockpile of furs to a four-ship English fleet commanded by James Knight.

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The Battle of Fort Albany was an attack by French colonial volunteers and their native allies against the Canadian Hudson's Bay Company outpost of Fort Albany in the southern reaches of Hudson Bay. About 70 Frenchmen and 30 Indians attacked the fort, which was under the command of John Fullartine. Fullartine repulsed the attack, killing eighteen men including the leaders. He lost two men to ambush on their way back to the fort shortly after the attack.

Henley House, the first inland post established by the Hudson's Bay Company, was located in what is now Kenora District, Ontario, Canada. It was strategically situated west of James Bay about 160 miles (257 km) up the east-flowing Albany River at the mouth of the Henley River, 8 miles (13 km) downstream of the confluence of the major north-flowing Kenogami River with the Albany. From the head of the Albany at Lake St. Joseph, a portage led west to Lac Seul from which the English River (Ontario) led to the Winnipeg River and westward. The Kenogami led south toward Wawa, Ontario, but that does not seem to have been a practical canoe route all the way to Lake Superior.

Pedlar is a term used in Canadian history to refer to English-speaking independent fur traders from Montreal who competed with the Hudson's Bay Company in western Canada from about 1770 to 1803. After 1779 they were mostly absorbed by the North West Company. The name was first used by the Hudson's Bay Company to refer to French coureurs des bois, who travelled inland to trade with the Indians in their villages and camps. This was in contrast to the HBC policy of building posts on Hudson Bay, to where the Indians would bring furs to trade with them.

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Fort Albany was a Hudson's Bay Company trading post established in 1679 near the site of the present day Fort Albany First Nation. The fort was one of the oldest and most important of the Hudson's Bay Company's posts. It was also involved in Anglo-French tensions leading to the Battle of Fort Albany in 1688.

References

  1. According to Arthur S Morton, "A History of Western Canada", page 115, there were 3 Frenchmen. They killed three English and then made their way overland to French Canada.

52°15′04″N81°30′04″W / 52.25111°N 81.50111°W / 52.25111; -81.50111