Fort Victoria’s Frenchtown

Flintlock Guns

The fact that Fort Victoria had a Frenchtown of sorts was a surprise to me — even more so when I realized that I had resided on this property.

True, the heading for this blogpost is a little misleading, I admit — but I did discover the beginning of a community which could easily have become Fort Victoria’s Frenchtown. And what is a Frenchtown? Obviously, it is a place where the French and Metis descendants of the HBC’s fur trade west of the Rocky Mountains settled in communities that contained citizens that were like themselves. There are Frenchtowns outside Fort Walla Walla, and near Fort Colvile. The Willamette could, perhaps, be considered a Frenchtown (at least until the American settlers moved in.) But there are few to no Frenchtowns in British Columbia — mostly because, for the most part, the Canadiens moved south across the 49th parallel, to settle and claim land that that was free to them because of the Washington Territory’s Land Claim Act. Yes, Washington Territory had a Donation Land Claim act before the United States enacted their own Donation Land Claim Act. If they settled outside Fort Victoria, creating their own Frenchtown, they would have had to purchase land at one pound per acre. It doesn’t sound like much, perhaps. But twenty acres was twenty pounds. Who could afford that after working in the HBC’s fur trade for so many years?

So, where is this so-called Fort Victoria’s Frenchtown? And even more interesting: why was this unique and interesting community established?

Where: “Colquitz Creek, near its junction with Swan Creek. It was called Potage Inlet.” This, I presume, is a typo, and they mean “Portage Inlet.” If you live in Victoria, BC, the region we are talking about is the country near the junction of Carey Road and Mackenzie: Marigold Road, Columbine Way, Glanford Park, Swan Creek Park, Colquitz River Park, Cuthbert Holmes Park, Grange Road, and Burnside Road. I lived right there, in the middle of this former community, and I never knew it existed — as a matter of fact there was a creek just down the road that must have been another part of the Colquitz — or maybe it was even Swan Creek. I walked the banks of those creeks: well, Colquitz River at least. 

The Colquitz River flows south from its junction with Swan Creek (somewhere just south of Grange Road and the place where Mackenzie Street used to be before its new extension over the bridge that runs over the gully east of Burnside Road, and joins the Island Highway at Admirals Road. When you are passing over that bridge, look down: that’s where the two creeks are. Both of them must be there!

As you see, I am going to have to do some exploring, because its been a long time since I’ve walked those creeks. Colquitz River runs south from its junction with Swan Creek, following Burnside Road south almost to Tillicum Road. Then it turns north and runs through modern Cuthbert Holmes Park. It crosses Admirals Road west of the park, through Colquitz Park (on the north side of Admirals Road) and finally flows into Portage Inlet, through a swamp, I understand. This is confusing, I know. I am confusing myself! I am using modern maps to locate the modern-day parks, and an old map from Saanich Archives to locate the junction of the old streams now buried or hidden by the many roads and streets that run through this largish area. 

So, this community, a community that was as close to a Frenchtown as Fort Victoria’s Frenchtown is going to be, doesn’t exist anymore. No one seems to know anything about it. I can find little mention of it: it seems to be forgotten. But remember, I am no expert on this community: I have only just discovered it for myself — quite by accident. But let’s tell you what I know so far. And let’s look at the people who lived there. 

From the article written by B.A. McKelvie and Willard E. Ireland, and published in the BC Historical Quarterly, Vol. XX, No. 3 and 4, July-October 1956 — “The Victoria Voltigeurs.” (You can download this article at https://hallmarkheritagesociety.ca/the-victoria-voltigeurs/ )

The Victoria Voltigeurs was a small militia made up of local residents, formed to protect the Colony of Vancouver’s Island from the Americans to the south, and also from the warlike First Nations that lived up the coast, who often visited the fort. But even the local First Nations could prove dangerous. Governor Richard Blanshard, the first Governor of the Colony of Vancouver’s Island, pursued the matter of the defenceless state of the colony. “I would beg to press on your Lordship’s consideration,” Blanshard wrote to the Secretary of State for the Colony (Earl Grey), in August 1850, “the necessity of protecting this Colony by a garrison of regular troops, in preference to a body of pensioners, for as the principal service that they would be called on to perform would be to repress and over-awe the natives…” He wanted two troops of Marines sent to Fort Rupert, on Vancouver’s Island, to punish the local First Nations for the murder of three deserters from the HBC ship Norman Morrison. The Secretary of State refused to send Marines, or any troops, and told Blanshard it was not his job to “undertake to protect, or attempt to punish injuries committed upon British subjects who voluntarily expose themselves to the violence or treachery of the Natives Tribes at a distance from the Settlements.”

James Douglas, the Chief Factor then in charge at Fort Victoria, wrote to Governor George Simpson about Governor Blanshard’s plans, saying:

True it is we differ in opinion as to public matters — as for example he is anxious to have a miltary force stationed on the Island — which is unquestionably a proper measure, but as an agent of the Company who would have to maintain that force, I have endeavoured to show that there was no positive necessity for it.

So, this is what James Douglas did. He created, in a sense, Fort Victoria’s Frenchtown. He “took the liberty of recommending the formation of a rural police to be effected by granting a certain number of 20 acre lots on the Fur Trade Reserve to the Company’s retiring servants, a measure which I still hope the Committee may sanction as it will meet the demand for protection at very small expense.” The Victoria Voltigeurs was formed to act as military police, and their numbers were recruited from the Métis and Iroquois, “who had crossed this country as boatmen and canoe men in the service of the fur company and who upon retirement had been settled in a village located on the Colquitz River near its entrance into Portage Inlet.”

So, a Metis community on Vancouver’s Island? At first it appears we have two different locations for this community, but both are on the Colquitz River. With twenty acre lots available, some men would have taken land near the mouth of the Colquitz, while others would have claimed a home upstream, and probably all the way up to the junction of Swan Creek. I’ll see what I can discover looking at old maps in the archives, but it’s pretty interesting that this community did exist, and that it has been so totally forgotten.

Or at least as far as I know, it has been forgotten.

So here are some of the men James Douglas lists as having been granted land as the result of serving as members of the rural police force called the Victoria Voltigeurs. Some men’s records are missing: so if you know your family member was a member of the Victoria Voltigeurs, let me know, please!

The first three members to join were:

Nicholas Auger, Canadien or Métis from Quebec, born 1806, joined the HBC around 1829 and spent the majority of his time at Fort Simpson, where he was part of the building crew for the second site (working under my g.g.grandfather, James Birnie, and working with my g.grandfather A.C. Anderson). He retired in 1854, died in August 1885, and is buried in Victoria. Bruce Watson also says in his biography that “the HBC purchased land for him in the Victoria District.”

Jean-Baptiste Jollibois was a French Canadian born in Quebec about 1796, and he died in Victoria October 1861. He joined the NWC in 1812 and went on to become a lifetime employee in the fur trade. Sometime between 1821 he crossed the Rockies from Ile-a-la-Crosse, and he travelled out and in with the York Factory Express for several years. After working for twenty eight years he retired in September 1851 and moved to Fort Victoria, where he had a farm. “In 1859 [typo? 1851?], the Company purchased for Jollibois twenty acres in the Victoria district, and in 1860 he is listed as being at Baton, Burnside.” There you go: Burnside Road it is! Sadly, in October 1861, he caught a ride from a horse and wagon. The horses were unruly, and as he was getting on he fell, landing in the path of a wheel that ran over his chest. He died of his injury and is buried in Victoria. Poor man!

John Lemon. Well, I have nothing on him at the moment. I presume he is not the John Lemon who worked on the ships until about 1836, and then disappeared.   

Timothy Blayan. Well, he must be Timothy Blanyan (Timothee Blogan, Bloyan, Blogeau) who worked at Fort Victoria in 1852-1853, before going to New Caledonia. He was at Fort Simpson to 1855, but came south for medical advice. He also appears to have been at Fort Rupert, 1854-1858.  

Basile (or Baptiste) Bottineau, (Sargent ). Born in Red River district, 1819. Joined the HBC in 1839 and spent the next thirteen years at various coastal forts and on the steamship Beaver. And, in looking him up I discovered that there was a plot against the gentleman in charge of Fort Stikine (which I knew about), and he was one of the men who conspired to murder Donald Manson, Charles Dodd, and George Blenkinsop in 1844! (So, now I have the answer to the question: a plot to do what?) He seemed to work at Fort Victoria until 1852, and his account showed movement until 1854. 

George Waccan Bouche, son of Jean Baptiste Boucher and Nancy McDougal. He worked in the New Caledonia district but moved south in 1854, and by 1864 farmed on San Juan Island. He was not there in 1871.

Joseph Charbonneau. Joseph Charbonneau was a Saulteaux or mixed-descent man who joined the HBC’s fur trade in 1841, and spent the next fourteen years on the steamer Beaver or at coastal forts. I thought he had died at Fort Victoria, but here he is: he recovered from his illness and retired around 1854. When he died in 1856, his age was listed as 26, although he was probably closer to 36.

William Abraham Hutson [Houston] arrived in the Tory in 1852 and was a labourer at Fort Victoria until he managed to pay off his expenses for the ship journey west. He carried on his transactions with the company until about 1857, and for a while valeted for James Douglas. By 1873 he was livng on Salt Spring island. He died in Tacoma in 1905.

Tapisse Montigny. I have no one of that name, but this might be Narcisse Montigny, a French Canadian who born in Quebec, 1816. By 1833 he was at Fort Vancouver. In 1843 he was in New Caledonia, and in 1845 at Thompson’s River. He seems to have gone to the California gold fields in 1849, and then might have gone to Nanaimo around 1855, for his name appeared in the 1855-1857 accounts at that time. However, this fellow went to Fort Hope and was not heard of since, so I might not be right. 

Louis Montret. Louis was probably Metis, and he was probably born at Red River. He was first of all a middleman and boute in the Athabasca River and at Fort Simpson, on the Mackenzie, 1839-1840. Then he came to the coast, and spent most of his time at Fort Simpson (on the coast). He was discharged from Fort Rupert in December 1850, but appeared on the Fort Victoria books in 1853 and 1854.

James Newbird, or James Newberd, was probably Metis. He was an apprentice labourer at the Kamloops post in 1843-1844, and then went to Fort Vancouver where he remained until 1848. By 1849 he was back at Kamloops. His contract ended in 1849, and James Douglas said he was a “worthless fellow not to be rehired.” Nevertheless, he worked for the surveyor Joseph Pemberton, and by March 1853 Douglas found him valuable and would not let him go. He went to Fort Colvile for a short time, but returned to Fort Victoria until 1856, when he was murdered at the Albert Head Saw Mill by a Stikine First Nations man. Albert Head Saw Mill? This is the first time I have heard of this. There are sawmills in Esquimalt harbour — but at Albert Head? (Albert Head is on Duke Road, near Witty’s lagoon. There was a saw mill there? Something else for me to check out.)

Francois Satakarata (Rabesca), was an Iroquois man. He was an apprentice at Fort Victoria in 1845, when he was probably about fifteen years old. In 1851 or 1852, after working at Fort Victoria and on the Beaver, he began work at Nanaimo, where he was an axeman. He got into so many fights that he developed a very disfigured face. He must have returned to Fort Victoria where he got land and served in the Victoria Voltigeurs. His father died in 1851 and Louis spent his money, and he probably lived on his father’s property on the Colquitz River, until he met his death by drowning in 1854 or thereabouts. 

(Francois’s father was also at Fort Victoria. He was Louis Satakarata (Rabesca), a long time, trusted employee who was apprenticed in the Columbia district as early as 1814. Louis was one of the paddlers or voyageurs who travelled north to the Fraser River in 1824 under James McMillan — the story begins here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/fraser-river/  Louis was at Fort Langley from 1827 to 1845, and ended up at Fort Victoria in 1849, working in the sales shop until 1852. He died on September 1, 1852.)

Pierre Versailles. He is easy to locate. Pierre was a Metis man, serving as a middleman at Fort Victoria in 1852-1853, before spending some time at Fort Simpson up the coast. He eventually ended up back in the Victoria region, where he died in 1860, and is buried here. 

Thomas Quontany (or Quamtany), interpreter (earned $1.50 a day). I have no information on this man, unfortunately. He sounds like he is a Kanaka [Hawaiian], but would a Hawaiian have such an important job? Until I have further information, I am stuck. [Lots of information in comments.]

Celeste Auger. Born at Fort Simpson, ca 1837, and as an eighteen year old began to work for the company. In 1860 he dropped out of sight for four years, and returned to work for another year in 1864. So Nicolas Auger, above, is his father. 

Louis Maurice. I have no information on Louis Maurice, but there is a Joseph Maurice listed, who is probably not the same person as he was “killed in a drunken squabble” at Fort Victoria in 1853.  

William J. Macdonald (Captain). From the article itself: “William John Macdonald, born in the Isle of Skye in 1829, came to Vancouver Island in the service of the HBC in 1851, and became prominent in the commercial and political life of the Colony…In his reminiscences, printed under the title A Pioneer, 1851, published in Victoria bout 1914, for 1856 he wrote: “In addition to office duty I had to train and organize a body of 50 armed men to guard the Coast from the depredations of the Northern Indians, who used to land on their way home and shoot cattle,” and for 1858, along with other duties, he listed “Captain of Militia.”

Lieutenant Henry McNeill was, as you can guess, son of Captain William Henry McNeill of Fort Simpson, and his wife Matilda. Henry McNeill was a clerk at Fort Simpson, 1853-1855. However, he did not get along with his father and “slept outside the fort.” He refused to do his duty in the Indian shop, and set out with some Indigenous men for a cold journey to Fort Victoria. In 1861 he was sent to explore Bute Inlet and to find a way across the Chilcoton to the gold fields in the Cariboo. The group unfortunately lost their canoe and have to be rescued by the Chilcotins. By 1866 he was working for the Collins Overland Telegraph Company at Lake Tatla area. In 1871 he was living in Victoria with his father, and died the following year at thirty-eight years of age. 

Maxime Lavoie was a French Canadian who joined in Quebec and by 1840 worked at Fort Vancouver. He worked in a number of coastal posts, in fact: in Fort Taku [Fort Durham], Fort Stikine, Fort Rupert, and finally as woodcutter for the Beaver, and labourer at Fort Langley. Bruce Watson says he worked sporadically for the HBC after that time, and has no information on where he was. The “L. Lavoie,” below, does not seem to be one of his children.

L. Lavoie. I have no information on this person at this time. 

Leon Morel. Well, we should know who he is — he worked for the HBC and retired from the company in 1851. On January 17, 1853, he purchased a town lot in Victoria. In 1856, he and Andre Balthasard constructed Fort Shepherd, on the Columbia River. Upon his return he became a member of the Victoria Voltigeurs from December 1857 to to March 1858, and may then have gone up the Fraser River to mine for gold. He may have been the Morel who was shot in the groin at Yale, and was nursed back to health in Victoria. In the early 1870s, Morel worked as a labourer and carpenter in Victoria. He died here in September 1877, and was buried in Ross Bay Cemetery. 

D. Bouche. I don’t know who this is. I do not think it is a relative of the above “George Waccan Bouche.” 

Tom Keave was probably a Sandwich Islander. He worked in the Snake District, 1844-1845, and he deserted from the brigades at Fort Langley, probably intending to go to the California gold fields. He was at Fort Victoria by 1850-1851, and in 1857-1858 he served as a member of the Victoria Voltigeurs. His records disappear about 1860.

“Balan” is actually Balau, a Hawaiian who worked at Fort Vancouver in 1845, but spent the rest of his time in New Caledonia and at Fort Rupert (1850-1854.) “Balau joined the HBC in Oahu on May 7, 1845 and worked as a labourer at various posts until 1854 when he joined the militia group, the Victoria Voltigeurs. He was last recorded there in 1858.”

Tamaree. There is a George Tamoree, and a Joe Tamoree, in Bruce Watson’s Lives Lived, and neither of them appear to be this man. However, from the article itself, “Tamaree or Tamarcee is named by [John Sebastian] Helmcken as one of the seven Kanaka Indians, whose term of service [with the HBC] has expired.”

Pakee. There are two Pakee’s, both of them from the Sandwich Islands [Hawaii]. The first returned to the Sandwich Islands in 1836, so it is the second that we are interested in. He was born in the Sandwich Islands in 1819, and was middleman at Fort Vancouver, 1840, a member of the Snake Party 1842, at Fort Nez Perces to 1845. He worked on the ships for a while, and then ended up at Fort Victoria in 1851-1852. He was woodcutter aboard the Beaver, 1852-1853. “In 1853 he joined the colonial militia, the Voltigeurs, and stayed with this force until it was disbanded in 1858, when he took employment at the HBC San Jaun Island sheep farm.”

So, how much money did this group of defenders cost the colony? Everyone was paid $1.00 a day when on active duty, except for the Sargent (sometimes called the Constable), and the Interpreter, who earned $1.50 a day. There were, of course, other expenses. The men were provided with uniforms. According to this article, they were a proud looking lot. “Each man had a tasseled blue cap, a white regatta shirt, and a blue “capot” or military overcoat, buckskin trousers, long worsted stockings, boots and mocassins as the occasion might require. A broad scarlet belt or sash was provided, to which was attached the powder-horn, and each man had a trade gun. To add glamour, yards of bright ribbon and tinsel hat-cord had been provided for attachment to any part of the uniform. All of which made for colour but with little consideration for camoflage.” All of this was for the Cowichan Valley expedition of 1853, an effort to punish the Cowichan First Nations for the death of the shepherd, Peter Brown, who had been murdered by two of their citizens at Christmas Hill. 

And an unimpressed Chief Factor John Work described one of the Victoria Voltigeurs to Dr. William F. Tolmie, who was probably still at Fort Nisqually:

The Governmental dignity assumed appears to me to have anything but a prepossessing impression on strangers altho’ everything is sacrificed to carry it out as far as possible. I told you before that an appropriation was made to embody a Militia force as it was called, of a Sergeant, Corporal and 8 men to protect the Island. A Captain was also to be appointed, but of all this imposing foce only four Men have yet been embodied, viz Charbona [Charbonneau], Newbird, Celeste Auger, & Louis Maurice. This evening on passing Government house I was surprised to see Charbonna on duty as Sentinal, with his cap & tassel hatband, sky blue Capot, red and and Moleskin trousers, but he had no gun, proably not being able to arm them with anything better than trading guns, horn & pounch, I can scarcely refrain at times from ridiculing openly such apery, and I don’t know if I do right in refraining from it.

When I learn more about this, I will put it here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/constable/

Copyright, Nancy Marguerite Anderson, 2025. All rights reserved.

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