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183:. No other boys from Edmonton ever appear to have been taken into the Company's service. Pruden's apprenticeship with the HBC was purchased for him through the good auspices of his (and Sir James Winter Lake's) local parish. Noted family historian Hal Pruden wrote: "The HBC took some of its eventual ships' captains from the Bluecoats charity school (Christ's Hospital) in London. (
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the parish would be about $ 3,000 US dollars today." Pruden appears to have been an impoverished orphan at the date of his entry as an employee of the
Company, for his father, Peter Pruden, died in 1790 and his mother, Margaret Smith Fraser Pruden, passed in 1791 some short months after her husband Peter.
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was from the
Greycoats school.) As far as I can tell, there were very, very few boys recruited into the HBC as apprentice clerks out of the thousands of work houses (poor houses) that existed across England and is the only one I have come across recruited from Edmonton. The pound sterling paid by
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By his will, John Peter Pruden left several bequests to family members, including a bequest to Ann of a modest 250 English pounds and a further 30 pounds if she wished to return to
England. By September, 1869, Ann returned to England. She died at Ore, near Hastings in Sussex, England in 1887.
290:, the Associate Governor of Rupertsland offered him an appointment as a magistrate. However by then 73 years old, Pruden declined, citing old age and ill health. However Pruden went on to live more than a decade longer in his retirement at Red River.
283:, Manitoba, Canada). He was appointed to the Council of Assiniboia in 1839. In 1844, he became a member of the Board of Public Works, being the executive committee of the Council of Assiniboia. He served on the quarterly court as part of his office and
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By 1832, John Peter Pruden had served 41 years with the HBC. By then he was chief factor (fort manager and boss). No Chief Factor serving at that time had more service years, and only three of the Chief
Traders then serving went on to accumulate more.
171:. It is not known exactly how 13-year-old Pruden came to join the Hudson's Bay Company in 1791. It appears to be atypical amongst HBC "servants". It may have been through a possible link to
308:(or mixed-blood) descendants frequently intermarried with children of other prominent Métis families. Pruden was also instrumental in furthering the fur trading career of his half-nephew,
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His second wife, British schoolteacher Ann
Armstrong, whom he married at Red River on 4 December 1839, was 49 years old at the time of their marriage. Their marriage was childless.
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A pioneer in every sense of the word, Pruden lived a long, full life and left behind, at his death in 1868, a large family of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. His
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by the
Company's ship, Seahorse III, as a 13-year-old apprentice. He spent four years at York Factory. Four years later Pruden was an escort to
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JPP's "country" wife of almost 30 years, "Patasegawisk", also known as "Nancy Pruden", (probably from the old site of Norway House, now called
312:, who also came to be in service to the Hudson's Bay Company and who had a long and illustrious relationship of his own with his HBC employer.
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405:"Alberta Formed, Alberta Transformed", Payne, Wetherell & Cavanagh, University of Alberta Press, 2005 at p. 126
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He died at Red River on 28 May 1868 after a lengthy illness, at the age of almost 90. He was laid to rest at
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Salt Lake City Family
History Library, Repository (2009) . (Sheet 09, Batch 9026881, Serial 00011)
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One year after receiving his promotion to Chief Factor, Pruden, aged 59, retired and moved to the
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Elizabeth, William, Charlotte, Peter, Maria, Cornelious, Arthur, James, John Peter, and
Caroline
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was originally suggested by Pruden as it was the home of both the deputy governor of the HBC
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Hargrave, Letitia MacTavish (May 8, 1969). Letters of
Letitia Hargrave (MacLeod), 218.
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was near Tanner's End, near the junction of the New and Salmon Rivers, in
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Mitchell, Elaine (1961). "A Red River Gossip," The Beaver, pp. 4–11
372:, Manitoba, Canada: Hudson's Bay Company Archives, 1999, archived from
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Morton, Arthur S. (1939). A HISTORY OF THE CANADIAN WEST TO 1870-1871
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319:), bore him many children. She predeceased him in August 1838.
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Pruden, Hal (1990). THE PRUDENS OF PEHONANIK: A FUR-TRADE FAMILY
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In 1798 Pruden was given the job of "writer" at Fort
Edmonton.
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John Peter Pruden's Work History with the Hudson's Bay Company
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Frederick William Howay: Builders of the West (Ryerson, 1929)
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in his famous but "sometimes erratic" 1832 Character Book.
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began in earnest in September 1791 when he arrived at
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Hudson's Bay Co. fur-trader; Councillor of Assiniboia
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The Beaver Hills Country: A History of Land and Life
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514:English emigrants to pre-Confederation Canada
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211:. In May 1796 Pruden moved to a post called
474:The Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
430:. Athabasca University Press. p. 55.
396:Hal Pruden, Facebook comment, May 22, 2014
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277:Red River Colony (or Selkirk Settlement)
163:Pruden was christened on 31 May 1778 at
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103:1. Patasegawisk, a.k.a. "Nancy"
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248:the next year. Upon arriving at
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424:MacDonald, Graham (2009).
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244:in 1799 and returned to
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219:located at present-day
336:Métis people (Canada)
232:Sir James Winter Lake
173:Sir James Winter Lake
123:Margaret Smith Fraser
310:John Edward Harriott
258:Rocky Mountain House
193:Hudson's Bay Company
142:Hudson's Bay Company
534:History of Edmonton
484:"The Pruden Family"
52:Edmonton, Middlesex
379:on 7 November 2018
158:Sir George Simpson
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437:978-1-897425-37-4
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177:"The Firs"
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154:Blackfoot
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256:and
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150:Cree
63:Died
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