Born April 30, 1770,
London, England
Died February 10, 1857,
Montreal, Quebec

David Thompson was born on April 30, 1770, in London, England. He attended a charity school that apprenticed him at age 14 to the Hudson’s Bay Company, the largest fur-trading company in British North America, now Canada. In September 1784 Thompson arrived at the company’s post at Churchill on the coast of Hudson Bay in what is now the province of Manitoba.

Travels in Canada

During his first year with the Hudson’s Bay Company Thompson worked for Samuel Hearne, who had been the first European to travel overland to the Arctic Ocean. The next year Thompson was sent to another trading post, York Factory, which was about 150 miles to the south. He made the first of many such trips at the beginning of winter with two local guides. In 1786 he went on a trading expedition to...