Joseph Despard Pemberton (July 23, 1821 – November 11, 1893) was a surveyor for the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...

Surveyor General A surveyor general is an official responsible for government surveying in a specific country or territory. Historically, this would often have been a military appointment, but it is now more likely to be a civilian post. The following surveyor ge ...

for the

Colony of Vancouver Island The Colony of Vancouver Island, officially known as the Island of Vancouver and its Dependencies, was a Crown colony of British North America from 1849 to 1866, after which it was united with the mainland to form the Colony of British Columbia ...

, a pre-Confederation politician, a businessman and a farmer. He was born in 1821 in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

, Ireland and died in 1893 in Oak Bay, British Columbia. Joseph Pemberton laid out Victoria's town site, southern

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest by ...

and townsites along the

Fraser River The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annual ...

. He married Teresa Jane Grautoff and they are the parents of

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

painter Sophie Pemberton. The town of Pemberton was named after him.

Career

After some study and teaching experience in engineering and surveying in his native Ireland and employment in the booming railway industry there, Pemberton took employment with the

as the surveyor and engineer of the

Colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state' ...

which, at the time, was the main settlement area of present

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...

. He arrived at Fort Victoria June 25, 1851. During the first three-year term of his contract, he laid out the land survey of the Victoria district including the urban and rural areas. His role included development of the settlement by setting sales policy for the lands in addition to survey layout. After completing his work for the Victoria district, he surveyed the coastline of Vancouver Island between Victoria and Nanaimo. Additional duties included supervision of road and bridge construction. He designed the first school and the church in the colony. In 1857 as Surveyor-General for the

, Pemberton successfully explored from Cowichan Bay to Nitinat returning by boat down the coast from the Alberni Inlet.Elms, p 21-22 In 1858 and 1859, he laid out the town sites of Fort Yale, Fort Hope, Port Douglas and Derby (

Fort Langley Fort Langley is a village community in Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada. It has a population of approximately 3,400 people. It is the home of Fort Langley National Historic Site, a former fur trade post of the Hudson's Bay Company ...

) (the proposed capital for the newly created Colony of British Columbia) as the

Fraser Canyon Gold Rush The Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, (also Fraser Gold Rush and Fraser River Gold Rush) began in 1858 after gold was discovered on the Thompson River in British Columbia at its confluence with the Nicoamen River a few miles upstream from the Thompson's ...

in 1858 caused the arrival of settlers in what became the Colony of British Columbia. In 1859 he left the HBC and was appointed

of the

, a post he held until October 1864. He supervised the development of agricultural land from

Salt Spring Island Salt Spring Island or Saltspring Island is one of the Gulf Islands in the Strait of Georgia between mainland British Columbia, Canada, and Vancouver Island. The island was initially inhabited by various Salishan peoples before being settled ...

to Comox. He framed the pre-emption law of 1860 which permitted settlers to occupy unsurveyed land up to . This law was a departure from the policy he had earlier been required to follow. Pemberton, who owned the Gonzales estate, a large farm near Victoria, came to be regarded as part of the HBC’s landowning élite, and was dubbed one of the "family-company compact" by reformer

Amor De Cosmos Amor De Cosmos (born William Alexander Smith; August 20, 1825 – July 4, 1897) was a Canadian journalist, publisher and politician. He served as the second premier of British Columbia. Early life Amor De Cosmos was born William Alexander Smith ...

. He had been involved in politics from his arrival at the Colony. He was a member of the legislative assembly of the colony from its first election August 4, 1856, until December 1859. He was a member of the legislative council and the executive council of Vancouver Island from 1864 for Victoria District. He retired from politics in 1868. From his retirement he carried on his farm and worked as a justice of the peace. In 1887 he and his son Frederick Bernard Pemberton formed J.D. Pemberton and Son, Surveyors, Civil Engineers and Financial Agents, a business which formed the root of a continuing real estate company in Victoria and an investment company in Vancouver. He also imported and bred horses. Pemberton is interred in

Ross Bay Cemetery Ross Bay Cemetery is located at 1516 Fairfield Road in Victoria, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island, Canada. Many historical figures from the early days of the province and colony of British Columbia are buried at Ross Bay. History The ceme ...

in the neighbourhood of Fairfield, in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. Th ...

Sources

External links

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''

BC Archives

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pemberton, Joseph Despard 1821 births 1893 deaths

Joseph Despard Pemberton Joseph Despard Pemberton (July 23, 1821 – November 11, 1893) was a surveyor for the Hudson's Bay Company, Surveyor General for the Colony of Vancouver Island, a pre-Confederation politician, a businessman and a farmer. He was born in 1821 i ...

Politicians from Dublin (city) Irish emigrants to pre-Confederation British Columbia Hudson's Bay Company people Canadian surveyors Members of the Legislative Assembly of Vancouver Island