William Bevan ( fl. 1723–37) was an employee of 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 ...

and came to the Fort Albany on

James Bay James Bay (french: Baie James; cr, ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, Wînipekw, dirty water) is a large body of water located on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. Both bodies of water extend from the Arctic Ocean, of which James Bay is the southernmost pa ...

in 1723 from

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

as mate of the ''Beaver'' sloop. He became Master there four years later, succeeding George Gunn in the third-highest-ranking position at the trading post. Bevan and a party explored the Moose River area and the site of the older Moose Fort trading post which Pierre de Troyes had captured from the HBC in 1686, which the English had burned to the ground in 1696. A new Moose Fort was built in 1730 and Bevan became Chief Factor and Commander there in 1732. A careless kitchen fire caused the fort to burn to the ground on December 26, 1735, resulting in the death of an Indigenous girl in the fire, and the death of three HBC men afterwards from exposure and hunger. Despite his contract with the HBC being renewed in 1736, Beven was recalled to England in 1737, once news of the fire reached London. He was succeeded as Chief Factor of Moose District by Richard Staunton.

References

External links

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
Explorers of Canada Hudson's Bay Company people 18th-century Canadian people Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown {{Canada-explorer-stub