John Shepherd (1792–1859) was chairman of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

in 1844, 1850 and 1851. He was Governor 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 ...

from 1856 to 1858.

Personal life

He died on 12 January 1859 at Mansfield St. London.

Early career

He served as a fourth officer in the Indian marine from 1813–1814, and was commander of the ''Duke of York'' from 1821 - 1822.

Later career

The 1850s were a time when the Canadian Government were trying to break the monopoly which the Hudson's Bay Company held over trade in the Red River and Saskatchewan Districts. This coincided with Shepherd's term in office as Governor. Shepherd's previous experience as Chairman of the

helped in devising a strategy to negotiate the best terms possible for the Hudson's Bay Company. John Shepherd was the only person ever to have been appointed both the Chairman of the East India Company and Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. The former at that time had trading influence over one fifth of the world's population and governed most of the subcontinent of India, whilst the latter owned 3,000,000 square miles of North America and was the largest land owner in the world. No other person has ever, in a commercial capacity, governed or been ultimately directly responsible for, so much of the world or such a large proportion of the world's population as John Shepherd was as a result of his appointments to the most senior positions in these two companies. Shepherd was Deputy Master of the Corporation of

Trinity House "Three In One" , formation = , founding_location = Deptford, London, England , status = Royal Charter corporation and registered charity , purpose = Maintenance of lighthouses, buoys and beacons , he ...

References

1792 births 1859 deaths Directors of the British East India Company British East India Company people Governors of the Hudson's Bay Company Hudson's Bay Company people {{UK-bio-stub