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LADY AMELIA DOUGLAS (Cecilia Helmcken's mother) 1812-1890 "..a shy, sweet, and lovable girl, 'modest as the wood violet', and having in addition to personal beauty the blood of native heroes in her veins." Amelia Connolly was born in 1812 at one of the largest fur posts of the North West. Her father was an Irish Canadian fur trapper, who rose the ranks of the Hudson's Bay Company, her mother the daughter of a Cree Chieftain. Amelia was 12 years old when her father was promoted to Chief Factor at Fort St. James, located at the Southern tip of Stuart Lake. The men at the Fort called her "Little Snowbird", for her light skin, gray eyes, and dark hair. |
The year of 1825, James Douglas, a promising young company employee, was posted at Fort St. James. Before Amelia had reached sixteen years old, her and James had fallen in love. On April 27, 1828 they were married according to the custom of the Country.
Amelia was described as being shy and reserved. The fact that she was of native origin, and never saw what life was like outside the fort until she was forty, most likely played a part in this. Despite her quiet ways, however, she was a brave and quick thinking woman. In fact it was Amelia's courage and wits which saved the lives of her husband and all the inhabitants of Fort St. James on
August 6, 1828.In 1803, Amelia's husband received a promotion as Clerk to Fort Vancouver. Amelia, pregnant at the time, couldn't accompany her husband. Later that year, the baby died, and Amelia made the difficult trip from Fort St. James to Fort Vancouver with her father as he lead the winter fur brigade. Compared to the small, isolated outposts she'd lived in previously, Fort Vancouver would have seemed like a great modern city to Amelia.
Amelia gave birth to thirteen children altogether, with ten of them being born during the eighteen years she lived at Fort Vancouver. By 1849 there were five surviving children. Her oldest daughter
Cecilia caught the eye of John Helmcken, the young H.B.C. doctor newly arrived to Fort Victoria, and the two were soon married.Amelia's father had left her mother Susan, claiming that because their marriage had not been performed by a Christian priest, it was not considered a real marriage. Amelia worried that her marriage to James was not be considered legal, either. So in 1837, James married Amelia "according to the rights of the Church of England."
Jane Douglas
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