THE DOUGLAS HOUSE
Just prior to the gold rush of 1858, Douglas moved his family out of the Fort into a house in South James Bay: "A grand affair, the most up-to-date house in the colony". Though not a lot of settlers in the area at that time, the Douglas house welcomed company (that Douglas had five pretty daughters in a colony predominantly populated with Company men had a hand in that!).
Arthur Bushby, who after being refused by her father, finally won the hand of James Douglas' daughter Agnes writes in his journal in January, 1859:
"They begged me to make myself quite at home which I did & before dinner set to and tuned the piano - dined quite en famille. Mrs. Douglas came to dinner. Seems a good old sole [sic] - Had music in the evening & a good deal of chaff with the girls. Had a polka with Agnes & she gave me a lot of toffee for my cold which unfortunately I left behind - the girls have promised to bind all my music with silk and made me promise to go there on Saturday. . .the two girls are romping sort of things."
The Douglas's gave land right next to their house their daughter Cecelia as a wedding present upon her engagement to John Helmcken . Says John of his father in laws abode:
"The Governor had a gardener, an old Englishman named Thomas - a pretty rough sort of gardener, but knew more in his own opinion than anyone else, but the Company's men from Kent were decent gardeners too and "Tom" Flewin had charge of the Company [garden?] which extended from Government to Douglas, bounded by Fort and Broughton Street. Thomas said the best of all flowers was the cauliflower! Anyhow Governor Douglas' garden was laid out by the aforesaid Thomas - and remains very much the same to this day. The Governor received many presents of roses and other bushes from his admirer - sometimes a sprat to catch a salmon, but he also imported bulbs and other roots, which used to come by ship in . . . glass cases into which neither air nor water entered."
The Douglas house burned long ago, and now the Royal BC Museum is situated on the property, right next door to the Helmcken House.
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Digital Collections Team under contract to Industry Canada.
Content provided by: Heritage Branch, Province of British Columbia.
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Questions or comments: Jennifer Iredale, curator.