Hudson’s Bay Company servants’ contracts were for labourers, voyageurs, tradespeople, and professionals such as accountants, clerks and surgeons who were under contract to HBC. These people were called servants of the company. They were mostly men, although there are a few contracts for women who served as cooks. The Factors and Chief Factors who had considerably more responsibility within the company were known as officers. Some officers began their careers as clerks; if this was the case, then their early contracts may have survived as well.

Early contracts, from 1776-1818, are bound into volumes and arranged chronologically. There were contracts created before 1776, but as far as we know none of them have survived. Contracts from 1818 onward are filed alphabetically.

Contracts consist of one or more sheets (or folios) and were either handwritten by a clerk or printed. Some contracts were signed at the HBC’s London office, others in Orkney or Hudson’s Bay. Generally contracts were signed for a period of 1 to 5 years. The usual contract for an apprentice was seven years. Most contracts aligned with the outfit year; that is, they began on June 1 and terminated May 31 a number of years later. Free passage home is often written into a contract, but some men elected to remain in the Red River Settlement and receive a grant of 25 acres of land from the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Contracts from the early twentieth century are much more detailed than those from previous centuries. They contain:

• the name and address of the future employee
• the period of the contract, usually 5 years
• the occupation or capacity of the employee e.g. apprentice clerk
• the annual salary sometimes in British pounds or Canadian dollars
• the age of the future employee, his date & place of Birth
• his marital status
• his previous employer
• the amount, usually in pounds, of any advance payment.

Appended to the contract may be:

• a photograph
• a handwritten letter of application
• testimonials usually from a previous employer or Minister of the Church
• Medical & Dental certificates to indicate the person is in good health
• occasionally a copy of a birth certificate
• typed carbon copies of all documents

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Name

Employees’ family (or last) names appear first, then their given (or first) name.

Date

This is the date the contract was signed, which is not necessarily the same as the date the individual began his term of employment with HBC. The index says n.d. if there is no date on the contract.

Age

This is often an approximate age which appears at the top of the contract.

Origin

This is the employee’s place (generally a parish) of origin or where his first contract was signed. An example of a typical entry is “Scot OKI Birsay” where:

• Scot = Scotland
• OKI  =  Orkney Isles
• Birsay = Parish of Birsay / Name of the hamlet or farm

See Abbreviations used in place names section below for more information.

Work Location

This can refer to where the employee was working or where the contract was signed as the employee was traveling to his destination.

See Abbreviations used in place names section below for more information.

Occupation

This is the position for which an individual was hired.

The occupations of French Canadian employees may be written in French or English. These terms include:

• Charpentier = Carpenter
• Coureur = Runner
• Devant = Bowsman, the second most experienced position in a canoe
• Ecrivain = Scribe or Writer
• Ferblantier = Tinman
• Gardeur de Vache = Cattlekeeper
• Gouvernail = Steersman, the most responsible position in a canoe
• Hivernant/Hyvernant = Wintering Partner
• Interprète = Interpreter
• Journalier = Journeyman, Day Labourer
• Maçon = Builder, Mason
• Milieu = Middleman, the least experienced position in a canoe
• Pêcheur = Fisherman
• Squarer = Forms wood or stone into a square
• Tonnelier = Cooper, Barrel Maker, Kegmaker
• Traiteur = Keeper of eating house, sometimes used for trapper
• Trappeur = Trapper
• Voyageur = Voyager

Miscellaneous

Extra information which appears on the contract has been abbreviated in this section following this example: £25 pa.+£2 t/s (3) sig.

• £25 pa. = This is the rate of pay per year (or per annum) = 25 pounds sterling.
• £12-16 pa. = This rate of pay rises from 12 pounds sterling in the first year to a maximum of 16 pounds sterling in the last year.
• £40 pa.+serv. = Approximately £10 per year was allowed to pay for a servant. Normally this service was granted to a Master of a ship.
• +£2 t/s = The employee received £2 in lieu of tea and sugar.
• (3) = The term of the contract was 3 years.
• sig. = The employee signed his contract. The signature was witnessed.
• his mark = The employee either could not write or did not sign the contract and made his mark which was witnessed.
• Inland bonus = There was an allowance for all employees who worked inland away from the sea. In early contracts this could be as much as the annual salary and it was often referred to as a bounty.
• Advance £10 = An employee might have agreed to an advance payment on his wages when he signed the contract.
• Old Hand = The employee had worked for HBC for a number of years.
• Board & Lodging = Board is written in the index. Meals and a bed to sleep were provided for employees by the company. This information was not always given in a contract.

Location Code

This is a reference code assigned by the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives and used to locate a particular contract, e.g. A.32/54 fo. 56.

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Variations in the spelling of names are common in these records. It is a good idea to check all variations, as the spelling of an individual’s name was not always consistent from contract to contract. For example, you may find contracts for one person filed under Irvin, Irvine and Irwin, or Dumais and Dumas. French Canadian names will sometimes include an alias or “dit” and the contract is often filed under both names in the index, e.g. Duhorné, Pierre dit Laneville and Laneuville, Pierre Duhorné dit. Where names have been abbreviated in the contracts the full name is written in the index. In cases where there is a discrepancy between the clerk’s spelling at the top of the contract and the signature of the employee at the bottom of the contract, the spelling of the employee’s signature is recorded unless the clerk’s spelling is the more common variant. When a nickname is known it is entered in square brackets, e.g. Sabiston, Alexander [Sandy]. If the individual can also be found in the index under a totally different surname, that information is also given in brackets, e.g. Twatt [Wall], Robert.

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A number of abbreviations have been used in the index. Wherever possible the geographical information is given in modern terms, rather than those in use at the time the contract was signed.

North America

Rupert’s Land included all land whose rivers drained into Hudson’s Bay. This encompassed a vast region and more than one province, so no modern provincial locations are included in the contracts; however, these locations have been determined and included in the index where possible. Many contracts are dated before the Canadian provinces and some American states were established, so all modern provinces and states are given in brackets, e.g. Manitoba [MB]. It is believed that some place names refer to farms rather than villages or hamlets.

North America Abbreviations

Location	Abbreviation
Alberta	AB
British Columbia	BC
Canada	Can
Hudson’s Bay	HB
Hawaii	HI
Lake	L
Labrador	LB
Manitoba	MB
Moose Factory	MF
North West Territories	NT
Ontario	ON
Prince of Wales Fort [Churchill]	PoW
Quebec	PQ
River	R
Rupert’s Land	RL
Saskatchewan	SK
United States, Alaska	US AL
United States, Washington	US WA
United States	US
York Fort / York Factory	YF
Yukon Territory	YT

British Isles

The following abbreviations have been used for the countries and for political and geographic areas other than countries. Ireland refers to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Generally, lower case letters were used to distinguish the country entry from the county entry.

British Isles Abbreviations

Location	Abbreviation
England	Eng
Scotland	Scot
Ireland	Ire
Channel Islands	CI
Isle of Man	IOM

County boundaries within each country (or principality, in the case of Wales) for England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales are based upon the pre-1974 Colin R. Chapman’s County Codes. These three capital letters will identify the British County of origin, e.g. Bedfordshire would be abbreviated to BDF.

England Abbreviations

Location	Abbreviation	Location	Abbreviation
Bedfordshire	BDF	London	LND
Berkshire	BKS	Middlesex	MDX
Buckinghamshire	BKM	Norfolk	NFK
Cambridgeshire	CAM	Northamptonshire	NTH
Cheshire	CHS	Nottinghamshire	NTT
Cornwall	CON	Oxfordshire	OXF
Derbyshire	DBY	Rutland	RUT
Devon	DEV	Shropshire	SAL
Dorset	DOR	Somerset	SOM
Durham	DUR	Staffordshire	STS
Essex	ESS	Suffolk	SFK
Gloucestershire	GLS	Surrey	SRY
Hampshire	HAM	Sussex	SSX
Herefordshire	HEF	Warwickshire	WAR
Hertfordshire	HRT	Westmorland	WES
Huntingdon	HUN	Wiltshire	WIL
Kent	KEN	Worcestershire	WOR
Lancashire	LAN	Yorkshire	YKS
Leicestershire	LEI	Isle of Man	IOM
Lincolnshire	LIN	Isle of Wight	IOW

Wales Abbreviations

Location	Abbreviation	Location	Abbreviation
Anglesey	AGY	Glamorganshire	GLA
Breconshire	BRE	Merionethshire	MER
Caernarvonshire	CAE	Monmouthshire	MON
Cardiganshire	CGN	Montgomeryshire	MGY
Carmarthenshire	CMN	Pembrokeshire	PEM
Denbighshire	DEN	Radnorshire	RAD
Flintshire	FLN

Scotland Abbreviations

Location	Abbreviation	Location	Abbreviation
Aberdeen	ABD	Lanarkshire	LKS
Angus	ANS	Midlothian	MLN
Argyllshire	ARL	Moray	MOR
Ayrshire	AYR	Nairn	NAI
Banffshire	BAN	Orkney Isles	OKI
Berwickshire	BEW	Peebles	PEE
Bute	BUT	Perth	PER
Caithness	CAI	Renfrew	RFW
Clackmannanshire	CLK	Ross & Cromarty	ROC
Dumfriesshire	DFS	Roxburgh	ROX
Dunbartonshire	DNB	Selkirk	SEL
East Lothian	ELN	Shetland Isles	SHI
Fifeshire	FIF	Stirlingshire	STI
Inverness	INV	Sutherland	SUT
Kincardineshire	KCD	West Lothian	WLN
Kircudbrightshire	KKD	Wigtown	WIG
Kinross	KRS

Ireland Abbreviations

Location	Abbreviation	Location	Abbrevation
Antrim	ANT	Limerick	LIM
Armagh	ARM	Londonderry	LDY
Carlow	CAR	Longford	LOG
Cavan	CAV	Louth	LOU
Clare	CLA	Mayo	MAY
Cork	COR	Meath	MEA
Donegal	DON	Monaghan	MOG
Down	DOW	Offaly (Kings)	OFF
Dublin	DUB	Queen’s (see Leix)
Fermanagh	FER	Roscommon	ROS
Galway	GAL	Sligo	SLI
Kerry	KER	Tipperary	TIP
Kildare	KID	Tyrone	TYR
Kilkenny	KIK	Waterford	WAT
Kings (see Offaly)		Westmeath	WEM
Leitrim	LET	Wexford	WEX
Leix (Queen’s)	LEX	Wicklow	WIC

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Servants of the Hudson’s Bay Company had their salary quoted on an annual basis, generally in British pounds sterling (£) or livres, the currency of Lower Canada (Quebec). Occasionally wages are quoted in Spanish piastras and rarely in French francs.

An amount of money written as £8.13.4 would be interpreted as:

• £8 = 8 pounds
• 13 = 13 shillings
• 4 = 4 pence

12 pence equaled 1 shilling, and 20 shillings equaled 1 pound, so there were 240 pence in 1 pound. Occasionally payments were made in guineas. This is an old British monetary term which was in common use until after World War II. One guinea was £1.1.0 (one pound one shilling or twenty-one shillings).

It was common for English and Scottish employees who had signed a contract to receive part of their wages in advance of travel. Normally up to half the first year’s salary could be paid in advance. Some French Canadian voyageurs received part of their wages as money up front, clothing, or equipment and supplies. Other occupations allowed men to receive goods in addition to annual wages. Sometimes the contracts refer to specific measurements, such as:

• lbs = pounds (mass)
• Cwt = hundredweight or 112 lbs
• ¼ cwt = 28 lbs
• Keg = 56 lbs

French Canadian employees were more likely to carry a debt reported in their new contracts. This debt would be carried from one contract to another, and the amount of money deducted from the employee’s wages would often be written in pencil at the back of the latest contract.

During the period of the contract it was customary for employees to be paid by a credit note recorded in the account ledger. Debit notes on the opposite page would record the amount of goods purchased during each year. The balance at the end of the contract was given to each employee. In addition to an agreed annual wage there were benefits such as board and lodging and an allowance for tea and sugar. Some contracts carry an agreement written in the margin allowing the employee to settle in the country with a grant of land. Employees would be required to complete the full term of the contract (usually five years) before the grant was made to them.