| Authorised form of name | Hayes; Sir; James (- 1693); barrister and secretary to Prince Rupert |
| Dates | - 1693 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Beckington, Somerset, England, Europe |
| Activity | Education:
St Paul's School; Corpus Christi College, Oxford (matriculated 1649); Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1649)
Career:
Called to the Bar (1656); MP for Marlborough (1659); Recorder of Marlborough (1659); Secretary to Prince Rupert; involved in the establishment of a permanent British trading post at Hudson Bay, which later became Hudson's Bay Company (1672); Deputy Governor of HBC; (FRS 1665)
Honours:
Kt 1670
|
| Membership category | Original Fellow |
| Date of election | 20/05/1663 |
| Proposer | John Wilkins |
| Date of ejection or withdrawal | 22 July 1685 (due to non-payment of arrears) |
| RSActivity | Royal Society roles:
Council: 1667-1668, 1670-1671
Committee and panels:
Committee for the Histories of Trades (1664) |
| Other Royal Society activity | Made some meteorological observations (1667); Subscribed £40 towards a Royal Society college near Arundel House (1668-1669) |
| Relationships | Parents: James Hayes and Elizabeth Hayes
Siblings: John Hayes
Married: Rachel Hungerford
Children: Rachel Hayes; son-in-law Lord David Hay |
| OtherInfo | Hayes was the first deputy governor of the Hudson's Bay Company and was the one to advance the necessary funds to secure a royal charter. Charles II granted the charter establishing the Hudson's Bay Company, officially "The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England, trading into Hudson's Bay," on May 2, 1670. The charter aimed to establish a trade monopoly on the Eastern coast of what is now Canada and claimed 1.5 million square kilometres of land inhabited by Inuit and First Nations communities (everything in the Hudson river network of waterways), this grew to eight million square kilometres which was dubbed Rupert's Land. The 'adventurers' and traders employed by the HBC did the work of colonizing and nation-building, such as mapping British Columbia's interior and charting the Arctic coast, almost always with the help of Indigenous guides. The Company's aim was territorial expansion and geographical knowledge as well as resource extraction. The company depended on Indigenous hunters to bring them the furs they sold in Europe and made the Company shareholders very wealthy. This trading relationship was often cordial and mutually beneficial but introduced and advanced the spread of diseases such as smallpox and tuberculosis, to which Indigenous Peoples had no immunity. Attitudes toward Indigenous Peoples grew more disdainful by the mid-1800s, as HBC officials became more comfortable in the region and relied less on Indigenous knowledge. In 1868, the Rupert's Land Act was passed, an agreement to transfer the region from the HBC to the recently confederated states of Canada disregarding the Indigenous Nations' ownership of the land and their resistance to its transfer to a colonial power. The HBC continued to operate as a commercial company and operated some 100 stores in Indigenous communities into the 20th century, setting low prices for furs and high prices for their goods, a process that kept Indigenous consumers in a perpetual state of debt. The HBC remains a transnational company. |
| Related images | Discover a selection of related images in our picture library |
| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; Hunter; Le Neve; LI; Foster; McDonnell
Gough, Barry M. 1970. 'The 'Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson's Bay': A Study of the Founding Members of the Hudson's Bay Company', in Albio: A Quarterly Journal Concerning with British Studies, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp.35-47
Notes:
The election date is Hayes' re-election date into the Society after the grant of the second charter in April 1663. All Fellows admitted in a two-month window after this charter, until 22 June 1663, are considered Original Fellows. He was previously elected on 17 September 1662 and admitted into the Society on 8 October 1662. |
| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/4872862 |
| Code | NA5081 |