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About Margaret Nahoway Sinclair
NAHOWAY
Genealogy
Red River Ancestry: William Sinclair and Nahoway
The Question of Ancestry
There is some debate among historians as to the identity of Nahoway's father.
Three of Nahoway's great-granddaughters, who remembered Nahoway's daughters quite clearly, stated in the 1920s that Nahoway was “the daughter of an Englishman named Holden, an officer in the Company’s service at York Factory in the later decades of the eighteenth century.” This view was supported by "Sheriff" Colin Inkster, whose knowledge of Red River history was acknowledged to be encyclopedic.
While Geneva Lent's book, West of the Mountains: James Sinclair and the Hudson’s Bay Company (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1963) states in one place that "Nothing is known of Nahoway’s father. No reference to a man named ‘Holden’ can be found,” in another part of the book she says, “She [Nahoway] was the daughter of a British ex-soldier, known only to records as ‘Holden,’ who had been stationed for a time at Fort Prince of Wales...." At this point, Lent conjectures that this man might have changed his name to conceal his identity, as he would not wish to be known to have a relationship with a First Nations woman. This seems to reveal more about Lent's prejudices than about the reality of the situation--in fur trade society, white men partnered almost exclusively with First Nations or Metis women.
In 1952, Barbara Johnstone, a great-great-great-granddaughter of Nahoway, issued her own version of Nahoway's story. (In her book, Geneva Lent credits Johnstone as a source of information.) Johnstone identified herself as a “direct descendant of Governor Richard Norton who started to build Fort Prince of Wales (near the present Fort Churchill), for the Hudson’s Bay Company in the early 1730’s” — a genealogical assertion without recorded precedent.[26] Additionally, she claimed that Richard Norton’s son Moses, who also became Chief Factor at the fort, had fathered a daughter and, “When the French raided and practically destroyed the fort in 1872 [sic], [Samuel] Hearne and other important prisoners were carried away aboard ship, but the widow and two-year-old daughter of Moses Norton were among those abandoned amid the ruins of the fort.” Barbara presented the child’s name as “Margaret,” who later became known as “Nayhowayo.”"
In fact, Moses Norton had only one daughter who was acknowledged by his contemporaries--Mary "Polly" Norton, born of an unknown First Nations woman in the 1760s. Mary was Samuel Hearne's country wife, and he mourned her death eloquently; however, he made no mention of any younger sister. Surely, if Johnstone's story was true, Hearne would have noticed his surviving sister-in-law?
Historian Irene Spry acknowledged Johnstone's claim that Norton was Nahoway's father; she did qualify that this was a "family tradition," and also said it was possible that Nahoway's father was a Cree man. Anthropologist Jennifer S. Brown also carried on the Johnstone "family legend" in her book, Strangers in Blood, further embellishing the story by saying Nahoway was a "blue-eyed younger sister" of Mary Norton.
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Margaret Nahoway Sinclair's Timeline
| 1769 |
1769
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Fort Prince of Wales, Canada
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| 1792 |
1792
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Nestoowyan, York House, Manitoba, Canada
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| 1798 |
1798
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Rupertsland, Manitoba, Canada
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1798
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| 1801 |
1801
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possibly at Oxford House, Manitoba, Canada
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1801
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Split Lake House, Manitoba
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| 1804 |
December 15, 1804
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Oxford House, North West Territories, Canada
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| 1805 |
1805
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Oxford House, Division No. 22, Manitoba, Canada
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| 1807 |
1807
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Oxford House, Manitoba, Canada
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