The Royal Charter for Incorporating the Hudson’s Bay Company is an 1865 reprint of a document first issued by King Charles II on a vellum parchment (animal skin) in 1670. Similar to the original document, the 1865 reprint omits paragraph breaks. Unlike its title page, the contents of the 1865 publication refer to the Hudson’s Bay Company by its original name, the “Company of Adventurers of England.”
The royal charter officially incorporated “the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England.” It appointed Prince Rupert as the first Governor and granted the Company exclusive rights to trade, settle and manage the Hudson Bay and surrounding territory, which became known as Rupert’s Land. The contents of the charter also disregarded the sovereignty of Indigenous peoples by claiming that the waterways and land were not “possessed by any of our Subjects, or by the Subjects of any other Christian Prince or State.” (See Doctrine of Discovery; Colonialism.)
An image from the 1865 print publication is included below. The Canadian Encyclopedia includes this primary source as part of a partnership with the Canadian Research Knowledge Network’s Canadiana collections. For the work in its entirety, please visit their website.
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Page 6 of the 1865 reprint of The Royal Charter for Incorporating the Hudson’s Bay Company.
(by Henry Kent Causton & Son, courtesy Canadiana)