Robert Stuart

Who was Robert Stuart?

Robert Stuart, the son of Charles Stuart, was a partner of John Jacob Astor and was one of the North West Company men, or Nor'westers, enlisted by Astor to help him found his intended fur empire. Young Robert was age 25 when he sailed aboard the Tonquin on its nearly one year voyage to first the Falkland Islands. It was he who held the pistol to the head of the ship's Captain Thorn when he attempted to leave the Falkland Islands without Stuart's uncle David, another of the Nor'Wester partners of Astor's Pacific Fur Company. From the Falkland Islands they sailed around Cape Horn and up the South American and North American coast to the newly discovered Columbia River. The Tonquin crossed the treacherous Columbia Bar and proceeded up river carrying supplies and traders to establish Fort Astoria in the present state of Oregon on the Columbia River in 1811. After leaving supplies and traders in the newly created outpost on the Columbia, the ship and crew traveled north to Nootka Sound. Here, off Vancouver Island at a place named Woody Point in Clayoquot Sound, the Tonquin engaged in the fur trade in June 1811 with some of the Native Americans.