Lawrence Clarke

Who was Lawrence Clarke?

Lawrence Clarke was the Chief Factor of the District of Saskatchewan for the Hudson's Bay Company. He resided at Fort Carlton in Canada. He later became a magistrate. Clarke moved to what is today Prince Albert, Saskatchewan in the early 1880s and was a prominent local citizen with connections in the Conservative Party of Canada.

He is regarded by some as worsening the living conditions for the Métis. He tried Gabriel Dumont for fining a group of Métis who had begun to hunt bison before the official hunt of the St. Laurent community in the spring of 1875. This action invalidated the Métis's Laws of St. Laurent. Some figures in the Métis community, notably James Isbister, also blamed him for inciting the Métis to violence in 1885 by spreading false rumours of an impending government attack. Thomas McKay, first mayor of Prince Albert was Clarke's brother-in-law.

He was the first elected Member of the Legislative Assembly in Northwest Territories' history.