<P> In 1839 the Hudson's Bay Company were convinced of the need to dispense formal justice throughout Rupert's Land and established a court at the Red River Colony, in the "District of Assiniboia", south of Lake Winnipeg . A Recorder and President of the Court would act as legal organizer, adviser, magistrate, and councillor and be responsible for the rationalization and formalization of Rupert's Land's judicial system . The first Recorder was Adam Thom, who held the post until 1854, although relieved of most of his duties by his deputy some years before . He was succeeded as President of the Court from 1862 to 1870 by John Black . </P> <P> Baker (1999) uses the Red River Colony, the only non-native settlement on the northwest prairies for most of the 19th century, as a site for critical exploration of the meaning of "law and order" on the Canadian frontier and for an investigation of the sources from which legal history might be rewritten as the history of legal culture . Previous historians have assumed that the Hudson's Bay Company's representatives designed and implemented a local legal system dedicated instrumentally to the protection of the company's fur trade monopoly and, more generally, to strict control of settlement life in the company's interests . But this view is not borne out by archival research . Examination of Assiniboia's juridical institutions in action reveals a history formed less through the imposition of authority from above than by obtaining support from below . Baker shows that the legal history of the Red River Colony--and, by extension, of the Canadian West in general--is based on English common law . </P> <P> Following the forced merger of the North West Company with the HBC in 1821, British Parliament applied the laws of Upper Canada to Rupert's Land and the Columbia District and gave enforcement power to the HBC . The Hudson's Bay Company maintained peace in Rupert's Land for the benefit of the fur trade; the Plains Indians had achieved a rough balance of power among themselves; the organization of the Métis provided internal security and a degree of external protection . This stable order broke down in the 1860s with the decline of the Hudson's Bay Company, smallpox epidemics and the arrival of American whiskey traders on the Great Plains, and the disappearance of the bison . The rule of law was, after the purchase of Rupert's Land by Canada, enforced by the North - West Mounted Police . </P> <P> Peake (1989) describes people, places, and activities that were involved in 19th - century Anglican missionary activities in the prairie areas of Rupert's Land, that huge portion of Canada controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company and inhabited by few Europeans . Early in the century, fur trade competition forced the company to expand into this interior region, and some officials saw advantages in allowing missionaries to accompany them . Officially they did not discriminate among denominations, but preference was often granted to the Anglicans of the Britain - based Church Missionary Society . The prairie missions extended from the area of 20th - century Winnipeg to the Mackenzie River delta in the north . Notable missionaries included Revd . John West, the first Protestant missionary to come to the area in 1820, David Anderson the first Bishop of Rupert's Land, the inept William Bompas and the Native American Anglican priests: Henry Budd, James Settee and Robert McDonald . </P>

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