Yukon who is who

Peter Warren Dease (1788 – 1863)

Peter Dease was born at Michilimackinac to John Dease, captain and deputy agent of Indian Affairs, and Jane French, a Catholic Mohawk from Caughnawaga. He first worked for the New North West Company at Great Slave Lake. After the company’s 1904 amalgamation with the North West Company, he was a clerk at Athabasca. In 1817, he was moved to the Mackenzie District. In 1821, North West and the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) merged and he became the chief trader for HBC working in the Athabasca district. He was asked to organize an expedition to explore the Finlay River in 1823, but was unable to participate. ¹⁾

In 1825, he accompanied Sir John Franklin on his second expedition to the arctic.²⁾ The expedition named several places along the coast, including Herschel Island, and landed near the mouth of what would be called Firth River. In 1836/37, Dease and Thomas Simpson headed an HBC expedition to complete the charting of much of the Arctic coast. The HBC monopoly was the subject of a British preliminary inquiry at the time, but the Company continued to sponsor Arctic explorations long after it was to their benefit.³⁾

As a chief trader, Dease was nominally in charge but he was ageing, had bad eyesight, and was looking forward to his pension. John McLeod named Dease Lake in the Cassiar district of British Columbia for Peter Dease.⁴⁾ He was a long-time and respected company employee and was well-liked by his peers.⁵⁾