Robert Dunsmuir - Origins in Scotland

Origins in Scotland

Dunsmuir was born in Hurlford, Scotland to 20 year old James Dunsmuir and his wife Elizabeth in 1825. At the time of his birth, his family was engaged in the coal business in his native Ayrshire. Dunsmuir's grandfather, Robert, had leased coal properties and bought out local competitors in the days before the arrival of the railway in the 1840s permitting him to increase prices. In 1832, in the midst of this prosperity, Robert's mother, father, grandmother and two of his three sisters died within days of each other in a cholera epidemic which swept the area. Three years later, grandfather Robert died a relatively wealthy man, leaving a third of his estate in trust for his orphaned grandchildren. Dunsmuir was schooled locally at the Kilmarnock Academy and then at the Paisley Mercantile and Mechanical School, a training helpful in the coal business. He then went to work in local coal mines under his Aunt's husband Boyd Gilmour.

On September 11, 1847, at the age of 22, Dunsmuir married 19 year old Joan White. Eight days later, their first child, Elizabeth Hamilton was born. Their second child, Agnes, was also born in Scotland in 1849.

At the end of 1850, Dunsmuir's mentor, and his aunt's husband, Boyd Gilmour, had signed on with the Hudson's Bay Company to exploit a coal finding on the northeast coast of Vancouver Island at Fort Rupert (near present day Port Hardy). Because some of those who were to travel with him decided not to go upon hearing news of the conditions and prospects there, Gilmour sought replacements for his party at the last moment. On 24 hours' notice of this opportunity, Dunsmuir signed on. They sailed on the Pekin, for Fort Vancouver, via Cape Horn, on December 19, 1850. It took 191 days for them to arrive. Eight days later, on July 8, 1851, Joan Dunsmuir gave birth to their third child, James Dunsmuir.