John Meares

John Meares (c. 1756 – 1809) was an Irish navigator, explorer, and maritime fur trader in service of Great Britain during the late 18th century. He is best known for his voyages to the Pacific Northwest; and from his base in Canton (modern day Guangzhou) he was deeply involved in organising a private network of British trade in China and the wider Pacific outside of the monopoly of the East India Company. His activities precipitated the Nootka Crisis, which brought Britain and Spain to the brink of war. He is also known for his early efforts to open up trade between feudal Japan and Great Britain.

Career

Meares' father was Charles Meares, "formerly an attorney of great eminence, and for several years pursuivant of his Majesty's Court of Exchequer in Dublin". In 1771, Meares joined the Royal Navy as a captain's servant and was commissioned a lieutenant in 1778. In 1783 he joined the merchant service and in 1785, based in India, formed the Northwest America Company for collecting sea otter furs by trade with the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and selling them in China. The East India Company held a monopoly on British trade in the Pacific and required all British traders to be licensed with the company and pay duties. Meares did not license his ships with the East India Company and instead tried to conceal the illegal activity by using the flag of Portugal. Meares registered his ships in Macau, a Portuguese colony in China. Non-British ships were not required to have licences from the East India Company.

He sailed from Calcutta on 12 March 1786, in the Nootka, a vessel of 200 tons (bm), with which he explored part of the coast of Alaska. He spent the winter of 1786–1787 in Prince William Sound with poor provisions; his men suffered from the weather and scurvy. Twenty-three of his men died of scurvy and the remaining ten were saved only by the timely arrival of Captain George Dixon, a British trader with proper licences, in the Queen Charlotte. Meares gave Dixon his bond never to trade in the Northwest again, and returned to China by way of the Sandwich Islands. Showing no gratitude to Dixon, Meares proceeded to sue him for allegedly overcharging him for the supplies that saved his life.

thumb|left|250px|The launch of the [[North West America at Nootka Sound, 1788]]

In 1788, and in total violation of what he had told Dixon, Meares started a new expedition with two vessels and more false papers. The ships sailed under the Portuguese flag and were given Portuguese names: the Felice Adventurero, captained by Meares, and the Iphigenia Nubiana, under William Douglas. The names are spelled in various ways, such as Feliz Aventureira and Efigenia Nubiana. They sailed from China on 22 January 1788 and arrived at Nootka Sound, on Vancouver Island in May. Using Nootka Sound as a base of operations he spent the summer trading for furs along the coasts of present-day British Columbia and Washington down to after having sailed as far south as Cape Lookout, having missed the Columbia River at Cape Disappointment.

On board Felice Adventurero for the 1788 voyage from China to Nootka Sound was Comekela, younger brother of Maquinna, chief of the Mowachaht Nuu-chah-nulth people of the Nootka Sound area. Comekela had sailed from Nootka Sound to China in 1786-87 with James Hanna.

Meares later claimed that Maquinna, a chief of the Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) people, sold him some land on the shore of Friendly Cove in Nootka Sound, in exchange for some pistols and trade goods, and that on this land some kind of building was erected. These claims would become a key point in Britain's position during the Nootka Crisis. Spain strongly disputed both claims, and the true facts of the matter have never been fully established. Maquinna himself later called Meares a liar and denied selling him any land. Later, Meares gained possession of Barkley's nautical gear and his journal. Barkley's wife, Frances Barkley, later wrote that Meares, "with the greatest effrontery, published and claimed the merit of my husband's discoveries therein contained, besides inventing lies of the most revolting nature tending to vilify the person he thus pilfered."

During the winter of 1788–89 Meares was in Guangzhou (Canton), China, where he and others formed a partnership called the Associated Merchants Trading to the Northwest Coast of America. Plans were made for more ships to sail to the Pacific Northwest in 1789, including the Princess Royal, under Thomas Hudson, and the Argonaut under James Colnett. The Iphigenia Nubiana and North West America were to join the Argonaut and Princess Royal at Nootka Sound. Meares himself remained in China.

Martínez arrived at Nootka Sound on 5 May 1789. He found three ships already there. One was Meares' Iphigenia Nubiana. Martínez seized the ship and arrested its captain, William Douglas. After a few days Martínez released Douglas and his ship and ordered him to leave and not return. Douglas heeded the warning. The other two ships were American, the Columbia Rediviva and the Lady Washington, under John Kendrick and Robert Gray, which had wintered at Nootka Sound. An ultimatum was delivered to Spain, disproved a number of Meares' other claims. Nonetheless, Meares' claims formed a basis for negotiation of British title to Oregon and British Columbia.

Not much is known of Meares' life after the settlement of the Nootka controversy. So far as is known he received none of the Spanish indemnity money. He was rewarded for his role by promotion to the rank of commander on 26 February 1795. The marriage of "John Meares Esq. of Frome, [Cornwall], to Miss Mary Anne Guilleband, at the Abbey church, Bath" was noted in The Whitehall Evening Post of 9 July 1796. Meares apparently considered Bath his home after his retirement from the Navy, and according to his "last will and testament" he owned property in Jamaica. The death of John Meares, "a Commander in his Majesty’s Navy", at Bath on 29 January 1809, was noted in a newspaper advertisement by his solicitors inviting his creditors to a meeting at the George and Vulture Tavern, Cornhill, London, to take consideration of the state of his affairs. The value of his estate when probated was estimated to be under £7,500. His will listed no spouse or child, but a brother and sister were among the beneficiaries. Perhaps his wife, the former Mary Ann Guilliband, whom he married in 1796, was already deceased.

Legacy

A number of places in the Pacific Northwest bear the name of Meares:

Cape Meares, Oregon
Meares Island, located in the entrance of Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia.
Meares Point, British Columbia
Meares Bluff, British Columbia
Meares Glacier, Alaska
Meares Passage, Alaska
Meares Island, Alaska
Meares Point, Alaska
Port Meares, Alaska
Felice Island, British Columbia, named for Meares' ship
Felice Strait, Alaska, also named for Meares' ship

Career

Legacy

See also

References

Further reading