James Charles Stuart Strange (8 August 1753 – 6 October 1840) was a British officer of the East India Company, one of the first maritime fur traders, a banker, and a Member of Parliament.
Background and education
James Charles Stuart Strange was born on August 8, 1753, in London, England, United Kingdom. His parents were Robert Strange and Isabella Lumisden.
His father, Robert Strange, was a former Jacobite from Orkney and had fought in the Jacobite rising of 1745, under Charles Edward Stuart, known as "Bonnie Prince Charlie" and the "Young Pretender". Robert Strange named his son James Charles Stuart Strange after Bonnie Prince Charlie, who was also James' godfather.
Robert and Isabella Strange moved to London in 1750. A few years later James Charles Stuart Strange was born. James attended the College of Navarre in Paris in 1770.
East India Company
In 1772 James Strange obtained a writership with the East India Company (EIC), in Madras, India. He gained this post through Sir Lawrence Dundas, a relative of Strange's maternal grandmother. Like many members of former Jacobite families, James Strange and his brother Thomas Strange made their way to India, arriving in 1773. James advanced rapidly in the EIC and in private trade. In 1778 he became a Factor of the EIC.
In 1780 Strange returned to England, having made a fortune. He was promoted to a Junior Merchant of the EIC in 1782. On February 18, 1785, Strange married Margaret Durham. The same year he returned to India with his new bride.
From late 1785 to early 1787 he undertook a voyage to the Pacific Northwest Coast, hoping to be the first to capitalize on the nascent maritime fur trade. Afterward he returned to India and continued his career with the EIC. He was promoted to Senior Merchant in 1790. In 1795 he was appointed Collector and Paymaster for the EIC in Tanjore, India. Later that year he retired from the East India Company and returned to England.
Later he rejoined the EIC and became Magistrate Collector in Puducherry (Pondichery), in 1806, then Judge of Court of Appeal, in 1807. From 1813 to 1815 he served the EIC as Postmaster General and a Senior Member of the Board of Trade. In 1816 he retired and returned to Great Britain. On the voyage home he stopped at Saint Helena where he won a game of piquet with the exiled Napoleon.
Voyage to the Pacific Northwest
In 1785 while returning to India after marrying Margaret Durham, Strange read newly published accounts of the third voyage of Captain Cook, including news of the large profits made by his crew in Guangzhou (Canton), China, selling sea otter furs they had obtained at Nootka Sound on the Pacific Northwest Coast. Captain James King, who had helped take over after the death of Cook, wrote of the possible profits to be made selling northwest coast furs in China.
Upon Strange's return to India and the East India Company (EIC) in later 1785, he discussed the idea of an expedition with David Scott, a prominent Mumbai (Bombay) merchant. Scott and his two partners, Tate and Adamson, obtained the support of the president and council of the East India Company in Bombay for an expedition of two ships from Mumbai (Bombay) to the Northwest Coast of America. Strange invested 10,000 pounds in the venture, which he borrowed from David Scott. Overall the cost of fitting out the expedition rose to the point where only a major success in fur trading could possibly pay back investments, let alone make a profit.
Two Bombay-built, copper-hulled snows were purchased. They were the Captain Cook of 350 tons, and the Experiment of 100 tons. The Captain Cook was commanded by Henry Laurie, and the Experiment by Henry Guise. Strange was supercargo and also in overall command of the voyage. As far as the EIC was concerned, Strange was a company servant in command of a company-sanctioned, private project that, it was hoped, would lead not only to the discovery of new channels of commerce but also forestall rival attempts.
Strange's instructions from the East India Company described two main purposes for the expedition. First, exploration for the benefit of navigation. This included instructions to return via Bering Strait, the Arctic Ocean as far as the North Pole, then Kamchatka, then China. Second, the establishment of a new channel of commerce from the Pacific Northwest Coast to China and India. Despite these instructions, the actual voyage was a commercial fur-trading venture no different from other early maritime fur trading expeditions to the Northwest Coast.