James Stewart Clouston (1826-1874)

He was born at Cleat House, Westray, in the Orkney Islands, the home of his maternal uncle for whom he was named. His first cousin, James Stewart (1811-1858), 7th of Brough, "a leading merchant laird in Orkney" built Cleaton House where his portrait as a young boy (see images) hung in the dining room and is now on display at the Westray Heritage Centre. Clouston entered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company as an apprentice clerk in the Rupert's River District of Canada in 1842. He was appointed a chief trader in 1853, serving in the Moose District, Fort Garry, Fort Frances, Lachine, and Montreal, where he was promoted to Chief Factor in 1864. He married Margaret, the daughter of Robert Seaborn Miles, another Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company & Sheriff of Rupert's Land, by Elizabeth Sinclair, an aboriginal woman of Cree descent, "who had, in the estimation of many members of the fur trade society, been Sir George Simpson's first 'country wife'." They were the parents of Sir Edward Clouston.