Earl Of Selkirk
Selkirk, Thomas Douglas, Fifth Earl of (1771–1820), a Scottish colonizer who helped settle landless Scottish and Irish farmers in Canada. He founded a successful colony on Prince Edward Island in 1803. In 1811 he obtained from the Hudson's Bay Company a tract of land called Assiniboia (in what is now Manitoba). A settlement was established in the Red River Valley the following year. When its existence was threatened by rivalry between the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company, he spent much of his fortune and his energies to preserve the settlement.
Selkirk was born in Scotland. He succeeded his father as earl in 1799.