James and his brother Bernard immigrated to New England shortly before the American Revolutionary War[1] Described as a "convivial, noble–hearted Irishman", he married Margaret Elliot, sister of Thomas Handasyd Perkins (T.H.
[1] Within months of his return to Boston, James Magee became captain of the Astrea, one of four ships owned by Elias Hasket Derby that sailed from New England to Canton via the Cape of Good Hope in the late 1780s.
With Magee's brother-in-law Thomas Handasyd Perkins as supercargo, the Astrea sailed in 1789 with a cargo including 38 tons of ginseng, about $30,000 in specie, and quantities of beeswax, butter, rum, cod, candles, snuff, and iron.
Perkins, which became one of the largest American companies involved in the China and maritime fur trade business.
Along with Thomas Handasyd Perkins and Russell Sturgis, he was part owner of the Hope, a 70-ton brigantine built at Kittery, Maine in 1789.
Margaret Magee was the only Boston woman known to have owned a share in a maritime fur trade vessel.
[1] The crew included the "historian" Jonathan Howell who, with Magee, collected many artifacts from the Pacific Northwest Coast and Hawaii for the Massachusetts Historical Society.
[6] On 24 October 1791 the Margaret sailed from Boston to the Pacific Northwest coast via Cape Horn, arriving at Houston Stewart Channel in Haida Gwaii in April 1792.
Like other traders at the time, Magee found the trade goods he had brought were no longer much desired by the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast.
"[8] Robert Haswell, of the Columbia Rediviva wrote that the Margaret was "as fine a vessel as ever I saw of her size, and appeared exceeding well fitted for the voyage and I believe there was no expense spared.
[11] Wickaninnish disliked and feared Gray, who had destroyed the village of Opitsaht with cannon fire earlier in that year.
Returning north, on 8 August 1792 the Margaret anchored at Yuquot and the Spanish outpost Santa Cruz de Nuca in Nootka Sound, in company with the Hope, under Joseph Ingraham.
On 12 August the Margaret, under David Lamb, sailed in company with the Hope to search for fur trading opportunities.
When George Vancouver arrived at Nootka Sound on 28 August he noted that Captain Magee was living on shore with his surgeon and John Howell.
Captain Brown of the Butterworth had tried to rob the natives of their furs and, encountering resistance, fired upon them, killing four.
Sometime during the season, the Margaret struck a rock in Hecate Strait, southeast of Rose Point, Haida Gwaii.
[11] Magee had intended to have the Margaret spend the winter in Nootka Sound, and to build a small schooner to act as a tender for the 1793 season.
[11] The Margaret left China in late January 1793 and in April arrived on the Pacific Northwest Coast.
The term "clemmon", also spelled "clammon", "clammel", and other ways, were hides of moose, elk, or sometimes caribou.
Sailing south in the Margaret, Magee obtained a quantity of clemmons at Barkley Sound and the Washington coast.
Magee returned north and sold the hides "at the rate of 3 prime [sea otter] skins for the best sort [of clemmon] & 2 for the second".
[16] Between the Margaret and the schooner, over 3,000 sea otter pelts were collected in 1793, a remarkable feat given that there were at least ten competing ships.
[11] At the end of the 1793 trading season the Margaret sailed to China via Hawaii, arriving at Oahu in October and Canton in December 1793.
[11] From Canton the Margaret returned to Boston in company with the schooner Jane, belonging to the Dorr family.
According to William F. Sturgis, the attack was led by the Haida Chief Scotsi, his brother, and a few others, and was in retaliation for a "vile outrage" that had shortly before "been committed by the crew of an English vessel".
[17] In 1800–1801 James Magee's brother, Bernard, captained the Globe on another voyage to the Northwest Coast and China.
According to William F. Sturgis, the attack was retribution for the execution of five Kaigani Haida chiefs by James D. Ingersoll, captain of the Charlotte.