Accession Number

2011.018.002

Description

A paper bank cheque from The Bank of British Columbia (San Francisco), printed in pink ink on cream-coloured paper, numbered G14085, drawn in the amount of $100,000 and payable to the Bank of British Columbia (Victoria), dated 2 January, 1885, signed "R. Dunsmuir" at lower right.

Narrative

This cheque appears to be a cash transfer from R. Dunsmuir & Sons' San Francisco bank account to the firm's Victoria bank account.

History of Use

This is one of three cheques that the donor said were among other documents found scattered on the ground near the roundhouse on the E&N Railway’s Russell Street (Victoria West) yards by a young man in 1991 or 1992. The young man, whose name the donor could not remember, told him that there was evidence that other similar documents had been destroyed at the same location. The donor acquired these cheques and several other documents from that young man. 

The R. Dunsmuir & Sons office on Victoria's Store Street, also functioned as the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway office. James Dunsmuir sold the railway in 1905 to the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) but retained ownership of his collieries until 1910. There is nothing on this cheque to indicate whether it is directly related to the E & N Railway. James Dunsmuir may have forgotten to take it from the office after selling to the CPR.

Dunsmuir solicitor Maurice Hills was a witness in the Hopper vs. Dunsmuir will case in 1903. He testifed that while he worked in the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway office in the 1890's, he observed that James Dunsmuir was “very careless about his documents”.¹  A 1904 photograph of the E & N office (taken during Dunsmuir ownership) appears to corroborate Hill's observation. See:  http://search-bcarchives.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/interior-of-esquimalt-and-nanaimo-railway-office-victoria

It is surmised that this cheque and other Dunsmuir-era papers were taken by CPR staff to the railway's Russell Street yards in Victoria West early in the 20th Century where they were partially destroyed in about 1991. 

 

1. British Columbia Archives. GR-2731 Hopper vs. Dunsmuir case file 12/92 Transcript from Victoria (Hon. Justice Drake) Victoria, December 3, 1903. p2919

Date

January 2 1885

Dimensions

8 cm x 18.3 cm

Material

Paper

Serial Number

G14085