LANE, DANIEL, mariner, of the parish of St. Mary Aldermary, London; b. c. 1654.

He was in the service of the HBC by 1680, when he refused Governor John Nixon’s offer to command a sloop between Charlton Island and other Hudson Bay posts as being too hazardous. Besides, he wanted to go home. Since the only vessel returning that season, the Prudent Mary, was wrecked while still in James Bay, his return to England was delayed until 1681.

He signed for a further three-year term in 1682 but within a month accepted a much more tempting offer from a group of interlopers (trespassers on the Company’s monopoly). The interloping vessel, the Expectation (Capt. Lucas) was captured in 1683 by the HBC ship Diligence (Capt. Nehemiah Walker) and Lane was brought to England and imprisoned. His promise “to ingeniously confess all matters” brought release and he testified in the Company’s favour when it brought suit against the interlopers in the High Court of Admiralty.

Received back into service, Lane voyaged again in 1684 and 1685 to Hudson Bay. Further adventures awaited him, for he was taken prisoner when de Troyes captured Moose Fort in 1686, a time of peace. He must have succumbed to the rigours of that winter, since he was not among the released prisoners sent to Port Nelson or among those reaching France in the autumn of 1687. His wages were “accounted for” with Thomas Dowse, his administrator, in April 1688.

Maud M. Hutcheson