caption predecessor successor death_date birth_place death_place office birth_date term_start image article_title term_end name occupation
seymour , as governor of british columbia james douglas '' position abolished '' anthony musgrave 10 june 1869 belfast , ireland bella coola , british columbia governor the united colonies of vancouver island and british columbia of crown colony of british columbia governor of 6 september 1820 1864 1866 frederick seymour governor of british columbia.jpg frederick seymour
 1866 1869 frederick seymour colonial administrator
frederick seymour

frederick seymour -lrb- 6 september 1820 -- 10 june 1869 -rrb- was a colonial administrator .
he served as the second governor of the colony of british columbia from 1864 to 1866 , and the first governor of the union of the two colonies , also named the colony of british columbia from 1866 to 1869 .
seymour was the son of henry augustus seymour , who was himself the illegitimate son of francis seymour-conway , 2nd marquess of hertford .
upon the latter 's death in 1822 , seymour 's father was forced to surrender his civil service position and property , and leave ireland for belgium .
in 1842 , prince albert helped secure a position for seymour in the colonial service .
for the next twenty years , he served in various positions in a series of colonies mired in political and economic difficulties : van diemen 's land , antigua , nevis , british honduras , and the bay islands .
in 1864 , seymour attained the apogee of his colonial career as successor to sir james douglas as governor of the colony of british columbia .
he inherited an administration deeply in debt , and a restless population of british colonists demanding responsible government .
seymour continued his predecessor 's initiative of building wagon roads into the gold mining districts of the cariboo , and quickly responded to the attack by tsilhqot ` in warriors on the rest of a road party they had been persuaded to join , in which a party of road workers at up the homathko river beyond the head of bute inlet .
he resisted , however , pressure to amalgamate british columbia with the colony of vancouver island to consolidate the revenue and debts of the two colonies and reduce administration costs .
eventually he relented , and the colonies were united in 1866 .
seymour was named governor of the new united colony .
the next three years were unhappy ones for seymour as he battled a succession of illnesses and faced an increasingly restless population .
after canadian confederation in 1867 , sentiment turned strongly towards the colony seeking admission as a province of canada .
seymour was lukewarm to the proposal , but regained much of the goodwill he had lost by successfully improving both the economy and infrastructure of the colony , culminating in the construction of a graving dock at esquimalt .
his term slated to end in 1869 , seymour made one last journey as governor to the nass river , on the northwest coast of the colony , to mediate a dispute between first nations tribes .
while returning , he became ill with dysentery and died at bella coola .
