William George Cox

Who was William George Cox?

William George Cox was Gold Commissioner for the Cariboo and Boundary Districts in the Colony of British Columbia, Canada during the Rock Creek Gold Rush.

Cox was among the war party raised in the Cariboo during the Chilcotin War, riding west from Alexandria, British Columbia with 50 men raised in the goldfields to meet the corresponding party of the New Westminster Rifle Corps, mostly former Royal Engineers, led by Governor Seymour and Chief Constable Brew, who had disembarked from the HMS Sutlej at Bella Coola and entered the Chilcotin District from the west.

Cox, who is described by BC historians G.P.V. and Helen B. Akrigg as "friendly, genial and easy-going", encamped at Puntzi Lake on June 12, 1864, four days after leaving Alexandria, and did not very much in advance of the arrival of Seymour's and Brew's contingent other than build minor fortifications. The leader of the Tsilhqot'in revolt, Klatassine or Klatsassan, was actually in the vicinity of Puntzi Lake when Cox arrived, but slipped away from the area.