Selkirk succeeded to the Scottish earldom on the death of his father in 1799, all of his elder brothers having died previously. Believing that the hardships of the Scottish Highland peasantry could be alleviated only by emigration, he went to Canada in 1803 and established a large settlement on Prince Edward Island. In 1810 Selkirk gained control of the Hudson's Bay Company, from which, in May 1811, he acquired title to a vast tract of land in the Red River valley, near present-day Winnipeg, where he founded a settlement of Scotsmen. Shortly thereafter, he helped establish a similar community at Baldoon, Upper Canada. The progress of the Red River colony was impeded by Selkirk's commercial rival, the Northwest Fur Company, which in January 1818 won heavy damages in a legal action against him. In poor health and having lost a fortune, he returned to Great Britain in late 1818.and died two years later