|
|
Isabel
Gunn
Isabel Gunn was
one of the first white women to penetrate fur trade society.
She was from Orkney and she signed on with the Hudson’s Bay Company in Stromness and shipped out to
North America
in the summer of 1806. She had
disguised herself as a boy, and went by the name of John Fubbister.
Apparently she intended to be re-united with her lover, another Hudson’s Bay man, however, she was posted to
Albany while her man was sent on to
Eastmain. During her first season at
Albany
she performed her assigned tasks so well that she went undetected by her
superiors. However, it seems
likely that the other Orkney-men who worked closely with her knew the
truth. Orkney-men were known
for their closeness and it is probable they agreed to keep her secret.
In any case, she eventually became intimate with an old company
hand named John Scarth.
In the spring of 1807 she took an active part in the freighting operations
to supply Albany’s inland posts and later was part of the brigade sent to winter at
Pembina under Hugh Heney. At
Pembina she “worked well at anything & well like the rest of the
men,” until the morning of December 29th.
On this morning, the men who had been at the quarters of Alexander
Henry for holiday festivities began returning to their own quarters.
Fubbister, being indisposed, asked to remain behind.
Henry recorded the scene that followed:
I was surprised
at the fellow’s demand; however, I told him to sit down and warm
himself. I returned to
my own room, where I had not been long before he sent one of my people,
requesting the favor of speaking with me.
Accordingly, I stepped down to him, and was much surprised to find
him extended on the hearth, uttering dreadful lamentations; he stretched
out his hands toward me, and in piteous tones begged me to be kind to a
poor, helpless wretch, who was not of the sex I had supposed, but an
unfortunate Orkney girl, pregnant, and actually in childbirth.
In saying this she opened her jacket, and displayed a pair of
beautiful, round, white breasts…In about an hour she was safely
delivered of a fine boy, and that same day she was conveyed home…where
she soon recovered.”
Once the true sex of Fubbister became known, she was unable to continue
functioning in a male role. She
was now called Mary, and was returned in the spring of 1808 to
Albany, where she was employed in a traditional female role of washerwoman.
Although reluctant to return to Orkney, Isabel Gunn was discharged
from service in September 1809 and sent home with her son by the annual
supply ship. According to
popular account, she endured further misfortunes and ended her life as a
vagrant.
For more
information about Isabel Gunn see: Many
Tender Ties: Women in Fur-Trade Society in Western Canada, 1670-1870;
by Van Kirk, Sylvia, published by Watson & Dwyer Publishing, 1981.
Back
to the Top
Back
to The Women
|
|
