Isobel gunn biography of albert

Gunn was born on the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland, perhaps near the town of Kirkwall. Although her motivations for doing so are uncertain, tradition holds that she may have been following a lover who had cast her aside. Her brother George was also employed by the HBC, and it is also possible that she was enticed to join by his stories of adventure.

Modern commentators point out that the modest HBC salary was nevertheless more than Gunn could have hoped for as a woman in Orkney at that time. Official HBC policy forbade employment of European women, although First Nation women were employed as cooks and domestic servants in company outposts. The pretence was maintained until the morning of 29 Decemberwhen to general astonishment, Gunn gave birth to a baby boy at the home of Alexander Henry the youngerthe chief of the North West Company 's Pembina post, after having fallen ill and begging Alexander Henry for shelter.

I returned to my room, where I had not been long before he sent one of my own people, requesting the favour of speaking with me. Accordingly, I stepped down to him, and was much surprised to find him extended out upon the hearth, uttering most dreadful lamentations; he stretched out his hand towards me and in a piteful tone of voice begg'd my assistance, and requested I would take pity upon a poor helpless abandoned wretch, who was not of the sex I had every reason to suppose.

But was an unfortunate Orkney girl pregnant and actually in childbirth, in saying this she opened her jacket and display'd to my view 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 in my cariole, where she soon recovered. It is believed that Scarth sexually assaulted or seduced Gunn during one of their postings after finding out her gender and threatening to expose her ruse.

Against her wishes, Gunn and her child were returned to Scotland on the Prince of Wales, the same boat that had brought her to Rupert's Land three years earlier, on 20 September Gunn and Baby James would have been returning to a town that would have shunned the young family due to the sin of sex without the sanctity of marriage. Contents move to sidebar hide.

She may also have acted as nurse to the pupils of the school established by the company at Albany that year. Her son was baptized by the schoolmaster William Harper in October. According to popular account, she was to suffer further misfortune and ended her life a vagrant. Sylvia Van Kirk. New light on early hist. The citation above shows the format for footnotes and endnotes according to the Chicago manual of style 16th edition.

She enrolled as a man in the Hudson's Bay Company and was the first European woman to reach western Canada.

Isobel gunn biography of albert

The wider picture in Scotland at the time is set out in our Historical Timeline. In at the age of 15 she followed her brother and many other young males in Orkney at the time by joining the Hudson's Bay Company. According to some versions of the story, she was also following her lover, John Scarth.