 Stromness, Where Isobel Lived in Later Life |
Isobel Gunn (sometimes also called Isabel) lived from 1 August 1781 to 7 November 1861. She enrolled as a man in the Hudson's Bay Company and was the first European woman to reach western Canada. The wider picture in Scotland at the time is set out in our Historical Timeline.
Isobel was born Isobel Fubister (or Fubbister) at Tankerness, east of Kirkwall in Orkney. In 1806 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. The Hudson's Bay Company did not employ European women at the time: she evaded this restriction by using her father's name, John Fubister, and dressing as a man. She then sailed with the company to Hudson Bay on board the Prince of Wales.
In Canada, Islobel worked as a labourer at Fort Albany. She then worked on a series of supply boats, sometimes with John Scarth, making journeys to trading posts run by the Hudson's Bay Company. In the Summer of 1807 she was sent as part of an expedition that made its way 1500 miles west to the extremely remote North-West Company trading post at Pembina, which was run by Alexander Henry. On 29 December 1807, "John Fubister" was excused work because he reported feeling ill. Shortly afterwards Alexander Henry discovered Isobel in labour and helped deliver her son, the first European child to be born this far west in Canada.
Isobel Gunn, as she was now calling herself, returned to Fort Albany with her son James the following summer. Here she registered the birth, naming John Scarth as the father. No longer allowed to work as a labourer, she worked as a washerwoman until being placed, against her will, on a ship back to Orkney in 1808. She arrived in Stromness in October 1809. She continued to live in Stromness until her death in 1861.
Isobel's story has since been told in a number of different forms. It formed the basis of a 1999 historical novel by Audrey Thomas; a documentary poem by Stephen Scobie in 1987; and a film documentary made by Anne Wheeler.
