1780-1861+Isobel+Gunn

Isobel Gunn (1780-1861)

**Isabel Gunn** Many Orkney men joined the Hudson’s Bay Company to earn a decent wage and work in the harsh conditions of Canada, but white women were excluded in the early 19th century. Brave Isabel Gunn was driven by poverty, or some say love, to disguise herself as a man, signing on in 1806 as John Fubbister, her father’s name. The ‘lad’ John worked well and no one suspected her secret until she gave birth to a son in the house of shocked chief factor Alexander Henry. Isabel was given work as a washerwoman in Canada but she and her son James settled in Stromness in 1809 where she lived in poverty, working as a seamstress. She died in 1861, aged 81. Questions: 1. Who was Isobel Gunn? 2. What company did she work for? 3. What was Gunn's business? Did she have a business partner?  this is a novel about Isobel Gunn
 * Isobel Gunn was a remarkable woman who disguised herself as a man to work in the male dominated world of the fur trade as a labourer for the Hudson's Bay Company.
 * She had 2 different names: John Fubbister and Mary Fubbister
 * 1st European woman to travel to Western Canada
 * Her story about her early life was very few, she had 6 siblings that came from John Gunn and Isobel Leask.
 * Her brother was in the fur trade business as well and was in the Hudson's Bay Company
 * In Orkney she prepared her life as a fur trader
 * Living in farmers she was use to intense labour, hardships and poverty
 * The women of her family would have looked after the farm as the men were forced to join the British army to help defeat Napoleon, or for income fished or joined the fur trade.

//Isobel Gunn // , Audrey Thomas's eighth novel, is the heart-rending tale of a poor Orkney woman who tries to escape her tragic family circumstances by disguising herself as a man and running away to work for the Hudson's Bay Company in northern Canada. Her deception is uncovered when she gives birth to a son.    

found these pictures(and a heart felt story) at: [] []