Betsy

BETSY (aka BETSEY RANDALL)

Hudson's Bay Company Employee

Betsy was probably a Cree woman. It cannot be regarded as certain but it seems quite likely, probable even, that she belonged to that branch of the Swampy Cree Nation (Maškēkowak / nēhinawak) who were afterwards known as the York Factory First Nation She was employed by the Hudson's Bay Company, mainly in the kitchen of the Officers House at York Factory in Manitoba, Canada.

The Country Wife of John Rendall

Betsy was the country wife of John Rendall, before Sir George Simpson persuaded him to take up a post as Assistant Warehouse Keeper at the Hudson's Bay Company's London Headquarters. James Hargrave wrote to Rendall from Norway House in 1837: "Remember me kindly to my old friend Betsy with one of your fondest Kisses. She is without doubt in my mind the best & most industrious Indian girl I have known on the coast. Now this is honest praise and no better than she deserves" Margaret Arnett MacLeod, The Letters of Letitia Hargrave (Toronto, The Champlain Society, 1947), page xliii and page xliv

The Laindress

Margaret Arnett MacLeod has this to say about Betsy Rendall: "One of the first social puzzles in the country was presented by Betsy, who had had a number of husbands in the past, the last of which, Mr. Rendall, had recently returned to England. Betsy had been chatelaine of this officer's house within the fort, and she was a person of means, with a further choice of husbands waiting; yet Letitia (Mrs. James Hargrave) found her in her kitchen as the family laundress." [Margaret Arnett MacLeod, The Letters of Letitia Hargrave (Toronto, The Champlain Society, 1947), page xliii]

The Child Minder

Letitia McTavish, Mrs. James Hargrave, speaks of Betsy Rendall in one of her letters: "I went into the kitchen today & found Betsy the washing woman busy over a tub with a Stuart tartan gown & her hair dressed for the occasion, She has charge of a family whose mother died in the Spring & right in the middle of the floor stood the baby in its moss bag & cradle quite erect. Betsy lived as squaw with a Mr. Randall who went home in the Autumn & whom the people in London have put in a house there. She waited on Miss Ross & told her what she thought of Mr. Randall having gone. She says she has had four or else five husbands, but she will never take another as it will only be for her money that they will ask her - Hargrave looked over her accounts & found she really has gathered £88 wch is in the Compys hands. She makes it by washing & never spends a penny of the interest as she has her living from the kitchen & is well behaved - Her kindness to the poor baby is extraordinary. Miss Ross used to hear it squalling all night as it is teething & she soothed & sung to it as if she had been its mother - All this because when its own mother was dying she asked her to take it home & nurse it out of a sucking pipe & be good to it " Letters of Letitia Hargraves, page 72

The Wife of David Munro

Betsy married David Munro on 11 August 1841.They were married at York Factory in Manitoba, Canada, by James Evans, General Superintenent of the Wesleyen Mission Oregon Donation Land Claims: Genealogy Trails

Death

Betsy died on 3 December 1851, Oregon Donation Land Claims: Genealogy Trails

Children and Grandchildren

It cannot be regarded as certain but it seems quite likely, probable even, that Betsy is the mother of Marian Rendall and that John Rendall is Marian's father. Marian Rendall was afterwards the country wife of William McTavish of Dunardry, twenty-first Chief of the Clan McTavish, sometime Clerk/Accountant at York Factory and afterwards Chief Factor there, before he transferred to Fort Garry and married Mary Sarah McDermot. William McTavish of Dunardry was Governor of Assiniboia. William McTavish of Dunardry and Marian Rendall appear to have had four children, a son named William McTavish (who died in Orkney in 1863), and daughters named Margaret McTavish, Mary McTavish, and Hariett McTavish (who died in Orkney in 1873).

Published Evidence

1. OREGON LAND CLAIM NUMBER 33: David Monroe & Heirs of Betsey Monroe, Washington Co; b 1799, Scotland; Settled Claim 15 Oct 1846; married Betsey Randall 11 Aug 1841, "at York factories in the British possessions.” She died 3 Dec 1851. Nat. Cit. 23 Oct 1851. Affidavit: Wm. Wilson, Richard Arthur, Henry Black & James Evans, Gen. Supt. of the Wesleyen Missions who performed marriage Oregon Donation Land Claims: Genealogy Trails
2. Margaret Arnett MacLeod, The Letters of Letitia Hargrave