Frances "Fanny" Isbister

From Donna Sutherland’s book ‘Nahovway’, page 194: Another child to claim William SINCLAIR as her father was Ben’s younger sister Fanny (John ISBISTER). In 1885 Fanny applied for Metis Scrip, a one-time payment in cash or land made to people of mixed ancestry to extinguish their Aboriginal entitlement. On her application she listed her birth date as Mar 1, 1818 and her parents as Margaret and William SINCLAIR. Her mother was not NAHOVWAY, but a Cree woman who likely took the name Margaret after she accepted Christianity, and she was quite likely Ben’s mother too. This woman was AISSAYSAIPEAU. - - Now, Scrip alone does not provide strong enough evidence to confirm Fanny’s paternity since there was more than one William SINCLAIR who could have fathered her, and more importantly in the 1870 census Fanny claimed AISSAYSAIPEAU as her father. In that record she gave Oxford House 1816 as the place and year of her birth, and on her 1842 baptism record she claimed 1813 as her birth year, leaving some inconsistency in her claim.