Isobel Graham Finlayson (January 20, 1811 – August 22, 1890) was an English-born diarist and artist. Her diary is one of the few accounts written by a European woman about travel associated with the North American

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mos ...

. The daughter of Geddes Mackenzie Simpson, a London merchant with close ties to the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...

, and Frances Hume Hawkins, she was born Isobel Graham Simpson in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. In 1838, she married Duncan Finlayson, the governor of Assiniboia which was also known as the Red River Colony. Her husband left for

Rupert's Land Rupert's Land (french: Terre de Rupert), or Prince Rupert's Land (french: Terre du Prince Rupert, link=no), was a territory in British North America which comprised the Hudson Bay drainage basin; this was further extended from Rupert's Land t ...

in the spring of 1839 but, because of her health, she did not follow him until the summer of that year. She described her journey in a diary, which also included sketches of First Nations people. In 1844, her husband was transferred to Lachine. After her sister Frances died in Lachine in 1853, she helped look after her brother-in-law's family. When her husband retired in 1859, the couple settled in London. Finlayson died at home in London at the age of 79. Her brother Wemyss was a Canadian fur trader and politician. Her sister Frances was the wife of Governor George Simpson. Excerpts from her journal were published in '' The Beaver'' in 1951.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:FInlayson, Isobel Graham 1811 births 1890 deaths Writers from London Canadian women non-fiction writers Canadian diarists Canadian women artists 19th-century Canadian women writers Women diarists 19th-century diarists