Sarah Trout + Thomas Favell

by Barbara Doduk

My 5th Great Grandmother is Sarah Trout (“Sally in some notes”) born about 1780 in Ruperts Land; died after 1870 in Red River Settlement = MB, CAN.

She married my 5th Great Grandfather Thomas Favell, he was Métis.
Married 29 January 1821 – PAM, St. John’s Marriages records.

Thomas Favell born about 1779 in Ruperts Land; died August 12, 1848 in St. Andrews, Red River Settlement = MB, CAN.

Richard Favell + Euphemia Anderson

From the HBC Archives:

Thomas Favell entered HBC service in 1793 and served in the following capacities:

Outfit year / Position / Post /  *an Outfit year ran from June 1 to May 31

  • 1793-1798 / Labourer / Albany
  • 1798-1800 / Labourer / Albany
  • 1800-1801 / Labourer / Albany
  • 1801-1805 / Labourer) / Albany
  • 1805-1810 / Labourer / Inland Red River
  • 1810-1812 / Labourer / Winnipeg
  • 1812-1814 / Steersman / Winnipeg
  • 1814-1816 / Steersman / Brandon Winnipeg
  • 1816, June 1 /  Freeman
  • 1821-1822 / Steersman / Beaver Creek
  • 1822 / Freeman / Upper Red River

From Red River Ancestry.ca

Thomas FAVEL was born around 1780 at Fort Albany on James Bay, the youngest son of a Swampy Cree Indian woman named TITAMEG (WHITEFISH) & John FAVEL (1740-1784) from England who was 2nd in charge of the Albany Inland District for the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) at the time.

In 1784, when his father (John) died, Tom was a mere toddler. In his father’s Will, he was bequeathed an annuity of four pounds, payable for all of his life. He would spend his formative years around Fort Albany.

In 1793, at the age of 14, Tom entered HBC service as a Labourer at the Albany Post. 

It must have been around 1797 that Tom began a connubial (common-law) relationship with a Cree woman named Sarah TROUT; their first child (John James) was born around that time.  They were both about 19 years old.

In 1801 Tom began to work at inland posts, travelling with fur trading brigades to and from Fort Albany.

In 1805 Tom was moved to the Red River District, still employed as a Labourer.

By 1810 Tom was doing the work of a voyageur (steersman) in the Winnipeg District. His brother, Humphrey FAVEL, was appointed that year to Brandon House. 

Fellow voyageurs, all working out of Brandon House under Peter FIDLER during the Métis Rebellion, included Tom and his brother Humphrey FAVEL; John KIPLING (1788-1836); Magnus SPENCE (1755-1845); John LYONS (1786-1875), and their families. All of these men would later be prominent first settlers of Mapleton. These were all essentially Scotch-English ‘half-breed’ families who suddenly found themselves in the middle of a bitter struggle between their Métis brethren and settlers who came from the homeland of their own white ancestors. Tom FAVEL was subsequently dismissed from the Company’s service by FIDLER for refusing to accompany him to Jack River (Norway House). No further details are offered. Undoubtedly Tom would have been reluctant to leave his wife and young family alone while such perilous events were taking place. 

In the winter of 1817-18, jobless and weary from their thankless toil and strife, Tom FAVEL, his brother Humphrey and most of the other men who had been fired, sought a more pleasant and peaceful environ to retreat with their families. For a short period this would be a little settlement that was named Birsay Village or “Orkney Town”; named after his homeland by Magnus SPENCE, the elder who led them there.

Whooping cough and measles hit Orkney Town; several deaths were recorded. To add to their misery, swarms of grasshoppers destroyed their crops. By mid-September of 1819, the aforementioned families from Brandon had abandoned by their new village. Soon after, French Canadian Freeman and Métis families from Pembina moved in, recreating the settlement as St Francois Xavier.

During 1821-22 Tom returned to HBC service one last time, as a steersman voyageur working out of Beaver Creek.

On Jan 28, 1821 Tom was baptized and church-wed to Sarah at St John’s (Winnipeg); the next day (Jan 29) five of his children were baptized there (John, Tom, Richard, Sally & Humphrey). At this time he was still living at Beaver Creek.

In 1822 Tom was a ‘freeman’, his HBC career was over.

Thomas received a small plot of land along the Red River, in the vicinity of present-day Lockport. There he moved his large family, and he settled for the remainder of his days. 

In 1835 Tom was recorded on Lot 29 in St Andrews. There were eight people in his household. He had a horse, cart and three cattle; two acres of land were under cultivation.

On Aug 12, 1848 Tom died; he was buried in the St Andrews Church Cemetery.

Sarah died May 25, 1874 in St Andrews (Lockport).

Children of Thomas Favell and Sarah “Sally” Trout are:

  • John James Favell, born Abt. 1797 in Rupert’s Land; died October 29, 1870 in St Francois Xavier, RRS; married Isabelle Elisabeth * Short Bef. 1822; born 1810 in St Francois Xavier, RRS, NWT = MB, CAN; died Unknown.
  • Marguerite “Peggy” * Favell, born 1803 in Rupert’s Land, Canada; died October 23, 1891; married Micheal Lambert January 21, 1821 in Beaver Creek, NWT; born June 15, 1792 in NWT; died December 25, 1875 in Manitoba, Canada.
  • Thomas (Jr) Favell, born Abt. 1807 in RRS; died July 1896 in Cut Knife Hill, Battleford, NWT=SK, CAN; married Madeleine Unknown November 23, 1841 in St Andrew’s, RRS; born 1803 in RRS.
  • Richard Favell, born Abt. 1812 in Swan River, NWT=MB, CAN; died Bef. April 20, 1873 in St, Mary’s, Portage la Prairie, NWT=MB, CAN; married Euphemia * Anderson January 17, 1837 in MB, CAN.
  • Sarah * Favell, born 1815 in MB, CAN; died Unknown; married Magnus Jr * Spence August 07, 1836 in RRS = MB, CAN; born 1811 in Rupert’s Land; died October 22, 1849 in St Andrews, RRS = MB, CAN.
  • Samuel Favell, born June 11, 1820 in Fort Ellice, NWT = MB, CAN; died September 1896; married (1) Margaret Kipling December 06, 1838 in St. Andrews Church, RRS = MB, CAN; born 1822 in MB, CAN; died 1845 in St. Andrews, RRS = MB, CAN; married (2) Elizabeth “Betsy” Irvine December 03, 1846 in St Andrew’s, Red River Settlement; born Bef. August 22, 1829 in RRS; died November 11, 1870.
  • Humphrey Favell, born December 1820 in Fort Ellice, NWT = MB, CAN; died Unknown; married (1) Jane Unknown Bef. 1843; married (2) Sophia Cochrane December 14, 1843 in St. Andrews Church, RRS = MB, CAN; born 1825 in Rupert’s Land; died Unknown.
  • Mary * Favell, born May 1824 in Rupert’s Land; died Unknown; married James Thomas Sanderson November 23, 1843 in St. Andrews Church, RRS = MB, CAN; born Abt. 1793 in NWT; died November 26, 1873 in MB, CAN.
  • Charles Favell, born July 1823; died 1933; married (1) Nellie Boucher; married (2) Lucy Muscowequan.
  • Joseph Capt. Favell, born January 01, 1828 in Rupert’s Land; died Unknown; married (1) Margaret Morissette March 1849 in St. Andrews, RRS; born in Manitoba, Canada; married (2) Margaret (Moore) Moar January 05, 1857 in St Pauls, Red River Settlement; born June 1834 in St Andrew’s, RRS = MB, CAN; died Unknown.
  • William Favell, born 1832 in St Andrews, Red River Settlement; married (1) Margaret Moodie January 03, 1850 in St Andrews, Red River Settlement; married (2) Charlotte Cote June 10, 1858 in St. Andrews Church, Red River Settlement, Manitoba, Canada; born Abt. 1828 in Manitoba, Canada.

Note: Richard Favell became my 4th Great Grandfather.

Birsay Village

Birsay Village or Orkney Town, is a community founded by Cree-Orkney Métis in the late eighteenth century in the Red River area. The Birsay site was three miles above the White Horse Plain, or twenty-two miles above the forks.

The settlement of Birsay Village west of Fort Douglas on the Assiniboine River which was built by a group of Métis freemen, some of whom had previously lived in the Brandon House area.

Thomas Favell (my 5th Great Grandfather) was one of the Freeman credited in creating Birsay Village. Thomas Favel, a Metis, was released from HBC because of his refusal to go with Peter Fidler to Jack River at the northern end of Lake Winnipeg in 1815.

Birsay Village or Orkney Town was abandoned by mid-September, 1819. The 1827 census suggests they were absorbed into the main Red River Colony.

Reference Documents:

  • https://digitalcollections.lib.umanitoba.ca/islandora/object/uofm%3A2397653#page/85/mode/2up/search/favel
  • https://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/_docs/hbca/biographical/f/favel_thomas.pdf
  • https://www.redriverancestry.ca/FAVEL-THOMAS-1781.php
  • https://www.metismuseum.ca/resource.php/12534
  • https://www.scribd.com/document/34640390/Birsay-Village
  • https://www.metismuseum.ca/media/document.php/13795.Manitoba%20Metis%20Communities.pdf
  • https://www.academia.edu/39035139/Historic_Metis_Settlements_in_Manitoba_and_Geographical_Place_Names