Isobel Telfer

Role: Sister of Francis Telfer (1809–1895), stayed in Scotland

Isobel Telfer was born on 10 February 1798 at Greenholm, near Newcastleton, Roxburghshire, Scotland. She was the second child of James Telfer (1761–1845), a hand loom weaver, and Elizabeth "Betty" Hutton (1774–1853). Her name is also recorded as "Isabella".

She did NOT emigrate to Australia and died in 1875 in Scotland.

The book states: "We have no further information about four members of this family; namely Isobel, Adam, Margaret and William." Like her younger siblings Adam, Margaret, and William, Isobel's fate after the family records is not documented beyond her death.

Family Stories

The Sister Who Stayed

Isobel Telfer was born on 10 February 1798 at Greenholm, outside Newcastleton in the Scottish Borders. She was the second child and first daughter of James Telfer and Betty Hutton — the weaver and his wife raising a growing family in a cottage with its own cow.

Her baptism is there in the Old Parish Register for Castleton, clear as day. But after that? Nothing. The book says it plain: "We have no further information about four members of this family; namely Isobel, Adam, Margaret and William."

She was 39 when her brother Francis packed up and sailed for South Australia in 1838. She was 47 when her father died in 1845. And she was still in Scotland when her older brother James — the one who emigrated — passed away in 1863. She died in 1875, aged 77, still in Scotland, her life unrecorded.

Some stories are lost because nobody wrote them down. Isobel's is one of them.

(From the Borders to the Bush, pp.17-20)

Source: From the Borders to the Bush — pages 17–20