ALBAN FIDLER (1809-1879) ** MORE ABOUT PETER FIDLER A year after Alban was born, his dad was promoted to the position of Chief Surveyor of the HBC, and in 1812 he was the Postmaster at Brandon House. Soon Peter FIDLER was surveying river lots for settlement in Lord Selkirk's doomed Red River Colony. Alban was 7 years old (at Brandon House) when the Battle of Seven Oaks occurred just north of Winnipeg. His youngest sibling, Harriet, was born in 1821at Fort Dauphin when Alban was 12 years old, and his father died there the following year (1822). The FIDLER family moved to Red River where his mother, Mary, died in 1826. Marriage to Elizabeth HALLETT In 1828 Alban married Elizabeth HALLETT at St John’s Anglican Church(he was 19 and she was just 14 years old),. Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry HALLETT and his 4th wife, Catherine DUNGES. The marriage ceremony was performed by the Rev William COCHRANE and was witnessed by James and Thomas SPENCE. On Oct 4, 1829 their first child (Elizabeth “Betsy”) was born (baptised Nov 15, 1829 at St John’s. The young FIDLERs lived on Lot 59 in St James Parish, near the HALLETTs. Although just teenagers themselves, Alban and Elizabeth seem to have taken on the responsibility of raising some of Alban''s younger brothers and sisters, after their mother (Mrs Peter FIDLER SR), died. In the1830 Census of Red River, Clement (16), Peter (10) and either Collette (14) or Harriet (8) were living with them. By 1848 Alban & Elizabeth had eight more children (Isabella, Mary, Matilda, Harriet, Victoria, William Albert, Jemima and Alexander). Alban was also a Surveyor and he charted Lake Winnipeg for the HBC, having been taught surveying techniques by his father. Railton says - Alban of St James, who was the first white man to chart Lake Winnipeg for the HBC. Between 1849 and 1851, they lost 3 teen-age daughters (Isabella, Mary and Mat8ilda), possibly to tuberculosis. Alban was appointed Magistrate in 1850. Sons James George was born in December of 1850 and John Cornelius in 1852. Alban was one of the original petitioners to have an Anglican church established in the parish of St James (consecrated in 1853), now a part of greater Winnipeg. Daughter Dorcas was born in 1854. In 1855 daughter Elizabeth married John BOURKE JR In 1873 daughter Jemima married William MILLS In 1875 son John Cornelius married Christiana Ellen TAIT In 1875 both Alban and Elizabeth claimed their Metis Scrip. In 1876 daughter Dorcas married James John LAND Alban died in 1879 (age 70); buried in St James. Census 1881: Widow Elizabeth FIDLER, age 67, is living in Assiniboia (St James) with her son and daughter-in-law (Christiana & John Cornelius FIDLER b-1852). Children:
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