Priscilla Bethell – From transcript of taped interview, January 1989
   

My name is Priscilla (Whitlaw) Bethell. I was born on May 26th, 1914. We lived on Princess Avenue in Victoria but in August of 1914 we moved to Saanich. My mother was    born in Saanich, my grandmother was born at Parson's Bridge (now Colwood) in 1858 and her mother was born in 1830 at Fort Colville on the Columbia River.
The first ancestor, James Goudie, came out in 1827 and he traveled with Hudson's Bay Company to the forts. He was at Fort St. James and Fort Fraser – this area was all known as New Caledonia at that time, and they drifted down to forts on the Columbia River. 

Then, when the 49th Parallel was settled, the family wanted to live under the British flag and moved bag and baggage, as it were, to Fort Nisqually  (Tacoma today) to wait for the Beaver, the Hudson's Bay boat that was to come and pick up the families. But it didn't show up for some reason, so they commandeered or hired the Whidby Indians to bring them across in a dugout canoe. They stopped at Whidby Island, then came across and landed at what we know as Clover Point. The reason why the Whidby Indians wouldn't bring them 'round to Fort Victoria was because, at that time, they were warring with the Songhees, the predominant Indians on the lower end of Vancouver Island. So the family settled here; I'm not sure of the date, but it would be in the late 1840's or early 1850's.

 In the meantime, another ancestor left Scotland and arrived here on the coast in 1848. His name was John Greig. He walked across Canada, and he was what they called a "lime burner". He also settled at Parson's Bridge and he found lime at Mount Seymour in Thetis Lake Park. So he took land there, 120 acres I believe, with the idea, of course, of selling the lime to the Hudson's Bay Company. But it was inferior lime, so he walked over the Highlands to the Saanich Peninsula where he found lime at what we know today as Butchart Gardens.

In the meantime he met Margaret, one of the daughters of John Goudie, married and had a family. My grandmother and her brother were the first students at the old Craigflower school. As I said, the lime was not the best so John Greig moved out and took up a section of land, which is Butchart Gardens today, from the waterfront up to the hill They had 12 children. There is a rather interesting story that my great-aunt used to tell. One night she felt something on her foot, because during the day, (they all ran barefoot of course, in those days in the summertime), she got a thorn or something in her foot and her mother had put a bread poultice on it. And during the night she felt something at her foot and she felt around and a rat was eating the bread! She loved to tell that story! I think that gives you an idea of the real pioneers.

Another ancestor was Duncan Lidgate. He came out on the "Norman Morison" in 1853, another Hudson's Bay man. They only brought out artisans, and they had to work their passage. For five years they had to work for the company, so Duncan helped with the Craigflower School and the Craigflower Manor and some other buildings. They were all fed up with the Hudson's Bay Company because one of the stories told was that Sir James Douglas was a company man – very much so. So they scouted around and Duncan Lidgate found the land at Mount Newton [1858], about 50 acres there. I think about $65 he paid, over the course of two or three years. He built a house there, and that house is still standing today.

My father, Lawrie, was Lawrence Whitlaw. His father was Captain Alexander Whitlaw. He came out from England with his wife who opened a millinery shop on Fort St. in Victoria. Her sister sent her patterns for hats from Paris so the local clientele had the latest designs!

She sent for my father and his brother, Uncle Charlie, and they came out and she sent them to Helgeson's out in Metchosin. They were to be gentlemen farmers! When my grandmother died, the boys were out at Helgeson's; they attended school at the very old Metchosin School, and then as my father grew up, he went to Central School; it was called Boys Central School, at the top of Yates Street. And from there he went for a year to school in Vancouver. He ended up as a teacher – he had one of those brains, everything he read was just in there; a computer – none of us inherited that, unfortunately! Then he studied engineering, so he was a marine engineer, and he was an engineer on the quarantine boat at the quarantine station. In those days of course, the Empress liners were coming in and they'd have a doctor, Dr. Jones was his name, go out and meet the Empress liners and the doctor would go aboard.
This is just part of one story of the many stories in the 600 family files in the Archives.