Sarah Ballenden

No one could deny that Sarah Ballenden was beautiful. Nor that she was elegant and charming. And as the wife of Chief Factor John Ballenden, she was at the very pinnacle of society in the Hudson's Bay Company.

She was the chatelaine, the mistress of the officers' mess at Upper Fort Garry in Rupert's Land in the mid-19th Century.

And she was native born.

But to some of the European ladies a the the post it was an intolerable situation that couldn`t be allowed to continue. She would have to be brought down.

And when Sarah Ballenden became all too familiar with Captain Foss, the handsome Irish Captain of Militia, the ladies saw their opportunity.

What transpired was the celebrated defamation trial, Foss v Pelly and its aftermath.