An Evening with Betsy Munro Fisher: The Tragic Story of a Loyalist Woman in Burgoyne's Army - presented by Anne Clothier

About this event

Betsy Munro Fisher’s  story will be told by Anne Clothier, who is considered one of the most knowledgeable historians of the Capital Region on women of the American Revolution and focuses on the women of the Burgoyne Campaign.

You may wonder why this story is being told here in Hebron, NY.  A patent of land in what is now North Hebron was granted to Betsy’s father, the Rev. Harry Munro who was a chaplain of the 77th Highlander Regiment in the British Army during the French and Indian War. He named the Munro Patent, Munro’s Meadows. It was one of the first settlements in Black Creek (now Hebron).  Betsy was born in Philadelphia in 1760. Her mother died when she was an infant. Munro married two more times. For a time, he was employed by the Anglican Church in Albany. In the early 1770s Munro sought to develop his wartime bounty land – 2,000 acres between the Hudson River and Lake Champlain. He built a large log cabin there in the Town of Hebron and held summertime services. His subdivision of the tract into small farms in 1774 found only a few takers.  According to an account by Isabel McIntyre in 1771, the road to Munro’s Meadows from Salem was not open all the way to the Meadows, much of the way, there was no road at all. The weather was very hot and flies and mosquitoes were very troublesome (possibly the reason there were few takers!) Later Munro returned to Scotland.

We are here to learn of the difficult and tragic life of his first child Betsy who lived for a time as a child in Munro’s Meadows (Hebron) in the summertime where she was very happy.  Later in her life as the audience will see, her father was not kind to her. However, as the audience will learn, this is not the story of Harry.

Anne Clothier is currently the Assistant Historian for Saratoga County, N.Y. She served as Education Director for the Brookside Museum in Ballston Spa for 13 years. She is a longtime reenactor/living historian particularly focusing on women of the colonial period.

Please come out to enjoy a fascinating evening with Anne Clothier.  Bring a friend! There is no charge for this program. Donations are gladly accepted. We hope you will join us. For more information, please call (518) 854-3102, say your name when prompted and press # for your call to go through or to leave a message.