Isabella Brownlie Miller was born in Scotland in [1828]. Her mother died in childbirth and her father remarried. From the surviving nine letters written by Isabella, it appears that, as a child, she had quarreled with her step-mother. It can only be surmised that the relationship with her step-mother perhaps contributed to the fact that she was to leave her country to become a servant in Upper Canada. It is believed that Isabella arrived in Upper Canada around 1836 at the age of eight, and lived and worked as a servant in the home of William Christie and his mother located in Otonabee Township, Peterborough County.