Betty Mitchell

This article is about Betty Mitchell, a servant at Helwater. You may be looking for Betty, an enslaved woman at River Run.

Betty Mitchell
Biographical information
Full name	Betty Mitchell
Marital status	Single
Physical information
Gender	Female
Hair color	dark
Eye color	dark
Affiliations
Occupation	Lady's Maid
Nationality	English
Book appearances
The Scottish Prisoner
The Scottish Prisoner

Betty Mitchell is a lady's maid at Helwater for the Dunsany family and Tobias Quinn's one-time sister-in-law.

Personal History

Betty was lady's maid to Geneva Dunsany for most of Geneva's life. At some point, she discussed Jamie with Geneva, and she may have been aware of Geneva's plot to blackmail Jamie. When Geneva married Lord Ellesmere, Betty accompanied her to her new house. After Geneva's death in childbirth, Betty returned to Helwater and became Isobel Dunsany's maid instead. Though her job is to take care of Isobel, she frequently finds herself entertaining William as well.

Lord John Series

The Scottish Prisoner

As a favor to her former brother-in-law Tobias Quinn, Betty delivers a message to Jamie Fraser that Quinn wants to meet with Jamie. She flirts with Jamie, who resists her advances.

She later tells her lover, a footman called George Roberts, that Jamie made unwanted advances towards her, prompting Roberts to confront her. Jamie defuses the situation and tells Roberts that Betty was trying to make him jealous.

Annoyed at Jamie's refusal of her advances, Betty is pleased when soldiers arrive to escort Jamie from Helwater.

Upon Jamie's return to Helwater, he does not correct Lord John Grey's impression that he intends to marry Betty. Jamie informs Betty of Quinn's suicide, leaving her to cry in the arms of George Roberts.

Later, she and Jamie go along on a picnic with the Dunsanys. She readily shares gossip about the rogueish Mr. Wilberforce with Jamie. She is visibly reluctant to entertain the unhappy William. During a moment of inattention on Betty's part, William puts a beetle up his nose, Betty is shouted at by all three Dunsanys and leaves the picnic, sobbing.

When Lady Isobel Dunsany elopes with Mr. Wilberforce, her father's solicitor, Betty tries to go after her, knowing that Mr. Wilberforce is already married. Jamie finds Betty after Mr. Wilberforce pushes her into a ditch. She convinces Jamie to go and rescue Isobel, whose reputation would be ruined if anyone found out that she had run away with a married man.

Jamie later gives Betty money to start a new life with her husband.

Outlander Series

Voyager

Most of the servants, including Betty, knew Geneva was to be engaged before Geneva herself, and Betty was quick to pass on gossip about Geneva's reaction to the news. Until Jamie insists otherwise, Geneva believes that Betty has slept with Jamie, though whether Geneva came to this conclusion herself or Betty lied to Geneva, it is unclear. Upon finding out that Jamie resisted Betty's advances, Geneva becomes more interested in Jamie, saying that she "couldn’t possibly share a man with my maid.”

When arranging evening with Jamie, Geneva states that she can "arrange for my maid to be sent away." However, Jamie later speculates that Betty knew about the tryst either at the time or after the fact.

After Geneva's marriage, Betty joins her at her new home. However, she returns to Helwater after Geneva's death.

Personality

Betty is intelligent and appears to be popular among the other servants. She is a frequent gossip.

Physical Appearance

Betty is a fine-looking young woman, though is distinctly common.. She has dark eyes and dark hair.

Name

• Betty a diminutive of Elizabeth, from Ελισαβετ (Elisabet), the Greek form of the Hebrew name אֱלִישֶׁבַע (Elisheva) meaning "my God is an oath" or perhaps "my God is abundance".
• Mitchell is derived from the given name Michael, from the Hebrew name מִיכָאֵל (Mikha'el) meaning "who is like God?".