Betsey Price is the youngest child and fourth daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Price. She is the goddaughter of her aunt Mrs. Norris, and according to the customs of the time period, might be named after her. Her mother generally loves her sons more than her daughters, but she has a particular fondness for Betsey and indulges her injudiciously.
Mrs. Price uses Betsey as messenger to the kitchen when the bell breaks, and she spies on the servants and gets into other people's things. She is five years old when her sister Fanny (then eighteen) returns to Portsmouth. Betsey often steals their sister Mary's knife from Susan, who inherited it, and while showing it off to Fanny, Susan sees and starts another argument with her about it. Fanny eventually buys Betsey her own knife, which settles the matter peacefully.