Anna Brownell (Murphy) Jameson
Anna Brownell (Murphy) Jameson (1794-1860) was born in Dublin, Ireland, the eldest of 5 daughters. The family moved to Hanwell near London when Anna was four years old. Anna was a precocious and ambitious child. She took responsibility for her sisters’ education to assist the family, and became a governess at sixteen years of age. Her position as a governess with a well to do family afforded her the opportunity to travel and become an avid visitor of art galleries. She married Robert Jameson, a lawyer and later a judge, in 1825. She was recognized in her own right as a writer of fiction and became well-known in England after a fictionalized version of one of her European travels. In 1833, Robert Jameson was appointed Attorney General for Upper Canada and arrived in York that spring. Anna Jameson reluctantly followed her husband to Canada in 1836, arriving in Toronto in mid-December. She remained in Toronto until June of 1837, when to the surprise of many she undertook a tour through the south western part of the province and Lake Huron. She visited initially, Niagara, Hamilton, Port Talbot, London and to Detroit. She then travelled by steamer to Michilimacinac and by open boat to Sault Ste. Marie and returned by way of Lake Huron and Manitoulin Island. The sketch book in this exhibition is Anna Jameson’s record of that journey. Anna Jameson did not remain in Canada, she ultimately separated from her husband and returned to England where she had a successful career as a writer.
Link to bio from Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
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