Series 8 - Thomas William Magrath, Authentic Letters from Upper Canada

9pp

Kerby A. Miller's notes and abstracts of 20 letters published in Radcliff, Rev. Thomas, ed. (1833) (1953), Authentic Letters from Upper Canada (Toronto: MacMillan).
Per Miller: 'The Magrath party of nine migrated to Upper Canada in May, 1827, and settled on the Credit River at Erindale, 18 miles west of York (Toronto). T.W. Magrath, the writer of many of the letters, tells that the party consisted of his father, the Rev. James Magrath, his mother, sister, three brothers, a cousin, Charles Alley, a female servant, and himself. On his petition for land, dated July 4, 1827, James Magrath stated that his sons were aged 23, 21, 20, and 14, and that his daughter was 9. James Magrath emigrated when he was nearly 60; he had graduated from [Trinity College Dublin] in 1800, and was a minister in the Church of Ireland. He died the rector of Erindale in 1851, aged 82. Thomas William Magrath was born in Co. Carlow, entered Trinity College in 1822, but does not appear to have graduated. The editor, the Rev. Thomas Radcliff, remained in Ireland, but 13 members of the family, children, grandchildren, and their attendants, left for Canada in spring 1832 and settled in Adelaide Township, Middlesex County, Upper Canada. Thomas Radcliff, author of several of these letters, was born in Co. Roscommon in 1794. After a short time at Trinity, he joined the British Army and served in the Peninsular Campaign. was reduced to half-pay in 1817.)'

Complete transcripts of the letters are located in P155/63/7.