| Main entry | Lawson, Jessie Kerr |
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| Birth place | Edinburgh, Scotland |
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| Birth date | 19 May 1838 |
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| Death place | Toronto, Ontario |
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| Death date | 30 July 1917 |
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| Identifier | 0001 |
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| Birth name | Janet Kerr Coupar |
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| Alternate names | Hugh Airlie, Barney O'Hea, J.K.L., Washington White, Mona Fife, Jay Kayelle |
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| Married name | Lawson |
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| Marital status | married |
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| Religious affiliation | Presbyterian |
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| Paid work | teacher (school); shopkeeper; journalist |
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| Biography | A woman of enormous energy and determination, Jessie Kerr Lawson (1838-1917) supported an ailing husband and ten children by her pen. Born in Scotland, she was raised by her maternal grandparents after her father died. Because her parents were informally married, she took the family name of her mother, Kerr. After her husband, William Lawson (1830-1910), a ship's carpenter, became a semi-invalid, Jessie decided to bring her family to Canada in 1866. While William worked in a shipyard in Hamilton, Jessie ran a dry goods and millinery business. When her husband had to retire in 1873, Jessie turned to journalism and popular fiction, producing at least eight novels as well as a book of poetry. She wrote stories prolifically for the PEOPLE'S FRIEND, a Dundee family magazine, and regular columns for the GLASGOW HERALD, and in Canada contributed to GRIP and THE WEEK. According to her venue she assumed a variety of pseudonyms and at the peak of her writing career, she commuted between Scotland and Canada. Lawson ensured that her children were well educated and launched her large family into highly respectable careers. Three of her sons became scientists; James Kerr-Lawson became a noted painter. Two daughters followed in their mother's footsteps: Alice, a university-trained nurse, wrote ethnographic accounts of the Irish community of Alliston, using her mother's name as her pseudonym; Kate became a successful journalist, writing as "Katherine Leslie" for SATURDAY NIGHT and TORONTO WORLD. Jessie died of a stroke at the age of seventy-nine and was buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto. |
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| Other notes | Coupar sometimes spelled "Cowper" or "Cooper." Son Andrew Cowper Lawson was mineralogy and geology professor at U of California. Son James Kerr-Lawson was a Scottish-Canadian painter, who produced most of his work while living in Europe. Son Abercrombie Anstruther Lawson was a botanist and professor at U of Sydney. Son-in-law John William Scott McCullough was a political scientist and sanitation expert, who seems to have researched and documented living conditions in pre- and post-war Europe. Son William Leslie Lawson was a chemist and manager of the Great Western Sugar Company. Son-in-law Edwin Franklin Gayle was a player on the Louisiana State football team. Son-in-law John S. Hart was a doctor based in Toronto. |
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| Residences | Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland (1838-); St. Monans, Fife, Scotland (1841); Cellardyke and Anstruther, Fife (1861); Hamilton, Wentworthk Ontario (1866-1881), Toronto (1881-1917) |
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| Geographic regions | Ontario; Scotland |
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| Primary genres | fiction (popular); poetry; non-fiction |
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| Books | EPISTLES O' HUGH AIRLIE (1888); A VAIN SACRIFICE (1892); DOCTOR BRUNO'S WIFE (1893); EUPHIE LYN: OR, THE FISHERS OF OLD INWEERIE (1893); THE CURSE THAT CAME HOME (1894); A FAIR REBEL (1899); MISS NERO (1899); WILLIAM MARAH (1900); THE HARVEST OF MOLOCH (1908); LAYS AND LYRICS (1913) |
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| Periodicals | GLASGOW HERALD; GRIP; PEOPLE'S FRIEND; THE WEEK |
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| Other publications | Anthologized in: Whyte-Edgar, WREATH OF CANADIAN SONG (1910) |
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| Father's name | Andrew Coupar |
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| Father's note | Died early; not married to Jesssie's mother |
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| Mother's name | Janet Kerr |
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| Mother's note | Died early |
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| Spouse 1 | William Lawson |
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| Life dates of spouse 1 | 13 March 1830, Anstruther, Fifeshire, Scotland - 28 June 1910, Toronto, Ontario |
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| Spouse 1 note | ship's carpenter and boat builder |
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| Marriage 1 date | 30 May 1860 |
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| Marriage 1 place | Parish of St. Monance, Fifeshire, Scotland |
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| Children number | 10 |
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| Children's names and dates | Andrew Cowper (25 July 1861 - 16 June 1952), m. to Ludovika von Jansch, to Isabel R. Collins;
James Kerr (28 October 1862 - 1 May 1939), m. to Catherine;
Katherine Leslie (1864-1944), m. to Wesley G. Appleby;
Elizabeth (1865-1915);
Alice Margaret Adamson (16 January 1867 or 69-1949), m. to John William Scott McCullough;
William Leslie (1869-1957), m. to Laura Olive Williams or Laura Morgan;
Abercrombie Anstruther (13 September 1870 - 26 March 1927);
Edward (17 January 1872 - 1912);
Jessie Kerr (18 February 1874 - 1 June 1941), m. to Edwin Franklin Gayle;
Jean (4 February 1877 - 1951), m. to Dr. John S. Hart |
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| Biographical references | Vaughan, Francis E., ANDREW C. LAWSON, SCIENTIST, TEACHER, PHILOSOPHER (Glendale, Ca.: Clark, 1970); JAMES KERR-LAWSON, A CANADIAN ABROAD (Art Gallery of Windsor, 1982); Dictionary of Hamilton Biography |
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| Bibliographic references | Watters, CHECKLIST OF CANADIAN LITERATURE...1620-1960 (1970), pp. 110, 325, 623 |
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| Research references | complete |
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| Archival references | 1841 Scotland Census; 1861 Scotland Census; 1871 Census of Canada; 1881 Census of Canada; 1891 Census of Canada; Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947 |
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| Image credits | Line drawing by Una Vernelli (Vancouver, British Columbia). |
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| Copyright | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/. Please cite Canada's Early Women Writers. SFU Library Digital Collections. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada. 1980-2014. |
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