| Main entry | Christie, Annie Fowler Rothwell |
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| Birth place | London, England |
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| Birth date | 31 March 1837 |
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| Death place | New Liskeard, Timiskaming, Ontario |
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| Death date | 2 July 1927 |
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| Identifier | 0241 |
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| Birth name | Mary Ann Bessy Fowler |
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| Married name | Rothwell, Christie |
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| Marital status | married |
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| Religious affiliation | Anglican |
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| Biography | Born in London, England, the daughter of painter Daniel Fowler (1810-1894), Annie Fowler Rothwell Christie (1837-1927) began to write verses at an early age, but such works were never published. The Fowlers emigrated to Canada around 1841 and settled on Amherst Island, near Kingston, Ontario. In 1862, Annie married Richard Rothwell (c1806-1874), an Amherst land agent more than twice her age. Following Richard's death, Annie married the widower Reverend Israel James Christie in 1895. Twice widowed, she had no children, but she raised Reginald Charles Fowler, her brother's son, after his mother's death. (Reginald would later marry Israel's youngest daughter from his first marriage, Frances.) Living in Kingston after 1874, and then at the rectory in North Gower, Annie was friendly with authors Agnes Maule Machar* and Louisa Murray. Publishing always under her first married name, Annie Rothwell, her first works to appear in print were short prose tales submitted to various American, Canadian, and English magazines. Of her five novels, only one appeared in book form, LOVED I NOT HONOUR MORE (1887). Her serialized titles are "The Lost Lady Brathwaite" (St. James, Magazine, 1873), "Alice Grey" (Appleton's Journal, 1873), "Edged Tools" (Appleton's Journal, 1880) and "Requital" (Toronto Mail, 1886). Her poems on the Riel rebellion were widely admired and appeared in many newspapers. Before her death in 1927, Annie lived for three more years in England. She was buried on Amherst Island. |
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| Travel | Visited Toronto and Ottawa in 1911 |
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| Other notes | Several variations on her name, including "Marianne Bessie (Annie) Fowler." |
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| Residences | England (1837-c1841); Amherst Island, Ontario (c1841-1880s); Kingston, Ontario; England (three years); Kingston |
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| Geographic regions | Ontario |
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| Primary genres | fiction; poetry |
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| Books | LOVED I NOT HONOUR MORE (1887) |
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| Periodicals | APPLETON'S JOURNAL; BRITISH NORTH AMERICAN MAGAZINE; CHAMBER'S JOURNAL; DOMINION MONTHLY; MAGAZINE OF POETRY; MONTREAL STAR, ST. JAMES' MAGAZINE; TORONTOMAIL, THE WEEK, WINNIPEG MANITOBAN |
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| Other publications | Anthologized in: Lighthall, CANADIAN POEMS AND LAYS (c1892); Lighthall, SONGS OF THE GREAT DOMINION (1889); Rand, TREASURY OF CANADIAN VERSE (1900) |
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| Organizations | Women's Historical Society |
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| Father's name | Daniel Fowler |
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| Life dates of father | 10 February 1810, Champion Hill, Camberwell (London), England - 14 September 1894, Amherst Island, Ontario |
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| Father's note | artist; farmer; journalist; author (sometimes erroneously listed as "David Fowler"); won water-colour award at Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition (1876) |
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| Mother's name | Elizabeth Gale |
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| Life dates of mother | 28 November 1811, Chessington, England - 26 Augsut 1903, Amherst Island |
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| Spouse 1 | Richard Rothwell |
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| Life dates of spouse 1 | c1806, Ireland - 31 October 1874 |
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| Spouse 1 note | land agent, Amherst Island |
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| Marriage 1 date | 19 May 1862 |
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| Marriage 1 place | Lennox and Addington County, Ontario (possibly Amherst?) |
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| Spouse 2 | Reverend Israel James Christie |
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| Life dates of spouse 2 | 7 April 1831, Elgin, Moray, Scotland - 24 August 1905, Carleton, Ontario, Canada |
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| Spouse 2 note | clergyman, Anglican; widower; some records list "Isaac James Christie" |
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| Marriage 2 date | 2 April 1895 |
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| Marriage 2 place | Toronto, Ontario |
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| Biographical references | CANADIAN WHO WAS WHO, vol. 2; Willard & Livermore, WOMEN OF THE CENTURY (1897); Moulton, THE MAGAZINE OF POETRY, VOL. 4 (1892), pp. 59-60; 1871 Census of Canada; 1881 Census of Canada; 1911 Census of Canada; England & Wales Christening Records, 1530-1906; Ontario, Canada Marriages, 1801-1928; Ontario, Canada Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947 |
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| Bibliographic references | Watters, CHECKLIST OF CANADIAN LITERATURE...1620-1960 (1970), p. 261 |
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| Research references | complete |
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| Archival references | Annie Rothwell fonds at National Archives of Canada |
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| Image credits | Image from Frances E. Willard and Mary A. Livermore, eds. A WOMAN OF THE CENTURY: FOURTEEN HUNDRED-SEVENTY BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES ACCOMPANIED BY PORTRAITS OF LEADING AMERICAN WOMEN IN ALL WALKS OF LIFE (Buffalo, NY: Wells Moulton, 1893). |
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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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