| Main entry | Armour, Agatha |
|---|
| Birth place | Fredericton, New Brunswick |
|---|
| Birth date | 25 October 1845 |
|---|
| Death place | Fredericton, New Brunswick |
|---|
| Death date | 24 April 1891 |
|---|
| Identifier | 0149 |
|---|
| Birth name | Rebecca Agatha Armour |
|---|
| Married name | Thompson |
|---|
| Marital status | married |
|---|
| Religious affiliation | Presbyterian; Church of Scotland; Free Church |
|---|
| Degree and date | teacher's certificate, Provincial Teacher's College (November 1863) |
|---|
| Paid work | teacher (school) |
|---|
| Biography | Rebecca Agatha Armour (1845-1891) was born Fredericton to immigrants from Ireland — Joseph Armour (c. 1798-1876) and his second wife, Margaret Hazlett (c1815-1891). In 1863 Agatha received her teacher's certificate from the Provincial Teacher's College in Fredericton, and became known as one of the best teachers in the province. She contributed a series of historical sketches on "Landmarks of Old Fredericton" to the FREDERICTON CAPITAL and issued four novels. At least two of these, LADY ROSAMOND'S SECRET: A ROMANCE OF FREDERICTON (1880), an historical romance reconstructing Fredericton society during the period 1824-31, and MARGUERITE VERNE (1886), were published by subscription by the Saint John DAILY TELEGRAPH. One other title, MARION WILBURN (n.d.), may have been a serial and seems to be no longer extant. Although she married John Gilbraith Thompson in 1885, Agatha continued to write under her own name, as "Agatha Armour." Within three weeks of her mother's death, Agatha died in 1891 in Fredericton where she was interred in the Old Burial Ground. Other than spending about five years during the 1870s in Lancaster, New Brunswick, she lived her entire life in Fredericton. |
|---|
| Other notes | Some time in the late 1830s, Joseph Armour (c1798-1876) left Coleraine, Ireland with his young family, his brother's family, and his widowed father. They settled first in Fredericton, New Brunswick and later in Upper Kent. When Joseph's first wife died, he brought his two children into his marriage with second wife, Margaret Hazlett (c1815-1891), with whom he had five more children, including Rebecca Agatha Armour. |
|---|
| Residences | Fredericton, New Brunswick (1845, 1851, 1861, 1871); Lancaster, New Brunswick (1873-c1878); Fredericton (1881, 1891) |
|---|
| Geographic regions | New Brunswick |
|---|
| Primary genres | fiction |
|---|
| Books | MARION WILBURN (n.d.); LADY ROSAMOND'S SECRET: A ROMANCE OF FREDERICTON (1878); SYLVIA LEIGH: OR THE HEIRESS OF GLENMARLE (1884); MARGUERITE VERNE: OR SCENES FROM CANADIAN LIFE (1886) |
|---|
| Periodicals | FREDERICTON CAPITAL; ST. JOHN DAILY TELEGRAPH |
|---|
| Father's name | Joseph Armour |
|---|
| Life dates of father | c1798 Coleraine, Northern Ireland - 31 March 1876, Fredericton, New Brunswick |
|---|
| Father's note | grocer; merchant |
|---|
| Mother's name | Margaret (Hazlett or Hazelette) |
|---|
| Life dates of mother | c1815, Ireland - 6 April 1891, Fredericton, New Brunswick |
|---|
| Spouse 1 | John Gilbraith Thompson |
|---|
| Life dates of spouse 1 | c1846, New Brunswick - |
|---|
| Spouse 1 note | carriage maker |
|---|
| Marriage 1 date | 22 January 1885 |
|---|
| Marriage 1 place | Fredericton, New Brunswick |
|---|
| Biographical references | Davies, "Armour, Rebecca Agatha (Thompson)," on DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY XII, University of Toronto/Universite Laval (Web, 2000); FEMINIST COMPANION TO LITERATURE IN ENGLISH (1990); 1851 Census of Canada, Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia; 1861 Census of Canada; 1871 Census of Canada; 1881 Census of Canada; 1891 Census of Canada |
|---|
| Bibliographic references | Watters, CHECKLIST OF CANADIAN LITERATURE...1620-1960 (1970), p. 239; MacFarlane, NEW BRUNSWICK BIBLIOGRAPHY (1895), p. 79 |
|---|
| Research references | complete |
|---|
| Archival references | Letter to Laurence Raymond, MG 23 D1 ser 1 vol 80, National Archives of Canada |
|---|
| Image credits | Line drawing by Una Vernelli (Vancouver, British Columbia). |
|---|
| 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. |
|---|