You are here

Lizars, R. (Robina)

Main entryLizars, R. (Robina)
Birth placeStratford, Ontario
Birth date10 October 1850
Death placeNiagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario
Death date26 August 1918
Identifier0204
Birth nameRobina Alison Lizars
Married nameSmith
Marital statusmarried
Religious affiliationAnglican
BiographyRobina Alison Lizars (1850-1918), known sometimes as "Ruby," descended from Irish naval and military men and Scottish professionals and men of letters. Her father, Daniel Lizars (1822-1894), rose from barrister to judge of Perth County Court. Robina married a widower, the brilliant jurist Robert Smith (1838-1885), in 1876. Upon accepting appointment as judge to the Supreme Court of Manitoba, Robert went west, while Robina remained in Stratford to care for the couple's two young sons and Robert's three children from his first marriage. Six months later, when Robert suddenly died of tuberculosis, Robina returned to her family home with her boys. She then collaborated with her sister, Kathleen Lizars*, on two works of history and a local colour novel. Considered to be an organist of great ability, Robina served for a time on the executive of the Ontario Music Teachers' Association. She died after a short illness in 1918.
Other notesDeath registry lists cause as something resembling "Plomasine Poisoning," with the immediate cause as heart failure. Son Robert Home Smith was a wealthy financier, lawyer, and builder who developed important parts of Toronto, including the neighbourhood known as "The Kingsway."
ResidencesStratford, Ontario (1850-1891); Toronto, Ontario; Niagara, Ontario (-1918)
Geographic regionsSouthern Ontario
Primary genresnon-fiction (history); fiction
Booksall co-authored with Kathleen Lizars, IN THE DAYS OF THE CANADA COMPANY (1896); HUMOURS OF '37: GRAVE, GAY, AND GRIM (1897); COMMITTED TO HIS CHARGE: A CANADIAN CHRONICLE (1900)
Other artsmusic (organ)
Father's nameDaniel Home Lizars
Life dates of father11 February 1822, Renfrewshire, Scotland - 5 March 1894, Stratford, Ontario; m. 1848
Father's notebarrister; County Attorney (1858-); County Judge (1864-); master in chancery (1877-); local judge of High Court of Justice (1882-1886); lieutenant in first battalion of Huron militia
Mother's nameEsther Longworth
Life dates of motherc1822, Westmeath, Ireland - after 1871; m. 1848
Spouse 1Robert Smith
Life dates of spouse 1c1838, Loweswater, Cumberland, England - 19 January 1885, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Spouse 1 notelawyer; judge, Supreme Court of Manitoba; died of TB
Marriage 1 date25 July 1876
Marriage 1 placeStratford, Ontario
Children number2
Children's names and datesRobert Home (12 July 1877 - 4 February 1935); Bruce Longworth (21 August 1879 - 1954), m. to Rosia Mayberry
Biographical referencesMacMillan Dictionary of Canadian Biography; Mitchell-Reid, Alison, University of Western Ontario Fonds description (2010); 1871 Census of Canada; 1881 Census of Canada; 1891 Census of Canada; Ontario, Canada Marriages, 1801-1928; Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947
Bibliographic referencesWatters, CHECKLIST OF CANADIAN LITERATURE...1620-1960 (1970), p. 702
Research referencescomplete
Archival referencesSmith and Lizars Papers, University of Western Ontario Library; Lizars Family Papers, University of Guelph
Image creditsLine drawing by Una Vernelli (Vancouver, British Columbia).
CopyrightThis 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.