Elizabeth Roberts MacDonald fonds [textual record]. -- 1892-1894. -- 1 cm of textual records

Biographical sketch: Poet and story writer Jane Elizabeth Gostwycke Roberts, the second daughter of Emma Wetmore Bliss and George Goodridge Roberts, was born 17 February 1864 at Westcock (near Sackville), New Brunswick. Nain Roberts, like her brothers Charles G. D. and Theodore Goodridge, was educated at the Collegiate School (Fredericton) and the University of New Brunswick. In the early 1890s, she taught at the School for the Blind, Halifax, Nova Scotia. She married her cousin Samuel Archibald Roberts MacDonald, in 1896, and they had 3 children: Archibald G., Cuthbert Goodridge and Hilary who died in infancy. Nain and Arch MacDonald lived in Fredericton until 1912, when they moved to Nelson, British Columbia and, in 1914, to Winnipeg. By 1915 Nain had left her husband and had relocated with her sons to Ottawa, where her mother, her sister-in-law May Roberts, and May's children, Edith, Douglas and Lloyd resided.

Prior to her marriage, J. Elizabeth Gostwycke Roberts had exhibited talent as a writer. Her poems were published in several leading periodicals and magazines of the day including The Century, The Independent and Outing Magazine. In 1889 she produced a booklet of verse for private circulation, and ten years later she co-authored a book of poetry, Northland Lyrics, with her brothers William Carman and Theodore Goodridge. As well her short stories appeared on the pages of New York Churchman and Petersons. Her other published works include: Dream Verses and Others (1906) and Our Little Canadian Cousin (1904). The latter work of fiction sheds light on the Roberts family's life in Fredericton. Jane Elizabeth Gostwyche Roberts MacDonald died unexpectedly at Ottawa on 8 November 1922.

Sources:
Adams, John Coldwell, Sir Charles God Damn: The Life of Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, 1986
Canadian Men and Women of the Time, 1912
The Macmillan Dictionary of Canadian Biography, 1963

Scope and content: This fonds consists of a single item -- Elizabeth Roberts MacDonald's literary notebook containing 5 short holograph works of prose: Birch and pine (The Century, 25 July 1892), In the storm (Canada), Waiting (1893), A dream of thee (2 copies, 1894) and The moon of flowers (The Acadian, Vol. 1 No. 1).

Title based on contents of the fonds

MacDonald's prose notebook was deposited by Mount St. Vincent University Library in 1974-1975

A typescript copy of J. Elizabeth Gostwycke Roberts's poem "Kathaleena" is located in MG L10 Sir Charles G. D. Roberts fonds

Lloyd Roberts offers a brief portrait of his Aunt Janey in The Book of Roberts(1923)

BACK TO ARCHIVES