Main Page - Catharine Parr Traill

"Have I not a right to be cheerful and contented for the sake of my beloved partner?... I have voluntarily left home, and friends, and country, shall I therefore sadden him by useless regrets?..."

Catharine Parr Traill was born in Rotherhithe, Surrey, England on January 9, 1802. She was the fifth child of Thomas and Elizabeth Strickland. Her siblings were Eliza, Jane Margaret, Susanna (later Susanna Moodie), Samuel and Agnes. In 1832 she married Lt. Thomas Traill. The couple emigrated to Upper Canada and settled near the Otonabee River close to Peterborough. Together they had nine children.

Only a few holdings for Catharine Parr Traill are held at the Trent University Archives. The fonds includes some correspondence, a manuscript, collection of grasses and many publications.

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83-004 Katchewanooka Herald fonds.(Related)

83-1003 Strickland Photographs and Clippings.(Related)

83-1021 Strickland Family Genealogy.(Related)

84-012 Burgess-Walton Family fonds.(Related)

86-1000 The Old Doctor by C.P. Traill

95-003 Catharine Traill Naturalists' Club fonds.

96-1012 Grasses from Stony Lake gathered by C.P. Traill

Catharine's letters were published in her famous book Backwoods of Canada: Being Letters from the Wife of an Emigrant Officer... London: Charles Knight, 1846.

Photo: Catharine Parr Traill from Pearls and Pebbles; or Notes of an Old Naturalist by C.P. Traill. Toronto: William Briggs, Wesley Buildings, 1894.