Agnes Maule Machar (1837-1927)

An influential social commentator in Victorian Canada, Agnes Maule Machar articulated thoughtful opinions on a broad range of social, scientific, and religious topics at a time when most professional and intellectual pursuits were closed to women. Through her insightful essays in prominent literary periodicals, she debated intellectual leaders on a wide range of topics, arguing for temperance, labour reform, and women’s rights, including access to higher education. Machar was also a prolific author. Her didactic fiction, poetry, biography, and historical works were reflective of her times. She was inspired by her strong commitment to Christian social reform and Canadian nationalism, and produced writing that was infused with imperial sentiment.

Machar was born 23 January 1837 in Kingston, Upper Canada, to Dr. John Machar and Margaret Sim. Her father was a co-founder of Queen’s College, later Queen’s University, and served as the school’s principal from 1846 to 1853. Agnes’s education included Latin, Greek, French, German, Italian, literature, mathematics, drawing, music, and science. She also benefitted from a lively social environment in which her parents entertained prominent political, scientific, and literary leaders. As a young woman, Agnes began taking an active role in charitable work with church and missionary organizations. During her career, she remained committed to public service through her involvement with the Canadian Women’s Press Club, where she was a founding member, the National Council of Women, and the Young Women’s Christian Association.

Machar began her prolific career writing religious and Sunday school material and later moved to reform literature. As a deeply religious, upper middle class woman, Machar, with her family’s encouragement, avoided fame by initially writing under the pseudonym “Fidelis.” Her first novel, Katie Johnson’s Cross: A Canadian Tale was published in 1870. As her stature grew, she became a major contributor to leading Canadian intellectual and literary journals. In her essays, she defended Christianity against scientific rationalism, challenged arguments against higher education for women, and was one of the few women to argue in these journals for the temperance cause, which advocated for the moderation, if not total elimination, of alcohol in society. Thoroughly committed to the social gospel, which sought to apply Christianity to an industrializing society as a means to cure social ills, Machar used her writing to propose reforms for alleviating the suffering of the urban poor, improving working conditions for labouring women, recognizing labourers’ organizations, and establishing charitable institutions.

Machar’s other written works – biographies, histories, historical fiction, and poetry – were written with the intent of teaching morality to her readers. Her patriotic work was guided by her belief that the nation and the British Empire had a high moral purpose. These texts, including Stories of the British Empire (1913), Heroes of Canada (1893), and For King and Country: A Story of 1812 (1874) are representative of an imperial sensibility and Canadian nationalism. She was also committed to environmental causes, as her poetry reflects a devotion to nature that was characteristic of her era.