Date Published:
January 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

William Kirby

Kirby, William (1817-1906), author, was born at Kingston-upon-Hull, England, on October 13, 1817, and came to Canada with his parents in 1832. He settled in Niagara, Upper Canada, in 1839, and for more than twenty years edited the Niagara Mail. From 1871 to 1895 he was collector of customs at Niagara. His first important publication was The U. E. (Niagara, 1859), a poem in Spenserian stanzas. His reputation rests mainly, however, on a novel, The golden dog (New York and Montreal, 1877; new ed., 1896), which was translated into French by Pamphile LeMay and L. H. Fréchette. He published also Memoirs of the Servos family (Toronto, 1884), Canadian idyls (Welland, Ontario, 1894), Annals of Niagara (Lundy's Lane Historical Society, 1896), and a number of less important works. He died at Niagara on June 23, 1906. He married the daughter of John Whitmore, Niagara, and had two sons. In 1883 he became a charter member of the Royal Society of Canada. See Lorne Pierce, William Kirby (Toronto, 1929), and W. R. Riddell, William Kirby (Toronto, 1923).

Source : W. Stewart WALLACE. Ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. III, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 396p., pp. 341.