The female emigrant’s Guide and Hints on Canadian Housekeeping by Catherine Parr Traill - Glimpses of the Past with Karen Webster

Born near London, England, one of five daughters and one son of the Greenlands docksmaster on the Thames, Catherine Strictland grew up in the countryside area of East Anglia and was educated at home. This education must have been quite thorough, as she became a competent amateur botanist. Her father died when Catherine was 16 and she and three of her sisters turned to writing as a source of income for the family.

 

In 1832, she married retired Lieutenant Thomas Traill. They immigrated to Canada and settled near Peterborough. Catherine’s sister, Susannah Strictland, also married a retired military man: John Moodie. They followed the Traills to the same area.
Just like the Lizars sisters, Kathleen and Robina Lizars Smith, who preserved the early era of settlement in the Huron area in the book In the Days of the Canada Company, the Strictland sisters left chronicles of life in the bush in the 1830s and 1840s in such books as The Backwoods of Canada (Catherine) and Roughing it in the Bush (Susannah). Neither of these women were particularly enamoured with pioneer life and, within a few years, both families had moved to Belleville.

 

Many books and leaflets about the values of immigration to Canada had been penned, starting with Dr. William Tiger Dunlop’s missive, Statistical Sketches of Upper Canada for the Use of the Emigrant,  which glorified the opportunities to be had in the colonies and offered practical advice on the process of emigration and settlement in Canada. Catherine Parr Traill felt that there was a great lack of advice for the women who would be making Canada their new home and thus, in 1854, long after removing to urban life, she undertook to offer a “Female Emigrant’s Guide”  for the sum of 25 cents, or one shilling and three-pence.

 

She felt that, although many books have been written to guide men in the necessities of preparing for a successful life in Canada, the role of the female had been ignored thus far. 

 

It is important to remember that Catherine was brought up in privileged circumstances and thus addressed most of her observations and advice to women of similar backgrounds. She referred to those of more limited means as those of the working class.

 

Nevertheless, she recognized and valued the skills that the less affluent women would possess, starting with the baking of bread. She illustrated her point by relating that one high-born pioneer lady was reliant on a ploughboy to give her advice on the breadmaking process.

 

In the introduction, she warned that attitude was one of the greatest assets needed. “A sickly, peevish, discontented person would make a poor settler’s wife in a country where cheerfulness of mind and activity of body are very essential to the prosperity of the household.” Therefore, the prime requisite Catherine advocated for was learning the art of making bread, including the making of yeast from hops and barm. Also included in the skills department were cooking, curing meat, making butter and cheese, knitting, dressmaking and tailoring. 

 

The advice that Catherine imparted was on two levels:  for those with money and position in the old country and for the people with very limited resources who would be living a more crude type of existence. For example, some folks who would have rugs for their floors were advised to spread hay or straw on the rough floorboards. In addition, guidelines for the purchase of manufactured goods and management of servants was given. On the other hand, for those with more limited means, instruction was given about how to manage fireplaces and how to be creative when obtaining furnishing for the cabin. Catherine noted that one of the settler’s great objectives is to make as little outlay of money as possible.

 

At the time of settlement, barrels were the common container for shipping all manner of goods, from apples, salt, flour and whiskey to items of hardware. Catherine advises that a barrel, if cut in half, would serve as a washtub. Also, with a little ingenuity, a barrel could form the basis of a chair. Four of the staves could be used as legs and some of the staves left intact to form the back of the chair. All that would be needed was the addition of a cushion.

 

In the crudest of a beginner cabin or shanty, she opined that seats would be rough benches and a table would be made of the same. And a few shelves attached to the walls could hold the crockery and tinware. To make a bed, a frame could be made with cedar poles and a coarse linen bag filled with hay or dried moss would be the mattress. 

 

In addition to her advice to emigrants, Catherine Parr Traill left her mark on the Canadian saga in many ways. She published several books on the plant life found in the new land and her many albums of plant collections are housed at the Canadian Museum of Nature. She and her sister, Susannah, were honoured in 2003 by Canada Post by being featured on stamps commemorating the writers of Canada.