Grace Denison (1853-1914)
Grace Elizabeth Sandys was born in Chatham, Canada West, on 10 September 1853, the eldest daughter of Francis William Sandys (1815-1894) and Elizabeth Agnes Moeran (1821-1918). As her father was a prominent archdeacon in Chatham, Grace grew up in an upper-class household. She was educated in Chatham and later at Hellmuth College in London, ON.
Grace married Alfred Ernest Denison (c1850-1913) in Chatham, ON, on 26 December 1883. Grace began freelancing when her marriage started to break down, becoming a full-time journalist in the 1880s. She was reportedly so self-supporting and engrossed in her work that she did not know her husband had been ill until he died in 1913. Despite her cheerful demeanor and pen name "Lady Gay," Grace was often a figure of sadness. It was rumoured that when she was a young woman she had been in love with a man who had died the day before their wedding. Grace wrote a novel about the experience, which was accepted for publication but was destroyed by a fire before it could be published. Grace's subsequent marriage failed to produce the children she desired; in consolation, she became a mother figure to other writers.
Before the work at Toronto's
Saturday Night for which she is most remembered, Grace wrote and self-published A Happy Holiday (1890), a detailed account of her solo trip through the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Hungary, and Switzerland. The book established her reputation as one of Canada's first female travel writers.
In her position as society editor and columnist at
Saturday Night, Grace directed contributions by fellow journalist Agnes Scott ("Amaryllis") (1863-1927), who wrote on Ottawa life. Writing as "Lady Gay," Grace both mingled with Toronto's elite and included her critical opinions of them in her society gossip pages. According to journalist Hector Charlesworth (1872-1945), when it came to "handling social gossip in a manner that titillated curiosity without giving offense, no journalist was her equal." The identity of "Lady Gay" was unveiled in 1900, when the National Council of Women of Canada identified women journalists in the ranks of women working in Canada.
In 1904, Grace travelled to St. Louis for the World Fair on behalf of
Saturday Night, accompanying fifteen other female Canadian journalists, including Kit Coleman (1856-1915), whom Grace greatly admired, and Kate Simpson Hayes (1856-1945). These women became known as the "Sweet Sixteen," and it was during this trip that a number of them banded together to form the Canadian Women's Press Club (CWPC); Grace, however, declined to join. When she later announced the formation of the CWPC in her column in Saturday Night, she commented on her lack of involvement with the following: "My non-membership is not at all due to lack of interest or non-assurance of worth but from purely personal reasons which have nothing to do with the club and which for the present influence me."
In addition to her journalistic pursuits, Grace was also the editor of
The New Cook Book: A Volume of Tried, Tested and Proven Recipes by the Ladies of Toronto and Other Cities and Towns (1903), a compilation of recipes she gathered from the social elite of Toronto. The book was subsequently published by several other publishers under more recognized titles, such as The Canadian Family Cookbook and The Canadian Home Cookbook.
Grace died suddenly on 1 February 1914 in Toronto.
Father: Francis William Sandys 1815 – 5 March 1894
Archdeacon Francis William Sandys was born in 1815 in County Cork, Ireland. He married Elizabeth Agnes Moeran (1821-1918), and the couple had six children together.
Francis started out in 1845 as a travelling missionary in Canada West. He was ordained by the Bishop of Toronto, and eventually became the Rector of Christ Church in Chatham, ON. According to an obituary published in the
New York Herald on 7 March 1894, he was one of the best known Anglican divines in Canada. He died on 5 March 1894 from a stroke.
Mother: Elizabeth Agnes Moeran 24 February 1821 – 18 April 1918
Elizabeth Agnes Moeran was born on 24 February 1821 in County Cork, Ireland, to Edward Moeran (b. 1760) and Margaret Bustead (1775-1845). She married Francis William Sandys (1815-1894), and they had six children together. She died on 18 April 1918 in Chatham, ON.
Siblings
Francis E. Sandys (b. 1856)
Frances Sandys (b. 1858)
Lucy Sandys (b. May 1858)
Edwin (or Edward) Sandys (b. 1861)
Benjamin J. Sandys (b. 1864)
Spouse: Alfred Ernest Denison (c1850 – 23 October 1913)
Marriage:
26 December 1883, Chatham, ON
Alfred Denison was born around 1850 to Richard Lippincott Denison (1814-1876) and Susan Marie Hepburne (1818-1889). He married Grace Elizabeth Sandys (1853-1914) on 26 December 1883 in Chatham, ON. The couple did not have any children, and the marriage was not a particularly happy one. It is likely that the couple did not live together, or spent very little time together, as Grace did not know of Alfred being ill until he died on 23 October 1913.