Peter Redpath was born on August 1, 1821, in Montreal, Canada, the son of a Scottish immigrant, John Redpath (1796-1869), a director of the Bank of Montreal and a member of the Montreal City Council.

He was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He worked in the family's sugar refinery and other businesses in Montreal. He was a member of the McGill University Board of Governors from 1864 until he died in 1894. He endowed a chair of Natural Philosophy at McGill in 1871 and established the Redpath Museum in 1880. In the same year, he migrated to England. He also founded the Redpath Library at McGill University in 1893. He donated about half a million dollars in money and books to the University.

In 1847, he married Grace Wood (1816–1907), daughter of William Wood, a merchant and philanthropist of Manchester. Grace continued her husband’s philanthropy in Montreal. He died on February 1, 1894, in Chislehurst, England.

Jane’s birth date is not certain, but she was probably a toddler when her mother, Jane McVie Redpath, died in 1834 giving birth to her brother John James. Jane bore the same name as another daughter who had died in 1928 at the age of 3. In 1935, her father, wealthy Montreal businessman and philanthropist, John Redpath, married 19-year-old Jane Drummond, who found herself mother of six children; she would give birth to 9 more of her own, five of whom survived to adulthood. Jane Margaret grew up in the estate on Montreal’s Mount Royal that her father purchased in 1836. The home with its 235 acres of fields and orchards was called Terrace Bank. She was closer in age to her stepmother’s children than to her own siblings except baby John James. Unmarried at 28, she chose to live with her older sister, Elizabeth, and her family, rather than her step-family. Later she lived for some time in Edinburgh and in the summer of 1880, her niece, Lily Dougall, daughter of her sister Elizabeth, came to stay with her until 1881. Lily stayed often with Jane in Edinburgh, and when the latter fell ill in the fall of 1896, Lily nursed her until she died in August 1897. Jane left her a substantial legacy when she died.

Grace was the daughter of Manchester woolen merchant and philanthropist William Wood. In 1847 she married Montrealer Peter Redpath, son of a Scot who had immigrated to Canada and built a successful sugar refining business. Peter met Grace in Manchester where he had been sent to train his business skills and was employed by Grace’s father. The couple returned to Montreal where they lived till 1879. Peter became president of John Redpath & Son and a director of the Bank of Montreal as well as a member of the Montreal City Council. He also was a member of the McGill University Board of Governors from 1864 until his death and it was McGill that most benefited from the couple’s philanthropy: they founded a museum and a library (both named after the family), endowed a chair in natural philosophy, and donated more than 3,000 books to the library’s collection. Grace had never really liked Canada and had a difficult relationship with her mother-in-law, Peter’s father’s second wife (who was actually Grace’s age since he had married her when she was 19). Grace and Peter returned to England in 1879 and lived the rest of their lives at Chislehurst in Kent but kept in close touch with their nieces and nephews in Montreal. Tragedy struck the family of her husband’s younger brother, John James, whose widow, Ada, and son Clifford were mysteriously shot at the family mansion in Montreal in 1901; Clifford’s sister, their niece Amy, with whom they were close, came to them for comfort. When Amy married her family’s doctor, Thomas Roddick (later Sir Thomas), the celebration took place at Chislehurst.