McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Henry Family Fonds
Fonds
3 cm of textual records
John Stewart Henry (M.D.,C.M., McGill, 1925) was born in Salisbury, New Brunswick. In order to finance postdoctoral studies, he worked during the summer of 1927 at Murray Bay; among the summer visitors he treated were former U.S. President William Taft and a Boston physician, Vincent Bowditch. In 1925 he married Leila Murdoch, M.D. Her mother, Lysbeth Dawson Murdoch (1856-1946) a native of Macduff, Scotland, had a long career in teacher training in Great Britain. As a young woman she had wished to be a doctor, but could not obtain admission to any medical school (including McGill, although Principal Dawson was her cousin) on the grounds of her sex. Barbara Mitchell (1777-1856) came from Forgue, Scotland to settle near her cousin James Dawson (father of Principal Dawson) in 1814. She remained only a short time before returning to Scotland.
These scattered Henry family papers, except for a few letters from William Taft and about Dr. Bowditch addressed to John Stewart Henry, 1929-30, reflect Leila Henry's interest in family history. They include genealogical charts, a biographical sketch of Lysbeth Dawson Murdoch, and a copy of a Banffshire newspaper of 1894 reprinting sections of Barbara Mitchell's diary of her return journey from Nova Scotia to Scotland.
Originals, printed materials, photocopies