- DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Daniel J. Brock, “RYERSE (Ryerson), SAMUEL,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 5, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/ryerse_samuel_5E.html
- DCB profile notes:
- Author and diarist; b. in February 1798 at Port Ryerse, Upper Canada, the daughter of Samuel Ryerse, uel, and Sarah Underhill; d. 19 March 1882 in London, Ont.
- Amelia Ryerse’s parents immigrated to Canada from the United States shortly after the American revolution, initially going to New Brunswick but finally settling at Long Point, Norfolk County, Upper Canada, in 1794. Her formal education appears to have been limited to attendance for one or more years in a school at Niagara Falls prior to 1812. Amelia’s father, who had commanded a company of New Jersey volunteers in the Revolutionary War, was placed in charge of the Norfolk County militia shortly after his arrival in Upper Canada, and subsequently was appointed lieutenant-colonel and lieutenant of the county.
- A fortnight after the wedding Harris was advised by Sir Edward Campbell Rich Owen that he had been assigned to a hydrographic survey of the Great Lakes under Captain William Fitz William Owen. Harris was based in Kingston and during the next two years, until he retired on half pay on 1 Sept. 1817, Amelia presided over domestic affairs at the headquarters of the survey, which served as the residence for the officers; she was also involved in the preparation of draft maps of the surveyed areas.
- The chief value of Amelia’s diary is literary rather than historical or sociological. Nevertheless, since Eldon House was a social centre a considerable number of the members of London’s leading families appear in its pages, as well as prominent personages including Edward Blake, George Brown, John A. Macdonald, and Egerton Ryerson. In conjunction with her letters, and those written by other members of the family, it provides a detailed portrait of a well-to-do 19th-century family. However, its real importance derives from its author’s consistent point of view about the events she chronicles, the clarity and objectivity of her analysis of character, as well as the dramatic fashion in which she succeeds in presenting seemingly prosaic events; the resemblance to the work of Jane Austen is striking. Despite Amelia’s sparse formal education she was extremely well read in English literature, history, and theology and had a first-rate mind. Her abilities are evident not only throughout her diary and letters but also in her other major literary project.
- In 1861, at the request of her cousin Egerton Ryerson, she wrote “historical memoranda” describing her father’s immigration and his subsequent activities until 1810. She extended the narrative in 1879 to cover the period to May 1814 and this account included reports on her birth and early life as well as the attack on the farm. The revised essay was included in Ryerson’s The loyalists of America. In the view of Charles Bruce Sissons, “these thirty pages serve to brighten the dutiful narrative of Ryerson’s second volume and present as factual and interesting an account of the early settlement of Upper Canada as is anywhere to be found.”
- Daughter of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=7251
- Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/93855793/amelia-underhill-harris
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