Grace Annie Lockhart

Early Life

Grace Annie Lockhart was born the youngest of four daughters in 1855 in Saint John, New Brunswick. Lockhart’s childhood was marked by tragedy and family struggles: her mother died when Lockhart was an infant and Lockhart was raised by her older sisters and their housekeeper, Rosanna Wilson, who died when Lockhart was a child. Her maternal grandfather’s outdated will required Lockhart’s father to apply for guardianship of his own daughters in order for them to inherit. His suit was successful, allowing his daughters to inherit £200 each, a notable sum at that time.

Mount Allison Ladies’ College
Mount Allison Ladies’ College was founded in 1854 as the “female branch” of the Mount Allison Wesleyan Academy. (See also Mount Allison University.) The school’s first preceptress was Mary Electa Adams, who sought to provide women with the opportunity for education. Adams developed a more rigorous curriculum for her students than other institutions were offering to women in the late 19th century.

Education

All three of Grace Annie Lockhart’s older sisters studied at Mount Allison Ladies’ College, although none stayed for longer than a year. Lockhart herself enrolled in the institution in 1871, at age 16. She developed an interest in science, and added courses to her study, which could include French, German, Latin, music, math, botany, logic and astronomy. She was the winner of the school’s Natural Science Prize in 1873-74.

At the end of Lockhart’s first year of study at the Ladies’ College, Mount Allison College (now Mount Allison University), which had been founded exclusively for men, began welcoming women as students. It was the first higher education institution in Canada to accept women as degree-earning students.

At the Ladies’ College, Lockhart earned a Mistress of Liberal Arts (MLA) in 1874. Lockhart’s MLA was regarded as the equivalent of two years of university study, and she entered Mount Allison College for the final year of a three-year bachelor’s degree. (See also Liberal Arts Education.)

Lockhart graduated with a Bachelor of Science and English Literature degree on 25 May 1875. Upon her graduation, the Mount Allison student newspaper, The Argosy, reported on Lockhart’s academic achievement. However, while not known to them at the time, she was the first woman to earn a bachelor’s degree in not just Canada, but the British Empire.

Lockhart’s graduating class consisted of eight students, including John Leard Dawson, who would later become her husband. Unlike her fellow classmates, Lockhart was not permitted to wear a graduation gown or hold a mortarboard.

Did you know?
Mount Allison University was also the first university in Canada to award a Bachelor of Arts to a woman – Harriet Starr Stewart earned her degree in 1882.

Life after Graduation

After graduation, Grace Annie Lockhart began working as a teacher (see Teaching Profession). She reportedly returned to Mount Allison Ladies’ College in 1878, teaching English and history, before going on to teach at public schools in New Brunswick. (See also Mount Allison University.) Lockhart served as Secretary and Treasurer of the Alumnae Association of the Mount Allison Ladies’ Academy in the late 1870s and was made a Life Member of the Society.

Lockhart continued teaching until her marriage in 1881 to John Leard Dawson, a fellow classmate from Mount Allison. John was a Methodist minister and the couple moved to a new congregation every three years, as was the system in Methodist churches. Eventually the married couple lived in all four Atlantic Provinces. Records indicate that Lockhart, who was referred to as Mrs. J. L. Dawson by some sources, helped her husband with work in their churches. They had three sons, all of whom attended Mount Allison.

Women’s Rights Work

While little is known of Grace Annie Lockhart’s life after her marriage, sources reveal snippets of her life and indicate that she advocated for women’s rights – and that she held a firm belief in the power of education for women (see Women and Education). She was a member of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, a 19th-century women’s organization through which members campaigned for prohibition and various women’s issues and rights.

Lockhart is also known for a rousing speech she delivered in 1896 at the Nova Scotia Conference of the Methodist Church. Her speech impressed the need for women to access higher education:

“The higher education of woman, about which there is so much discussion in the present day. What is this higher education? It is the education of women to fit them for the higher spheres of action, whether they be political, professional or social—the same education that men need under the same circumstances. It may be true that women are not welcomed to these positions, but still they come, some on bicycles and some off, some with a great deal of noise and confusion, some silently and earnestly. We cannot push this new woman off the track for hydra-like, a dozen would rise in her place.” – Grace Annie Lockhart, 1896

She also unreservedly called for women to win the right to vote (see Women’s Suffrage in Canada):

“Perhaps the reform bill, which will allow woman equal suffrage with men, will be as much a leap in the dark as that of ’67 [Confederation], but if it brings us as much nearer to the clear daylight, will it not also be as beneficial? These new women desire to say by whom they shall be governed, both in politics and religion.” — Grace Annie Lockart, 1896.

Legacy

Lockhart died on 18 May 1916 in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, aged 61. She was named a National Historic Person in 1991, and a plaque marks her accomplishment on the Mount Allison University campus.