Jessie Kerr Lawson
Journalist, Novelist & SHort Fiction Writer | 1838-1917
Jessie Kerr Lawson (1838-1917) is better known today in Canada than in her native Scotland. She was born out of wedlock in Edinburgh and raised by her maternal grandparents. She married William Lawson, a ship’s carpenter whose ill-health left the couple, who had ten children, struggling financially. So in 1866 Lawson decided to emigrate to Canada, where, she hoped, they could live on less money. They settled in Hamilton, Ontario, where she ran a dry goods and millinery shop while her husband worked in a shipbuilding yard. Lawson supplemented the household income by writing, especially after William’s early retirement in 1873. She wrote a number of short and serial stories for the People’s Friend, and a regular column for the Glasgow Herald. She also contributed to Canadian magazines including Grip and The Week. She published fiction under several names including Hugh Airlie and Barney O’Hea, and variants of her intials, J. K. L. and Jay Kayelle.