Mrs. Mary and Others: Women of Barrington

Elisabeth Anne MacDonald teaches English at the University of Western
Ontario.

The author introduces this volume, in the preface, as “an attempt to
show that women of the Barrington area of Nova Scotia have, for many
years, played an important role in the struggle for women’s
emancipation and equality.” The book not only records the individual
stories of the women of Barrington, but it also touches more generally
on the involvement of local women in such diverse areas as midwifery,
telegraph operation, and wartime service. Perry relates the personal
histories of such remarkable women as Margaret Coupar Fletcher Watson
Cutt, a Loyalist settler who was widowed three times, and Eliza Ann
McGray Ross, who took command of a sailing ship bound for South America
when her captain husband died suddenly en route.

Written in an easy, anecdotal style, the narrative depends heavily on
journals, letters, and oral history. A lack of specific, pertinent
material seems to have compelled the author to place undue emphasis on
what little is available, however trivial. Her extensive use of local
detail— family and place names—is frequently confusing and often
meaningless to the outside reader. The text’s organization is loose
and the narrative style tends to become rambling, leaving the reader
without a clear sense of the development of women’s move to equality.

While this text lacks the scholarly attention to detail and
documentation necessary for it to be considered a work of reference or
authority, it nonetheless represents a valuable contribution to the
social history of women in Nova Scotia. Mrs. Mary and Others is not an
academic study of historical events, but a celebration of the strength
and determination of a community and its women.