we should know nothing of them but for Powell's own records. His health had quite given way and at the close of the Session he asked for and obtained leave of absence intending to go to Bermuda to recuperate.10

Instead of going to Bermuda he went to England with the intention of obtaining if possible some increase in his past salary," when there occurred the second great tragedy in his life-the Tragedy of Anne Powell.

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CHAPTER XVIII

THE TRAGEDY OF ANNE POWELL

NNE POWELL was the sixth child and second daughter of William Dummer Powell.1 She was born in Montreal, March 10, 1787, and accompanied her parents to Detroit: she was educated in part in Canada, but mainly in England, and was undoubtedly of a high order of intelligence. Her correspondence proves her possession of wit, considerable literary talent and a sound education. She was, it is said, a handsome woman, though perhaps not so beautiful as her younger sister Mary; her manner was captivating and she was a good conversationist.

But she was self-willed, impatient of restraint, and had a hearty contempt for mere conventionality. The rigid formality of the official society of York irked her, and she resented with spirit "Mrs. Grundy's" stricture upon her conduct; moreover she was not too regardful of the feelings of her own people.

3

As early as 1812, gossip connected her name with John Beverley Robinson, one of the handsomest men of his time: and it was whispered that Powell's patronage of the young law student which resulted in his appointment as Acting Attorney General by Sheaffe was due to his expectation that they would become connected by marriage. Robinson, being in England pursuing his legal studies and having been appointed Solicitor General of Upper Canada, was married in London in 1817. Both Powell and his daughter Anne were then in England, and some comment was made on the fact that Robinson did not communicate to Powell the fact of his approaching marriage until everyone else knew it but both Powell and Robinson repudiate the suggestion that there was any impropriety in this.

Whatever hopes Anne Powell may have formed of a union with the Solicitor General-and many of her family in private letters never intended for the public eye acquit him of anything but an occasional honeyed word-she concealed for a time her resentment, if any she felt.5

Returning to Canada in 1818, it was not long before she made herself conspicuous by what seemed like pursuit of Robinson; this was the cause of much annoyance not only to the Robinsons but also to her own family.

Powell before he went to England in 1822, had seen and deplored this conduct; after he left, it became even more marked. Robinson who had been appointed by the Governor to proceed to England as Commissioner on behalf of the Province in connection with the troubles about revenue between Upper and Lower Canada, was leaving with his wife; and Anne Powell expressed her determination to go with them. Robinson declined to allow her to do so and left for New York without her.“

Her mother expostulated with her and told her plainly that her proposed journey would be taken by Society generally as proof of her infatuation. This angered the young woman,7 and she said that she would go now no matter what happened since such things were said of her. Dr. Strachan, (not yet Bishop) was sent for-the confidant of most of the official set at that time, certainly of all those of the Anglican creed. He reasoned with the angry young lady and finally she was apparently persuaded to give up her plan; her baggage which was all packed for the voyage was locked up by her brother, Dr. Grant Powell; and all fear of scandal seemed over.

In the morning, however, it was found that she had fled and was on her way by sleigh to Kingston. She then went south and at Albany so far effected her purpose that she joined Robinson and his wife. She was tolerated by them, stopped at the same houses and, as her mother writes, "boasts she was always considered the Lady of the party." The husband and wife sailed from New York but Miss Powell did not accompany them. Her mother's brother, George W. Murray, living in New York, persuaded her to remain over; and Robinson refused to take her in company with himself and his wife.

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After declining to sail in another ship because it carried no other women passengers, she took a later ship, the Packet Albion of 500 tons burden on which her townsman, Mr. Alexander Wood, had come out the year before. The Albion was not a new ship; but "she was one of the most thought-of ships that ever sailed, and the Captain (Williams) as much so, both as a well-behaved man and a good seaman." The ship encountered heavy weather and was in great distress for several days during which Anne Powell showed great fortitude and courage, encouraging the men and taking her turn at the pumps with them-all was in vain, the ship was wrecked with great loss of life. A contemporary account in the Cork Southern Reporter reads:

"The Albion, whose loss at Garrettstown Bay we first men