Mary Anne By Friel
Written by Anthony "Tony" Butticci
Embedded Files
Clipping of a portrait of Mary Anne By Friel, from HSO 24: Scrapbook Bytown and Ottawa: [1863-1902], City of Ottawa Archives, p. 94.
Mary Anne By Friel, also known as Mrs. H. J. Friel, was a Canadian amateur archivist and historian. She is well known for being the wife of Henry James Friel, who served as a mayor of both Bytown and Ottawa, and as one of the founding members of the Women’s Canadian Historical Society of Ottawa, which later became known as the Ottawa Historical Society. For this project specifically she can be noted as the creator of the first scrapbook in our data collection which covers from 1863 to 1902.
Mary Anne By O’Connor was born on May 25th, 1827, in Bytown, Upper Canada, British North America. This later became Ottawa, Upper Canada in 1855 and finally Ottawa, Ontario, Canada in 1867. She is noted as the first white child to be born in Bytown after its official founding on September 26, 1826. She is the daughter of Daniel O’Connor, an Irish immigrant from Clonmel, Tipperary, Ireland (1796-8 May 1858), who was a merchant and one of the earliest families to settle in Bytown. Her mother was Margaret Power. O’Connor Street in Downtown Ottawa is named after the family.
Mary Anne married Henry James Friel, a writer and politician from Montreal, in 1848. She changed her name to Mary Anne By Friel, or simply Mary Anne Friel. She is also referred to as Mrs. H. J. Friel in various clippings included in the scrapbook. Henry James Friel served as the last mayor of Bytown in 1854 before it became Ottawa in 1855. He then served as the 4th mayor of Ottawa in 1863 and from 1868 to 1869. He died in office of pneumonia on May 16th, 1869. The couple had several children together, three of which survived into adulthood. Their son, also named Henry James Friel, married Agnes Elizabeth Nagle in 1893. Nagle is also referred to as Mrs. H. J. Friel in the scrapbook.
Following the death of her husband, Mary Anne began collecting clippings from newspapers and other paper items, eventually creating a scrapbook of Ottawa history. In 1898 she was one of the founding members of the Women’s Canadian Historical Society of Ottawa. Her son also collected and held many papers and other historical items related to Ottawa and Canadian history. She would also present various historical writings at the annual meetings of the society.
She died on June 9th, 1903, in Ottawa at the age of 76.
References
Access Genealogy. “Biography of Daniel O’Connor,” August 5, 2012. https://accessgenealogy.com/canada/biography-of-daniel-oconnor.htm.
Bytown or Bust. “Daniel O’Connor and Margaret Power, Clonmel, County Tipperary, Ireland to Bytown (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) in 1827,” February 28, 2002. https://web.ncf.ca/es568/danoconn.htm.
Capital History. “Henry J. Friel,” October 17, 2019. https://capitalhistory.ca/people/henry-j-friel/.
Cross, Michael S. “FRIEL, HENRY JAMES,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 9, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed November 21, 2024, https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/friel_henry_james_9E.html.
Haig, Robert. Ottawa, City of the Big Ears; the Intimate, Living Story of a City and a Capital. Ottawa, ON: Haig and Haig Publishing Co., 1975.
HSO 24: Scrapbook Bytown and Ottawa: [1863-1902], City of Ottawa Archives, Box A2009-0598 MG110-SBHS 07/09a
“Mary Ann Friel, 09 Jun 1903.” Canada, Ontario Deaths, 1869-1937 and Overseas Deaths, 1939-1947, 1903. FamilySearch. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JDB3-Z3P.
Taylor, E.M. The Historical Society of Ottawa. Historical Society of Ottawa Pamphlet Series 0. Ottawa, ON: Historical Society of Ottawa, 1976.
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