Four years later he went to the Canadian west to seek his ever-elusive fortune, a parental abandonment that would provide Maud with the frequently used theme of orphanhood. Her mother died of tuberculosis when she was 21 months old, and her energetic but feckless father left his daughter to be raised by her maternal grandparents, Alexander Marquis and Lucy Ann Macneill, who had been born a Woolner and thus belonged to another prominent Island family.

As she matured, Maud was aware of tension between her “passionate Montgomery blood” and her “Puritan Macneill conscience.” She was also aware that she had been born to what Cavendish considered high status because her ancestors had long been settled in Canada, they had connections to the old country, and they had financial security and political influence. Both the Macneills and the Montgomerys boasted ties to distinguished clans in Scotland, some members of which were published authors, and they had relatives who were active in Island politics. She was born into two of the province’s most prominent landholding families. Montgomery, called both Lucy Maud and Maudie as a child and Maud as an adult (she once asserted that “my friends call me ‘Maud’ and nothing else”), was raised in Cavendish near the north shore of Prince Edward Island under the fictional name of Avonlea, this beautiful rural community provides the setting for her most famous novel, Anne of Green Gables.

1874 in Clifton (New London), P.E.I., only child of Hugh John Montgomery and Clara Woolner Macneill m. 5 July 1911 the Reverend Ewen (Ewan) Macdonald (d. 1943) in Park Corner, P.E.I., and they had three sons, the second of whom died at birth d. 24 April 1942 in Swansea (Toronto) and was buried in Cavendish, P.E.I. MONTGOMERY, LUCY MAUD (Macdonald), diarist, author, teacher, newspaperwoman, and public speaker b. 30 Nov.

Lucy maud montgomery emily climbs