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Description area
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History
Agnes Shakespeare "Nesta" Higginson, 1865-1955, was born in Cushendun, County Antrim, Ireland. In 1895 she married Walter Claremont Skrine, 1860-1930, who was born in County Somerset, Ireland. In 1880 Walter went to Ceylon as a tea planter, then in 1883 came to Alberta where he established the Bar S Ranch on Mosquito Creek, near High River and Nanton.
Agnes was a writer and poet who used the pen name Moira O'Neill. Her work was published by Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine and the London Spectator. Her major work of prose, "A Lady's Life on a Ranche", was published by Blackwood's in 1898. Her poems, "Songs of the Glens of Antrim", were published to instant acclaim in 1902. The Skrines returned to County Wexford, Ireland in 1902. They had three sons and two daughters children, including Charles John, 1902-1966, Susan, 1900-?, Mary Nesta, 1904-1996 [also known as Molly Keane], Godfrey Higginson, 1909-1995, and Walter Henry.
For further information see T.B. Higginson's article "Moira O'Neill in Alberta", in Alberta Historical Review. -- vol. 5, no. 2 (Spring 1957), p. 22-25.