(fl. 1786), poet. (Anna Gillis, Anna Gillies, Anna McGillies, Ann Gillis) Anna McGillis appears to have come to GC in the 1786 emigration from Scotland. She is remembered as the author of two Gaelic songs, “O, Siud an Taobh a Ghabhainn” (“That Is the Road I Would Take”) and “Canada Ard” (“Upper Canada”). The former was composed, presumably, before leaving Scotland, and describes her feelings about the proposed migration to the New World. The latter song praises the life of the emigrants in Upper Canada and commends Fr Alexander Macdonell (Scotus), comparing him to Moses who led the Israelites out of bondage. No other works by Anna McGillis are now known. The Gaelic texts of these songs with English translations are printed in Margaret MacDonell’s The Emigrant Experience: Songs of Highland Emigrants in North America (University of Toronto Press, 1982), pp. 131-137, with a useful bibliographical description pp. 218-219 of earlier appearances of these songs in print. Very little is known about Anna McGillis. She is said to have been married to a MacDonald. Margaret MacDonell records the claim of a Cape Breton tradition that Anna McGillis was the grandmother of John Sandfield Macdonald. (This claim remains unverified.) Margaret MacDonell also suggests very cautiously that the Anna McGillis we are considering was the person of that name who was the mother of Fr John Macdonald (the legendary and memorable Father John, 1782-1879). Anna (Nancy) MacGillis, who was the mother of Fr John, died 15 Jan.1847, at St. Raphael’s, aged 90, and her death notice is in William D. Reid’s Death Notices of Ontario p. 338.