William John O'Grady

O'Grady, William John

William John O'Grady, Roman Catholic priest, journalist (b in Ireland; d at Pickering, Canada W c18 Aug 1840). He arrived in Upper Canada in 1828 and soon began serving the Catholic congregation at York [Toronto]. Within a couple of years, however, complaints about his conduct began circulating, and in mid-1832 Bishop MACDONELL decided to transfer him to another parish. O'Grady refused to leave and launched a series of unsuccessful appeals - to Lt-Gov Sir John COLBORNE, to the Colonial Office and to the Vatican. Late in 1832, suspended from the priesthood, he founded a reform newspaper known as the Canadian Correspondent. He remained as editor of the paper when in November 1834 it merged with William Lyon MACKENZIE'sColonial Advocate and was renamed the Correspondent and Advocate. Closely associated with Mackenzie, he was a key figure in the reform movement until late 1837, when he sold his paper and moved to Pickering Township. Mysteriously, he took no part in Mackenzie's abortive rebellion that December and appears to have lived an uneventful life until his death. A coroner's inquest ruled that his death had been caused by a "visitation of God."