After her mother’s death Emily McArthur returned to Ireland. She lived in Virgemount, Co Dublin (modern day Clonskeagh). Her brother Richard was still living in Yorkshire where he was a curate in the Ripon area, but shortly afterwards he would emigrate to Canada, leaving Emily without any intimidate family in Dublin.
Emily McArthur could not have anticipated that when her only brother left for Canada in 1856, it would be the last time she would see him. His destination was in the Ontario district, where he was Reverend “St. George’s Parish Church, St. Catherines. He was there scarcely six months, when he contracted Scarlett fever, which took his life. Richard Lyons McArthur was about 31 years old.
There is a dedication to him in the churchyard with the inscription:
Here lieth the body of Rev. Richard Lyons McArthur, M.A. Trinity College, Dublin and for some months, curator of St. George’s Church in this town, departed life, 1857.
St George’s Church, where Richard Lyons McArthur was Reverend
Sadly Emily would never get to meet her grandmother or uncle.