In the first part of the article about the Wigtown Martyrs reference is made to a beautiful marble statue of Margaret Wilson, bound to the stake in Solway Firth, which is at the Presbyterian Knox College in Toronto, Canada. The statue was a gift to the College by Senator A. C. Hardy of Brockville, Ontario, Canada in 1938 and for 62 years the College has considered it to be a "copy by a now unknown artist".

Research in Canada by my good friend Bill Blain has turned up several interesting pieces of information. A search in the Archives of the Presbyterian Church uncovered Hardy’s 1938 letter offering the statue to the College and in it he states that he acquired the statue from the estate of John Morgan Richards.

Richards (1841 - 1918) was an American businessman who resided at Steep Hill Castle, Ventnor, Isle of Wight and in London, England from 1867 until his death and who took considerable interest in the arts. His daughter, Pearl Mary Craigie, who wrote under the name John Oliver Hobbes, was an author and dramatist.

Inquiries circulated to many organizations from Chicago to Edinburgh about the "unknown artist" brought a response from the National Gallery of Canada that Charles Bell Birch A. R. A. (1832 - 1893) was the likely sculptor having displayed a virtually identical study at the Royal Academy Exhibition in London, England in 1889. This was confirmed by the Royal Academy who supplied a picture of the statue from the 1889 Exhibition Catalogue. It was also discovered that Birch displayed a bust of Mrs. J. M. Richards at the Royal Academy the following year.