Hello Ann,
Always good to hear from extended relatives!!
As background, the letter we're referring to is a microfilmed copy which came from the Peter G. McArthur fonds at Western University in London Ontario. In the collection notes, it's attributed date was 1818....Given all of the contrary evidence and keeping in mind that the year on the letter is unreadable , & I hadn't found the McPhail death ,I hazarded a guess at 1868
I agree with your conclusion that 8 January 1873 is the likely date. I had previously found this info on Neil Walker pointing to a latest date of Jan.1874.
Canadian Dept. of Agriculture report dated 1881,"Reports of tenant
farmers'Delegates on the Dominion of Canada as a field for settlement"
in which Neil Walker & family from Achnaglaic,near Tarbert was visited
& interviewed. He left Tarbert in 1874 and was settled just outside Glencoe, Ont.
The letter then is likely prior to 1874
The Malcolm McPhail death in the summer of 1872 seems to confirm this.
