[1] The couple established themselves in Kingston, Ontario (then part of Upper Canada), where her father was the pastor of St. Andrew's Church,[1] and second principal of Queen's University (1846–1853).

[1] By the age of ten Machar was studying Latin and Greek, instructed by her father and aided by his extensive library.

[6] In 1874 she received another prize, this time for For King and Country, awarded by The Canadian Monthly and National Review; the novel is probably her best known work.

[1] Her friends included prominent Darwinists such as George Romanes and Grant Allen, and she wrote that Christians should accept evolutionary theory as part of an adapting and fuller understanding of God's word.

[1] Machar also advocated for prohibition and proposed that the state should establish homes for the care of impoverished elderly citizens, whom she described as "veteran[s] in the industrial army.

"[1] She dedicated her own resources to this cause, bequeathing an endowment to establish the Agnes Maule Machar Home at 169 Earl Street in Kingston "for old ladies past earning their own livelihood.".

[1] The terms of her will turned the property, designed in 1849 by William Coverdale (architect), into a residence for elderly Protestant women of "gentle birth" in 1932, until its public sale in 2003.