Margaret Catchpole
Encyclopedia
Margaret Catchpole a British adventuress, chronicler and criminal, born in Suffolk
she worked as a servant in various houses before being convicted of stealing a horse and later escaping from Ipswich Gaol. Following her capture she was transported
to Australia
. Her entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography
describes her as one of the few true convict chroniclers with an excellent memory and a gift for recording events.
, Suffolk
, the daughter of Elizabeth Catchpole and according to one source of Jonathan Catchpole, head ploughman.
Catchpole had little education and worked as a servant for different families until being employed by Mrs John Cobbold, brewer and member of the prosperous Ipswich Cobbold family as under-nurse and under-cook in May 1793. Here she was virtually part of the family and was responsible for saving the lives of children in her care three times. She also learned to read and write here.
According to the 1949 Dictionary of Australian Biography
(DAB1949), not be confused with the Australian Dictionary of Biography, she once rode bareback into Ipswich
as a child to fetch a doctor, guiding the horse with a halter. The source also states that she had fallen in love with a sailor named William Laud, who had joined a band of smugglers; later he was pressed in to service in the navy. And that Laud was trying to persuade Catchpole to travel in a boat with him when another admirer of Margaret, John Barry, came to her assistance and a fight ensued, Barry was shot by Laud. Barry recovered, but a price was put on his Laud's head.
, Cook persuaded Catchpole to steal a horse and ride it to London to meet her former lover — Cook's plan was to sell the horse for his own benefit. On the night of 23 May 1797 Catchpole stole John Cobbold's coach gelding and rode the horse 70 miles (112.7 km) to London in nine hours, but was promptly arrested for its theft and tried at Suffolk Summer Assizes.
According to DAB1949 she pleaded guilty at her trial, and after evidence regarding her previous good character had been given, was asked if she had anything to say why sentence of death should not be passed upon her. She spoke with firmness, regretting her fault but not praying for mercy. Even when the death sentence was pronounced she remained composed until she saw her old father crying in the court.
Her sentence was commuted to transportation for seven years and was detained in Ipswich Gaol. After three years later she escaped by using a clothesline to scale the 22-foot (6.7 m). Margaret was recaptured on a Suffolk beach and sentenced to death, later reduced to transportation for seven years. She arrived in Sydney
on the Nile on 15 December 1801.
as purser on the HMS Sirius
and was now a prosperous man. After the death of her lover, Margaret had resolved never to marry and in Sydney she refused the addresses of George Caley
. Later she was employed as the overseer of a farm, and while in the country became a midwife, and also kept a small farm of her own. She was happy and respected, and in a letter written to England in about 1807 she says with pardonable pride "all my quantances are my betters"—she had little education and her spelling was always her own. She was pardoned on 31 January 1814 but did not return to England.
Little is known about the last 10 years of her life, but she continued her nursing, died on 13 May 1819 after catching influenza from a shepherd she was nursing. She was buried in the graveyard of St Peter's church at Richmond, New South Wales
.
floods of those years. She described in graphic detail the countryside, the Aboriginals, and the wildlife; she wrote of the first convict coalminers at Coal River (Newcastle) and of the savagery and immorality of the inhabitants of the colony at the time; her writings added greatly to Australia's early history.
The Margaret Catchpole pub is situated on Cliff Lane close the site of the Cobbold Brewery in Ipswich.
A novel, Scapegallows by Carol Birch
based on her life was published in 2007.
(son of her former employers) made Catchpole the subject of a novel, The History of Margaret Catchpole (London, 1845), which has often been reprinted. The author claims that "the public may depend upon the truth of the main features of this narrative" however some discrepancies have since come to light and some writers, including the Rev. M. G. Watkins, author of the memoir in the Dictionary of National Biography, appear to have taken this source too literally.
Notable discrepancies:
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
she worked as a servant in various houses before being convicted of stealing a horse and later escaping from Ipswich Gaol. Following her capture she was transported
Penal transportation
Transportation or penal transportation is the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony. Examples include transportation by France to Devil's Island and by the UK to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s, and then to Australia between...
to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Her entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography
Australian Dictionary of Biography
The Australian Dictionary of Biography is a national, co-operative enterprise, founded and maintained by the Australian National University to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's history....
describes her as one of the few true convict chroniclers with an excellent memory and a gift for recording events.
Early life
Catchpole was reputedly born at NactonNacton
Nacton is a civil parish in the Suffolk Coastal region of Suffolk, England, taking its name from the village within it. The parish is bounded by the neighbouring parishes of Levington to the east and Bucklesham in the north. It is located between the towns of Ipswich and Felixstowe.Nacton abuts...
, Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, the daughter of Elizabeth Catchpole and according to one source of Jonathan Catchpole, head ploughman.
Catchpole had little education and worked as a servant for different families until being employed by Mrs John Cobbold, brewer and member of the prosperous Ipswich Cobbold family as under-nurse and under-cook in May 1793. Here she was virtually part of the family and was responsible for saving the lives of children in her care three times. She also learned to read and write here.
According to the 1949 Dictionary of Australian Biography
Dictionary of Australian Biography
The Dictionary of Australian Biography, published in 1949, is a reference work by Percival Serle containing information on notable people associated with Australian history. With approximately a thousand entries, the book took more than twenty years to complete...
(DAB1949), not be confused with the Australian Dictionary of Biography, she once rode bareback into Ipswich
Ipswich
Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...
as a child to fetch a doctor, guiding the horse with a halter. The source also states that she had fallen in love with a sailor named William Laud, who had joined a band of smugglers; later he was pressed in to service in the navy. And that Laud was trying to persuade Catchpole to travel in a boat with him when another admirer of Margaret, John Barry, came to her assistance and a fight ensued, Barry was shot by Laud. Barry recovered, but a price was put on his Laud's head.
Criminal conviction
In mid-1795 Catchpole left the Cobbolds and became ill and was unemployed. After being told by a man named Cook that Laud was back in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Cook persuaded Catchpole to steal a horse and ride it to London to meet her former lover — Cook's plan was to sell the horse for his own benefit. On the night of 23 May 1797 Catchpole stole John Cobbold's coach gelding and rode the horse 70 miles (112.7 km) to London in nine hours, but was promptly arrested for its theft and tried at Suffolk Summer Assizes.
According to DAB1949 she pleaded guilty at her trial, and after evidence regarding her previous good character had been given, was asked if she had anything to say why sentence of death should not be passed upon her. She spoke with firmness, regretting her fault but not praying for mercy. Even when the death sentence was pronounced she remained composed until she saw her old father crying in the court.
Her sentence was commuted to transportation for seven years and was detained in Ipswich Gaol. After three years later she escaped by using a clothesline to scale the 22-foot (6.7 m). Margaret was recaptured on a Suffolk beach and sentenced to death, later reduced to transportation for seven years. She arrived in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
on the Nile on 15 December 1801.
Australia
Margaret Catchpole's life in Australia was relatively uneventful. She was assigned as a servant to John Palmer who had arrived with the First FleetFirst Fleet
The First Fleet is the name given to the eleven ships which sailed from Great Britain on 13 May 1787 with about 1,487 people, including 778 convicts , to establish the first European colony in Australia, in the region which Captain Cook had named New South Wales. The fleet was led by Captain ...
as purser on the HMS Sirius
HMS Sirius (1786)
HMS Sirius was the flagship of the First Fleet, which set out from Portsmouth, England, in 1787 to establish the first European colony in New South Wales, Australia. Sirius was wrecked off the coast of Norfolk Island in the Pacific Ocean in 1790....
and was now a prosperous man. After the death of her lover, Margaret had resolved never to marry and in Sydney she refused the addresses of George Caley
George Caley
-Early life:Caley was born in Craven, Yorkshire, England, the son of a horse-dealer. He was educated at the Free Grammar School at Manchester for around four years and was then taken into his father's stables. Coming across a volume on farriery, he became interested in the herbs mentioned in...
. Later she was employed as the overseer of a farm, and while in the country became a midwife, and also kept a small farm of her own. She was happy and respected, and in a letter written to England in about 1807 she says with pardonable pride "all my quantances are my betters"—she had little education and her spelling was always her own. She was pardoned on 31 January 1814 but did not return to England.
Little is known about the last 10 years of her life, but she continued her nursing, died on 13 May 1819 after catching influenza from a shepherd she was nursing. She was buried in the graveyard of St Peter's church at Richmond, New South Wales
Richmond, New South Wales
Richmond is a town in New South Wales, north-west of Sydney, in the Local Government Area of the City of Hawkesbury. It is located at a latitude of 33° 35' 54" South and a longitude of 150°45' 04" east, 19 metres above sea level on the alluvial Hawkesbury River flats, at the foot of the Blue...
.
Legacy
Catchpole's letters of 8 October 1806 and 8 October 1809 are the only known eyewitness accounts of the Hawkesbury RiverHawkesbury River
The Hawkesbury River, also known as Deerubbun, is one of the major rivers of the coastal region of New South Wales, Australia. The Hawkesbury River and its tributaries virtually encircle the metropolitan region of Sydney.-Geography:-Course:...
floods of those years. She described in graphic detail the countryside, the Aboriginals, and the wildlife; she wrote of the first convict coalminers at Coal River (Newcastle) and of the savagery and immorality of the inhabitants of the colony at the time; her writings added greatly to Australia's early history.
The Margaret Catchpole pub is situated on Cliff Lane close the site of the Cobbold Brewery in Ipswich.
A novel, Scapegallows by Carol Birch
Carol Birch
Carol Birch is a British novelist and attended Keele University. The author of eleven novels, she won the 1988 David Higham Award for the Best First Novel of the Year for Life in the Palace, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize with The Fog Line in 1991, and she was long-listed for the 2003 ManBooker...
based on her life was published in 2007.
Fact and fiction
Rev. Richard CobboldRichard Cobbold
Richard Cobbold was a British writer.- Life :Richard Cobbold was born in 1797 in the Suffolk town of Ipswich, to John Cobbold and Elizabeth , a large and affluent family who made their money from the brewing industry...
(son of her former employers) made Catchpole the subject of a novel, The History of Margaret Catchpole (London, 1845), which has often been reprinted. The author claims that "the public may depend upon the truth of the main features of this narrative" however some discrepancies have since come to light and some writers, including the Rev. M. G. Watkins, author of the memoir in the Dictionary of National Biography, appear to have taken this source too literally.
Notable discrepancies:
- Education: Richard Cobbold made her speak and write as a well-educated woman throughout the book although the evidence is that she was uneducated.
- Marriage: He has claims that she married in 1812 however she herself claims that she was unmarried in a letter dated 2 September 1811.
- Year of death: He claims that she did not die until 1841, however the register of burials at Richmond states "Margaret Catchpole, aged 57 years, came prisoner in the Nile, in the year 1801. Died May 13; was buried May 14, 1819."— Henry FultonHenry FultonHenry Fulton was an Irish-Australian clergyman and schoolmaster.-Early life:Fulton was born in England and educated at Trinity College, Dublin from 1788, graduating B.A. in 1792. In the late 1790s he was a clergyman in the Diocese of Killaloe, Ireland. Fulton became involved in the Irish Rebellion...
.
Further reading
- Salmonson, Jessica Amanda. (1991) The Encyclopedia of Amazons. Paragon House. Page 51. ISBN 1-55778-420-5