Guide to the Papers of Margaret Catchpole (as filmed by the AJCP)
M944
National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record
Created: 2019
Collection Summary
- Creator
- Catchpole, Margaret
- Title
- Papers of Margaret Catchpole (as filmed by the AJCP)
- Date Range
- 29 March 1800 - 1967
- Collection Number
- M944
- Extent
- 49 items
- Language of Materials
- English
- Repository
- Australian Joint Copying Project
- Sponsor
- The Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) online portal was created with the assistance of the Australian Public Service Modernisation Fund, 2017-2020. The National Library of Australia gratefully acknowledges the contribution of the other foundation AJCP partners, the State Library of New South Wales and The National Archives of the UK, and all other organisations which supported the work of the AJCP, the world's most extensive collaborative copying project, operating from 1948 to 1997.
Introduction
Scope and Contents
Clyde collection: newspaper cuttings 1845 on Rev. Richard Cobbold's book The History of Margaret Catchpole (London, 1845).
Woolnough collection: Vol.1: Letters 1908-11 relating to Margaret Catchpole, documents and photographs, including a letter from Gregory M. Mathews and a handbill and cuttings regarding a production of the play Margaret Catchpole starring Laurence Irving at Ipswich; Vol. 2: Transcript of article in the Ipswich Journal 1800 recording her escape from prison; an article on the Cobbold house at Ipswich; certificate of burial of Margaret Catchpole; correspondence and notes 1914-18 on material in the Mitchell Library; typed transcripts of letters by Margaret Catchpole 1803-11; pamphlet by F.J. Foakes Jackson 1916 on Rev. Richard Cobbold; and cuttings from English newspapers 1915, 1932-65 on Margaret Catchpole.
Conditions Governing Access
Available for Access.
Conditions Governing Use
Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the owner of the original material.
Preferred Citation
Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.
Citation items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.
Example: M Series: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February 1770, British Library Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234)
Archival History
Filmed at the Central Library, East Suffolk, as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project, 1976 (AJCP Reel: 944). Original microfilm digitised as part of the NLA AJCP Online Delivery Project, 2017-2020.
Existence and Location of Originals
Ipswich Record Office as part of a collection of Ipswich Museum documents (ref HD1). For more information see Maragret Catchpole [https://www.suffolkarchives.co.uk/people/suffolk-women/margaret-catchpole/].
Existence and Location of Copies
The original AJCP microfilm of the records filmed from this collection is available at the National Library of Australia [https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1856055] as well as other institutions holding AJCP microfilm.
Finding-aid Notes
This finding aid is a revised online version of the original finding aid prepared by the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP), published by the National Library of Australia in 2019. The original AJCP finding aids were unpublished typescripts or photocopies available from libraries that held copies of the original microfilm.
Dates used in this finding aid refer to the date range of the records selected for filming rather than to the date range of the Series or Files.
Subjects
Australia; Catchpole, Margaret; Cobbold, Richard, Rev.; Convicts: New South Wales; Great Britain; Ipswich Journal, newspaper; Ipswich, England; Irving, Laurence; Jackson F.J. Foakes; Mathews, Gregory M.; Mitchell Library, Sydney; Nile, convict ship; Palmer, John (Sydney); Photographs; Richmond, New South Wales; Rouse Family; Salvin, Osbert
Bibliography
Originally cited in Australian Joint Copying Project Handbook. Part 8: Miscellaneous (M) Series. Third Edition, published 1998. Entry 93, pp32-33.
Biographical / Historical
Margaret Catchpole (1772-1819) was born in Suffolk, the illegitimate daughter of Elizabeth Catchpole and a farm labourer. She spent her early life on farms and had little education. She worked as a servant for families and was a nurse and under-cook in the household of John Cobbold, an Ipswich brewer. She learnt to read and write while living with the Cobbolds.
In 1797, after being unemployed for several months, Catchpole stole the coach gelding of John Cobbold and rode to London. She was caught and sentenced to death at the Suffolk Assizes. The sentence was commuted to transportation for seven years. In March 1800 she escaped from Ipswich Gaol, but she was again caught and sentenced to death. The sentence was subsequently commuted to transportation for life and she was sent to New South Wales on the Nilein 1801.
Catchpole worked for the commissary, John Palmer, for eighteen months and subsequently worked for a succession of families, including the Faithfuls and Rouses. She was well regarded by her employers and was left alone by the Rouses as the overseer of their property at Richmond. She was pardoned in 1814, but did not return to England. She remained at Richmond, managing a small store and acting as a midwife and nurse. Her letters to the Cobbolds and others in England are one of the finest sources on life in Sydney at the beginning of the nineteenth century. They formed the basis of the biography by Richard Cobbold, the son of John Cobbold, which in turn was the source for many stories, plays and books.
Item Descriptions
Fonds. Glyde Collection, 1845 - 1861
1 item
Series. Newspaper cuttings relating to Margaret Catchpole and Rev. Richard Cobbold (Wortham), 1845 - 1861
The cuttings appear to have mostly been taken from the Suffolk Chronicle.
Biographical / Historical
Richard Cobbold (1797-1877) was the author of The history of Margaret Catchpole: a Suffolk girl (1845).
Fonds. Woolnough Collection, 1800 - 1967
46 itemsBiographical / Historical
Frank Woolnough (1845-1930) was the curator of the Ipswich Museum from 1893 to 1920.