Catherine Cappe, 1744 – 1821 an Anglican by Birth a Unitarian by Choice
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Catherine Cappe, 1744 – 1821 An Anglican by birth a Unitarian by choice I am indebted for the following account of this Yorkshire woman’s life to: Memoirs of the Late Catharine Cappe Written by Herself in 1824 and published on the Internet by Google Books at http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Memoirs_of_the_life_of_the_late_Mrs_Cath.html?i d=xV0VpDOMepUC&redir_esc=y ; and an unpublished paper by Rev Andrew M Hill: A Pattern of York Feminism: Catharine Cappe as Spinster, Wife and Widow. Childhood Catharine Harrison was born in a wild part of Yorkshire, at Long Preston in Craven, not too far away from Skipton, on 3 rd June 1744. It was a mountainous area with stone walls, the like of which we see today. Getting around would be hazardous with horse or foot being the norm. Jeremiah, her father, was an Oxbridge educated vicar, and Long Preston was his first living. Catharine’s mother came from a higher status family, being the daughter of a baronet. Catharine had a brother, two years older, who grew up to cause both parents and Catharine a great deal of anxiety. But more of that later. The Church where they worshipped has long since been demolished and replaced. The vicarage too suffered the same fate and after a long search in the village I discovered the hotel, which now occupies that land. At only three years of age, Catharine suffered with smallpox and this was to affect her for the rest of her life. Being scarred she realised she was no beauty from a young age and this shaped her expectations throughout her growing up and into early adulthood. Catharine was only four when her father was offered the living of Catterick in 1748. It was a scene of desolation when the family arrived. With hard work the family turned things around. During this period Catharine often played with the daughter of Archdeacon Blackburne, Hannah, who was four years her senior. This friendship was rekindled later, when Hannah married Theophilus Lindsey, the vicar who followed Jeremiah at Catterick, after Jeremiah’s death in 1763. Although Jeremiah was a liberal churchman this didn’t extend to the education of girls. In spite of being her father’s favourite, it was the brother, who was encouraged to learn and not Catharine. Everything she managed to learn was through her own efforts. The desire of her parents was that their daughter would be connected to the mother’s branch of the family and be proficient in feminine accomplishments. Even as a small child Catharine was troubled about the meaning of the Trinity in Unity. Her thoughts were confirmed, when she overheard her father express his own Latitudinarian views with a fellow clergyman. He believed that there should be fewer creeds. However, at this time there was no Unitarianism as a separate movement. Catharine was a truthful and timid child. Could that have been because she wasn’t allowed to play with the village children, or was she self-conscious about her pock-marked face? She was taught to read by the servant friend, who had moved from Long Preston with the family. At ten Catharine went to a dancing school in York, where she also learned needlework and fashion. Her landlady was unsuitable and Catharine often visited her maternal grandmother and two aunts. The grandmother was aristocratic and haughty and the aunts were very proper. Catharine couldn’t wait for the week when she would return home. Even at the age of 10 she was frustrated with the lack of teaching that she longed for. Adolescence At thirteen Catharine started at boarding school in York. Again she was frustrated with the stereotypical female accomplishments that were taught there and longed to learn arithmetic and French. She tried to learn French from a French master but having no grasp of English Grammar let alone French, this wasn’t too successful. However, she had no problem with arithmetic. On returning home she had no masters at all and Catharine was increasingly frustrated. On one visit to her aunts she was caught reading The Gentleman’s Magazine and Monthly Review, to which they responded in horror: ‘…they instanced one young lady … who taught herself philosophy and Italian, until she lost her senses and was obliged to be confined in a mad-house.’¹ Catharine was not provoked, being genteel and ladylike with her aunts and their friends. Catharine longed for a little confidential conversation with her father but he remained distant. However, he clearly stated his views that domestic occupations and household duties: ‘were the proper province of women’.² Books he gave her were dull or impossible for her to follow. These years of frustration were broken by visits to York, when she would stay with her aunts. She loved going to the theatre and in these years she learned to be no respecter of position or vanity but judged people on their own merits. When only twenty Catharine’s father died, aged only fifty-seven. He was buried at Long Preston. He bequeathed her a small estate he had bought in Craven, subject to a small annuity paid during the life of her mother. Although she realised that difficult times were ahead for her and her mother, she gained confidence in her own abilities to manage. Like many unmarried women of that time, she spent time with relatives and friends, often in response to their needs and not hers. Nostel, the home of her relative Sir Rowland became somewhere that suited Catharine until he died three years later. It did give her the opportunity though, to visit the foundling hospital, for deserted children at Ackworth, three times each week. The first signs of a philanthropic future. The death of her father also saw a new incumbent as vicar at Catterick; Theophilus Lindsey, who was married to Catharine’s childhood friend, Hannah. Following her father’s death, Catharine’s mother took a house at Bedale, seven miles from Catterick. Catherine’s friend from her days at school lived at Bedale. She read greatly and spoke French fluently and they spent much time together. Unfortunately for Catharine, her friend married the following year and sadly died young in 1809. Catharine and her mother were increasingly worried about Catharine’s brother, who showed no sign of application, being unfit for any learned profession, but he did take on a small curacy. He never showed any signs of flourishing. He moved several times and eventually died leaving debts to be settled by Catharine and his mother. Adult In 1765 Catharine received an invitation to stay with the Lindseys at Catterick. Catharine had yet to meet Rev Lindsey, but was delighted when she did: ‘Never can I be sufficiently thankful to a merciful and kind Providence for the inestimable privilege of forming such a friendship!’³ She was to spend many weeks at Catterick, which offered her respite from an uncomfortable life at Bedale. They read together often and Rev Lindsey would recommend books for her to read, when alone. Catharine would take careful note of their way of living frugally, with a deep commitment to the community they served. We learn much about the Lindseys’ time at Catterick and Catharine missed nothing. On returning to Bedale Catharine opened a Sunday school in the kitchen, teaching the local children to read. At first she was laughed at by the villagers as being an Enthusiast or even a Dissenter and decidedly odd. However, it wasn’t long before this turned to respect. On a visit to Harrogate with her mother and aunts she met a young man intended for the law. There was certainly a strong attraction but he had to return to Dublin. He wrote to Catharine’s brother to explain that although he felt a strong attachment for Catharine he didn’t have any financial means to marry just then so felt unable to ask Catharine to marry him but that his intentions were honourable. Her brother answered on her behalf advising that the relationship should be terminated and the friendship was therefore brought to an end. Catharine was left in the dark as to what was being said, which illustrates the very different situation of single women at that time in the 1770s, when a brother could decide on the future of a sister. Mrs Lindsey, who knew about him, assured Catharine that her admirer was an honourable man. She did hear later though that he had died. Catharine grieved but she did have the great support of the Lindseys and was able to turn to a closer examination of faith. Rev Lindsey was going through a time of great turmoil, finding it difficult to accept all the creeds of the Established Church. He was supported by Joseph Priestley and William Turner through this time and eventually resigned his living in 1773. Any money they previously had was spent on inoculating the local children from smallpox making it necessary to part with his ‘furniture, plate linen and china plus a great part of his library’.⁴ As soon as the Lindseys left Catterick, Catharine seceded from the Established Church. For both the Lindseys and Catharine, all of who had been closely connected through the Church all their lives, this had been no easy decision. There would have been great sadness that the situation had eventually come to this. I had no conception, however, for many years, that this departure from doctrine (heterodox views regarding the Trinity), which the Established Church deems fundamental, involved in it any obligations on the part of an obscure individual, to separate from her communion.