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d=xV0VpDOMepUC&redir_esc=y ; and an unpublished paper by Rev Andrew M Hill: A Pattern of York Feminism: Catharine Cappe as Spinster, Wife and Widow.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. Attached to it by long habit, by respect to the memory of my father as a church minister, and by many a pleasing, early association. It is highly probably that I should always have continued to act under its influence, had I not been impelled to a more thorough examination of the subject, by the train of reasoning I was led into by [Theophilus Lindsey] my venerable friend at Catterick ... and by the noble conduct of [Hannah] his exemplary companion.⁵ However, this did not mean that Catharine became a stranger to the Lindseys as she made several visits to stay with them in London and many letters were exchanged between them. But before leaving the area Mr Lindsey gave a Farewell Sermon, which was attacked in the York Chronicle. The following week there was a spirited defence written by a Mr Cappe of York. This was Catharine’s first encounter with the name. Calling in to visit her aunts, she learned that he lived close by and ministered to the congregation at St Saviourgate Chapel in York and was a good friend of Joseph Priestley and William Turner. At this period in her life Catharine was often called on by relatives or friends to support and care for them, when they were in need. When her brother decided that he wasn’t cut out to be a curate he resigned and moved to a farm in Berwick-in-Elmet, between Tadcaster and Leeds. It was soon clear that he was unable to manage so Catharine and her mother left the house in Bedale in 1777 and moved to Berwick. This offered Catharine new opportunities. The farm being situated near a colliery, along with a friend she set up a ‘Female Benefit Club’ in the face of many obstacles. Her first literary endeavour was to edit and abridge A Farmer’s Advice to his Daughter was welcomed by the author Mr Harway, a philanthropist. Catharine’s brother’s situation deteriorated and became even worse after he suffered a leg accident and took to his bed. Whilst at Berwick Catharine did manage to attend Mill Hill Chapel at Leeds for dissenting worship, staying with Mrs Dawson. This was a bright light in an otherwise very difficult time for both Catharine and her mother. They not only cared for Catharine’s brother but also responded to calls for help from ill and dying relatives. Catharine’s mother fell ill; probably as a result from the many years of stress. By this time she had given all the ready money she had to her son, in order that he could settle some of his debts. Yet another move had to be made. It was a miserable move from Berwick with the brother returning to Craven to continue living the dissolute life he had lived for many years. Catharine and her mother settled his debts with the support of Mr L, a nephew of Catharine’s mother and also a Director of the Bank of England. Mother spent the summer in York with Catharine’s aunts and Catharine continued to be useful visiting friends who needed her help. It was a sad time bidding farewell to the wives and daughters at the quarterly meeting at the ‘Female Benefit Club’ at Berwick in May of 1780. Catharine had a wish to set up a school for girls to teach more than just ‘accomplishments’, but her aunts were against this and reminded her that she was the granddaughter of a Baronet and she should think of her mother; Catharine didn’t have the finances to follow her dream and had no choice but to have lengthy stays with her aunts and other friends and relatives at this stage, almost always making herself useful. York Catharine heard of the mismanagement of Grey-Coat School in York and felt she could be of use in helping to regulate its organisation. Mother agreed so it was decided to live in York and they moved in June 1782. Catharine had attended Mr Newcome Cappe’s Chapel as her preferred congregation since the Lindseys had left. He was a widower with a grown family, the daughters still living at home. He wasn’t always a well man. His sons were successfully studying medicine and also practising. Catharine would make notes of his sermons and later analyse them. She became a staunch supporter and worker at the chapel. Tongues began to wag but Catharine knew that as long as her brother and debts hung over her she would not be able to consider more than friendship. However, Catharine was a woman not to waste time feeling sorry for herself, being committed to being useful on behalf of others less fortunate. As well as introducing new regulations to Grey-Coats she planned with a Mrs Gray to set up a spinning school for children employed in hemp factories. More women began to support the two women and the schools flourished. She was greatly relieved when Mr Cappe recovered following a long illness. In 1787 Catharine’s brother died leaving many debts to settle. However, Catharine’s well- ordered brain and ability to work through all the difficulties life threw against her served well. The support of Mr Cappe, who joined her at Long Preston, was invaluable. She sold off her brother’s land, which had devolved to her, and settled his debts. Catharine Harrison Marries Mr Newcome Cappe With obstacles removed, Miss Harrison became Mrs Cappe on 19 th February 1788 at Berwick in Elmet. Although her aunts disapproved they did respect Mr Cappe, as he was well known to them, living in the same street. Soon after though, in 1791, Mr Cappe’s son, Joseph, who was studying at the University of Edinburgh died, of consumption. He had intended to become a physician. Mr Cappe’s health deteriorated and in May of that year he had a paralytic attack. Catharine was always hopeful of a recovery but his illness did create difficulties at the chapel. Rev Charles Wellbeloved was persuaded to take the pulpit. Having worked closely with her husband already, the arrival of Rev Wellbeloved, allowed them more time to work on transcribing much of Mr Cappe’s earlier writing, often in a shorthand few could interpret but Catharine. As they walked he would dictate even more as Catharine jotted down the words. A second seizure, the loss of his second son and recurring confusion. However, in his lucid moments he continued to dictate sermons to Catharine, who gathered them together and after his death edited and published them. Catharine also continued to be active within the community building on her earlier philanthropic commitments. The reorganisation of the Grey Coat School and the preparation of a new Female Benefit Club remained an important part of her life. However, as the decade progressed more and more time was taken over with the care of Newcome.

Widowhood Newcome Cappe died in the December of 1799. In spite of her own situation she prepared a paper drawing up the rules, which were to be read out at the next meeting of the Female Benefit Club, which she was unable to attend due to her husband’s funeral. However, in spite of her own grief, she gave herself up to hard work, transcribing, editing and preparing much of the written and dictated work of her husband, as well as writing up reports and pamphlets about her many philanthropic commitments. In 1803 Catharine felt able to visit her old friends, Mr and Mrs Lindsey, in London. She then intended to return and continue with the work on her husband’s sermons. This had to be delayed as she was asked to publish her work with Charity Schools and establishment of Female Benefit Clubs, by a newly formed “Ladies Committee” of which the Queen and Princess were patrons. It was proposed to have District Committees, who would report to the primary Committee, on the state of the poor and the ways in which the conditions of the female poor could be ameliorated. Catharine saw this as ‘setting an illustrious example of female attention to civil duties. Good for individuals and collectively to alleviate poverty, and distress and encourage good habits of industry’.⁶ In 1805 Catharine had to write a memoir of her mother for Monthly Magazine following her death in June 1805, at the grand old age of 85. Being free to travel, saw Catharine on her way to London again. This time she took lodgings in Essex Street, which allowed her to often visit the Lindseys, Theophilus, who was now in his 83 rd year and increasingly frail from repeated paralytic attacks. The Lindseys had many friends visit as they had become well loved by those with whom they had ministered to in London. On this visit Catharine was introduced to some of the “Ladies Committee”. She managed to visit the Lindseys in 1807 and 1809 but Mr Lindsey’s health was declining rapidly by then and she heard of his death in a letter from her dear friend, Hannah Lindsey, who later died in January 1812. During this time the College at Manchester was struggling as had Warrington and Hackney before. In 1803 a trial in York had taken place and in spite of difficulties students moved to be with their tutor, Charles Wellbeloved, in York. Catharine appreciated meeting the young men both at Chapel and in her home. York College was specifically Unitarian, training ministers for Unitarian Churches. Catharine continued to travel as well as work on her husband’s writings, which were published through the following years. On hearing of the distressed state of the Berwick Female Benefit Club she helped with the successful rescue plan. However, she was unsuccessful at her old home, at Long Preston, to establish a similar Benefit Club. She was able to be in Liverpool for the establishment of an Auxiliary British and Foreign Bible Society. Later, in 1812 another auxiliary Society was established in York. The Bible was central to the Christianity of these early Unitarians and Rational Dissenters. She found there to be many charitable people in Manchester and Liverpool. An old friend, Mrs Jones was running a large school for girls at her own expense. Whilst being taught to read and write they were trained to be excellent servants. This may seem patronising now, but then it was probably a good alternative to being sent out on the streets to earn their living. Even though Catharine was getting older she continued to pass comment on, and do her best to improve the conditions of society. In 1814 she wrote a book dedicated to Mr Wilberforce, commenting on the abuses in boarding schools and the advantages of charity day schools. Following earlier work with those wanting to improve conditions for the mentally sick, and especially female patients, in 1816 she campaigned for the importance of allowing and appointing female visitors in the public hospital and lunatic asylums in order to visit female patients. In November her pamphlet on this matter, was published. The following year found her petitioning Parliament to put a stop to the climbing boy chimney sweeps. Her last years were anything but cheerless. Catharine continued to be a woman of prayer and whatever she did arose out of Unitarian Christian understanding. Not only did she have lively friendships with the young and those around her, but also corresponded with leading Unitarians both in the UK and in America. In her last days she wrote to Dr Channing and Dr Carpenter visited. She had worked continually on bringing the work of her husband to the wider public. Writing at the very end of her Memoirs, eighteen months before her death she writes: Whatever may await us in that unknown scene, it must be merciful and kind, forming an essential part of a great plan of infinite benevolence, which will issue in higher and still higher attainments in holiness, virtue and happiness, as we advance from glory to glory, through the endless ages of eternity. Amen! Alleluia! She died peacefully on 14 th June, 1821, aged 77. A woman of little education, who became a prolific writer and tireless worker on behalf of others. She was a regular contributor of papers to the Monthly Repository and Christian Reformer and other periodicals as well as many books and pamphlets about the projects she was involved with. All this as well as editing her husband’s extensive writing. Catharine Cappe is a great Unitarian woman at the beginning of Unitarianism, who should be honoured and respected for being courageous enough to leave the Anglican Church to follow where her reason led. This led her into a life of tireless working for those less fortunate than she was, marrying a Unitarian Minister and putting in place organisations that would benefit those less fortunate than herself, particularly other girls at risk of being thrown out on the streets and safeguarding the future of women who may find themselves without any security. She also left a written record of the Unitarianism in the early days by editing and publishing her husband’s work. A life well lived. Notes 1 C. Cappe, Memoirs of the Late Mrs Catharine Cappe by Herself 1824. p. 47 2 Memoirs p.49 3 Memoirs p.95 4 Memoirs p.133 5 A Pattern of York Feminism: Catharine Cappe as Spinster, Wife and Widow: unpublished paper by Rev Andrew Hill. P.14 From Memoirs p.??? 6 Memoirs 298