15 Facts About Margaret Catchpole

Margaret Catchpole was an English servant girl, chronicler, and deportee to Australia.

Catchpole was reputedly born at Nacton, Suffolk, the daughter of Elizabeth Catchpole and according to one source of Jonathan Catchpole, head ploughman.

Margaret Catchpole was close to the family and was responsible for saving the lives of children in her care three times.

Margaret Catchpole learned to read and write while employed by the Cobbolds.

In mid-1795, Margaret Catchpole left the Cobbolds and became ill and unemployed.

Margaret Catchpole spoke with firmness, regretting her fault but not praying for mercy.

Margaret Catchpole's sentence was commuted to transportation for seven years, and she was detained in Ipswich Gaol.

Margaret Catchpole was recaptured on a Suffolk beach and given a sentence of death, which was later reduced to transportation for seven years.

Margaret Catchpole arrived in Sydney on the Nile on 15 December 1801.

Margaret Catchpole was pardoned on 31 January 1814 but did not return to England.

Little is known about the last ten years of her life, but Margaret Catchpole continued her nursing and died on 13 May 1819 after catching influenza from a shepherd she was nursing.

Margaret Catchpole was buried in St Peter's church graveyard at Richmond, New South Wales.

Margaret Catchpole described in graphic detail the countryside, the Aboriginals, and the wildlife; she wrote of the first convict coal miners at Coal River and the savagery and immorality of the inhabitants of the colony at the time; her writings added greatly to Australia's early history.

Rev Richard Cobbold made Catchpole the subject of a novel, The History of Margaret Catchpole, which has often been reprinted.

The Romantic Story of Margaret Catchpole is a 1911 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford and starring Lottie Lyell.