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© Courtesy of Pictures of Health website
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Margaret Catchpole: a “fallen woman”? |
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History is constantly being rewritten. “Spin” was not just an invention of the 20th Century, and politicians, writers and others have always pressed history and historical figures into service for their own present-day ends, repackaging and often distorting the facts in the process.
Margaret Catchpole, a Suffolk horse-thief and gaol-breaker, who was later transported to Australia, is a case in point. A legendary figure in her own time, Margaret’s story was recorded by the Reverend Richard Cobbold in 1847, as a cautionary tale for other women. In the process he recast Margaret in the role of the “fallen woman”, a familiar character in Victorian literature. But how different was the real Margaret from this representation, and is Cobbold’s repackaging of Margaret really all that convincing?
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Your comments
1 Sara Stiller from Toronto, Ontario, Canada - 29 January 2004
"My great-great grandfather is actually a police officer in the story of Margaret Catchpole, The girl from Wolfkettel by George Goldsmith Carter. His name was Henry Christmas Hubbard and he died on a pirate ship when the Revenue men came by to sink this pirate ship. We don't know if he actually helped the pirates at that time. "
2 Oli from Suffolk - 30 December 2003
"I used to work for some recent owners of Margaret Catchpoles cottage in Brandeston in Suffolk. I was their gardener and worked alternate weekends when the owners were away. I hated every second of being there. The cottage is set a few hundred yards from the road down a dirt track and the atmosphere is horrible. You feel like you being watched and on a couple of occasions could have sworn someone was standing behind me. I was brought up in Brandeston and when i was a kid i was never worried about going by the cottage or near it, on my own or in the dark. It was only when i started working there that it gave me the serious creeps. There was something about the upstairs windows that just freaked me out. Needless to say I only worked there for a few months.
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