“Mr. Edward Catchpole was born near Ipswich in Suffolk, in the year 1778. Of his early days we know but little; he was led to choose a sea-faring life in preference to any other line of business; he served an apprenticeship on board a merchant ship. Some time afterwards he became mate on board the Argus Revenue Cutter, of Harwich. Whilst in this service, a most interesting circumstance occurred, which deserves to be noticed. Sept. 18th, 1807, the Argus succeeded in rescuing an English coal-brig from the Star, French privateer. Having put some men on board the brig, elated with success, they go in pursuit of the privateer. They soon fall in with her, and a sharp engagement ensues, and at 10 o’clock at night the captor was captured; they came to close quarters, and, owing to the great disparity in numbers, the privateer having eighty-six men, and the cutter only twenty-seven, they were boarded, overpowered, taken into a French port, and sent to prison. Mr. C. was about seven years in a French prison. Frequently his expectations were raised by hopes of liberation, an exchange of prisoners was often talked of, but still they were kept in bondage and suspense. A favourable opportunity occurring, he made his escape, [and came over to England.] His arrival at home was so sudden and unexpected to his wife, that he seemed to her almost like one come from the dead. Subsequently he was appointed chief officer in the Coastguards; his last station was at Sutton-in-the-Marsh, in the county of Lincoln; there his health failed, and there he finished his earthly course, and made a good end. His conversion to God was most satisfactory. In his affliction the Lord graciously supported him, he had a hope full of immortality, and his end was peace. He died on the 17th of December, 1836. He changed mortality for life. He was interred in the churchyard at Sutton, and a stone has been placed at the head of his grave, with the following inscription:
IN MEMORY OF
EDWARD CATCHPOLE,
A NATIVE OF IPSWICH,
IN THE COUNTY OF SUFFOLK,
AND LATE CHIEF OFFICER OF THE
COAST GUARD
STATIONED AT THIS PLACE,
WHO DIED DECEMBER THE 17TH, 1836,
AGED 58 YEARS.
As some correspondents have actually accused the author of producing before the public a fictitious character, and in terms of unmeasured reprobation told him plainly that they understood there never was such a person as Margaret Catchpole in existence, the author here gives a copy of the document signed by her judge, the Lord Chief Baron Macdonald. This document was not obtained until after the publication of the work. The original is preserved in the Corporation Chest at Ipswich.
Copy of a Certificate from the Right Honourable Lord Chief Baron Macdonald, to exempt from all parish offices, for having prosecuted Margaret Catchpole at Bury Assizes, Aug. 11th, 1797.
“These are to certify, That at the delivery of the Gaol of our Lord the King, of the County of Suffolk, holden at Bury St. Edmunds, in the County aforesaid, on Wednesday, the ninth day of August instant, before me, whose name is hereunto subscribed, and other his Majesty’s Justices, assigned to deliver the aforesaid Gaol of the Prisoners, therein being Margaret Catchpole, late of the Parish of St. Margaret, in the Town of Ipswich, in the County aforesaid, single woman, convicted of feloniously stealing a Gelding, of the price of twenty pounds, of the goods and chattels of John Cobbold, on the twenty-third day of May last, at the Parish aforesaid, in the Town and County aforesaid; and that the said John Cobbold was the person who did apprehend and take the said Margaret Catchpole, and did prosecute her, so apprehended and taken, until she was convicted of the Felony. Therefore, in pursuance of an Act of Parliament made in the tenth and eleventh years of the reign of his late Majesty king William the Third, intituled, An Act for the better apprehending, prosecuting, and punishing of felons that commit burglary, housebreaking, or robbery, in shops, warehouses, coachhouses, or stables, or that steal horses; I do hereby further certify, that by virtue hereof and of the said Act of Parliament, he, the said John Cobbold, shall and may be, and is hereby, discharged of and from all manner of Parish Offices within the Parish of St. Margaret, in the Town of Ipswich aforesaid, in the County aforesaid.
“In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this eleventh day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven.
"Ar. Macdonald.”
The author now approaches a most painful, and yet he trusts a pleasurable, duty. Painful, because his own mind and that of others have been excessively hurt by a misconception of the identity of that Margaret Catchpole whose life he has written, and pleasurable, because of the opportunity afforded him of contradicting the fact so often asserted, that Mrs. Reibey of New Town, Sydney, was the identical Margaret Catchpole.
The relatives and friends of that highly-esteemed lady, lately deceased, will be glad to read a letter from the late Bishop of Australia, written to one of his clergy, the Rev. H. D. D. Sparling, of Appin, New South Wales, the good Bishop himself, as well as hundreds of others, having been deceived in that identity from a strange but very simple mistake, viz. that of two places bearing the same name in England, though one be in Suffolk,—Bury, and the other in Lancashire—Bury.