Composed: Sydney, New South Wales, 21 Jan 1802
Issue Details: First known date: 1802... 1802 [Letter to Mrs Cobbold, Including a Letter to Dr George Stebbin]
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Catchpole first letter from New South Wales, written to her former employer and patron Elizabeth Cobbold a month after landing, describes the country, the productions of the colony, and the varying forms of convict life and penal discipline. She longed to send her patron one of the local parrots "for they are very Buttefull But i see so maney dy on Board it mak me so verry unwilling to send you one But if i should Contiuneu Long in this Countrey i suarteneley will send you sumethg out of this wicked Countrey for i must say this is the wickedes places i ever was in all my Life." The attached letter to Dr [George] Stebbin is a series of short correspondences headed "Dear Sir," or "Sir," on different topics. The first details a gruesome encounter where "the Blackes the natives of this places kild and wounded 8 men and women and children." The second details Catchpole's journey, her landing at Sydney, the Aborigines, and other Suffolk women convicts. The third mainly details commodity prices in the colony, and the fourth a wish that Dr Stebbin might address her a letter at an address in the Brickfields, Sydney.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

      1802 .
      (Manuscript) assertion
      Note/s:
      • The manuscript of this letter is held by the Mitchell Library, Sydney. A digitised version is hosted on the State Library of New South Wales website.
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Dear Fanny : Women's Letters To and From New South Wales, 1788-1857 Helen Heney (editor), London : Pergamon Press , 1985 Z139733 1985 anthology correspondence London : Pergamon Press , 1985 pg. 23-25
    Note: "The language has been modernised, because the contents are too interesting to risk their being obscured by the difficulty of making out the text" (23).
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Penguin Anthology of Australian Women's Writing Dale Spender (editor), Ringwood : Penguin , 1988 Z438138 1988 anthology drama extract short story Ringwood : Penguin , 1988 pg. 2-4
    Note: "In the interest of clarity, spelling and punctuation have been modified" (1). Spender's edited version also omits most of the letter[s] to Dr Stebbin.
Last amended 21 Dec 2023 14:40:39
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