The History of Margaret Catchpole, a Suffolk GirlCobbold, Richard
General
The History of Margaret Catchpole, a Suffolk Girl
Cobbold, Richard
Catchpole, Margaret, 1762-1819 -- Fiction
About this time so many presents were sent to Margaret, and left in such
a clandestine manner at or near the cottage, that although she herself
was never corrupted by any one of these temptations, yet the effects of
them began to show themselves in her family. Charles, the elder brother,
used to find the presents, and dispose of them to Mrs. Cracknell, and he
found his own gains so rapidly increase that he began to be idle; would
not go to plough; disliked working on the land; took to carpentering at
the old sexton's at Nacton; learned to read and write; and again
encouraged his old _penchant_ for soldiering. At length he left his
parents and friends, and enlisted in the 33rd regiment of foot, under
the fictitious name of Jacob Dedham, at the Black Horse public-house,
St. Mary Elm's, Ipswich. He passed himself off as belonging to that
parish; and but for the accidental circumstance of a Nacton lad, of the
name of Calthorpe, seeing him at the inn, his friends and relatives
would have been ignorant of his departure. His regiment soon after his
enlistment sailed for the East Indies; and the history of Charles
Catchpole, alias Jacob Dedham, would of itself form no uninteresting
narrative. He rose in his regiment by great steadiness and assiduity. He
became a singular adept at learning Eastern languages and customs. He
was taken great notice of by Sir William Jones, the great Oriental
linguist, who recommended him to a very important charge under Lord
Cornwallis, who employed him in a confidential duty, as a spy, upon the
frontiers of Persia. We shall have occasion to contemplate him in a
future part of this history. For the present we pass on to some further
fruits of the smuggler's intimacy with the Catchpoles.
Robert, another son, in consequence of the unwholesome introduction of
rapid profits, took to drinking, smoking, and idle company, and very
soon brought himself to an early grave; giving the deepest pangs to his
parents, and creating sorrow and suffering to all. He died of delirium
tremens, in the year 1791.
James became a poacher, and was shot in a desperate affray with the
gamekeepers of Admiral Vernon. He lingered on his brother's bed until
December 15th, 1792, and expired in deep distress, and with a
declaration to poor Margaret, that it was her acquaintance with Laud
that brought him to ruin. The youngest son alone preserved any steady
fixed principles, and was the prop of his parents' hopes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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