Catharine Cappe

Catherine Cappe or Catherine Harrison (3 June 1744 – 27 July 1821) was a British writer, diarist and philanthropist.

Life She was born Catharine Harrison in Long Preston in 1744, daughter of the clergyman Jeremiah Harrison, an associate of Francis Blackburne, who was incumbent there, and later at Catterick, and his wife Sarah Winn, daughter of Edmund Winn. She was educated in York, with time at a boarding school where her studies included French.

Harrison moved away from the Church of England under the influence of the free thinker Theophilus Lindsey, who had taken over her father Jeremiah's ministry at the Church of St Anne, Catterick after he died in 1763. She became a rational dissenter. Lindsey in 1773 founded his own Unitarian chapel in London.

In 1782 she began an enterprise with Faith Gray who was a solicitor's wife in York. Between the two of them they created evening classes so that the workers at a local hemp factory could learn to read there and at Sunday School each week. With Faith Gray, The school was staffed by women volunteers and the girls were taught to read and to spin and in return the student's were paid wages for their work and clothed. Cappe wrote that the purpose was to "excite a spirit of virtuous industry among the children of the poor". The parents were keen because they were clothed as the students were taught how to create garments from the yarn they had spun. Given this education they were able to apply for better paid work and avoid the options usually open to poor uneducated girls. She and Faith Gray founded the York Female Friendly Society and she married in 1788, becoming Catharine Cappe. She was widowed in 1800. Impressed by Richardson's poetry, she arranged for Poems on Different Occasions to be published in 1806, also promoting the work through The Gentleman's Magazine. Over 600 books were sold by subscription, and a second printing enabled Richardson to open a small school.

Catharine Cappe died in York in 1821. Amongst her own works are: Critical Remarks on many important Passages of Scripture, 1802, 2 vols. Discourses chiefly on Devotional Subjects, 1805 Connected History of the Life and Divine Mission of Jesus Christ, 1809 Discourses on the providence and government of God 2nd ed., 1811 Remarks on Apprenticing Female Children on Their Leaving a Charity-School, Belfast Monthly Magazine no.9, 1812 Memoirs of Mrs. Lindsey Belfast Monthly Magazine no.8, 1812 Discourses chiefly on Practical Subjects 1815 Memoirs of the life of the late Mrs. Catharine Cappe, 1824. published by her stepdaughter Mary Cappe.

Family Catharine Harrison married Newcome Cappe, a Unitarian minister, as his second wife, in 1788; he died in 1800. They had no children of their own, but there were six children, including daughters Mary and Agnes, from his first marriage to Sarah Turner (died 1773).

Sarah Winn, Catharine's mother, was daughter of Edmund Winn of Ackton. According to Dugdale's Visitation of Yorkshire, he was the second son of Sir Edmund Winn, 2nd Baronet. It took her to London, where she stayed for a time after Anne's death, caring for her small daughter, and finding time to attend Essex Street Chapel.

Through relations on her mother's side, Catharine was also acquainted with another Yorkshire gentry family, that of Sir George Strickland, 5th Baronet.

Her father Jeremiah Harrison was son of Christopher Harrison of Ripon, and matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford in 1722, aged 15.