Susanna Maria Appleby

Susanna Maria Appleby (born Gilpin; 1689–1769) was a British antiquarian who is principally known for excavating a Roman bath house north east of Camboglanna, Castlesteads Roman Fort, near Hadrian's Wall in 1741.

Life

Appleby was born in 1689, as Susanna Maria Gilpin, the daughter of William Gilpin (1657–1724) at Scaleby Castle, Cumberland. Her grandfather was Richard Gilpin, a prominent nonconformist minister and physician while her father was a minister who became Recorder of Carlisle in 1718. Appleby's mother was Mary, daughter of Henry Fletcher of Tallantire, Cumberland. Appleby married Joseph Dacre Appleby and had eight children, three of her sons died young. They lived at Kirklevington Hall (now known as Kirklinton Hall) in Kirklinton. After his death, in 1741, Susanna Appleby excavated a Roman bath house, in woodland north east of Camboglanna (Castlesteads Roman Fort). An altar from the site was removed and carried to Appleby's house in 1741. Eric Birley, in his 1961 work on Hadrian's Wall, described Appleby as "the earliest female antiquary of whom we have a record in the Wall region."