Author: Capp, Mary Elizabeth
Biography:
CAPP, Mary Elizabeth (1789-1833: findmypast.co.uk)
She was born 28 Oct. 1789 at Yarmouth, the daughter of Robert Capp, a mariner, and Mary Nockles. Her father was captured by the French on 6 October 1808 and became a prisoner of war at Bitche, in the Moselle. The citizens of Yarmouth raised money for the prisoners and she wrote a poem on her father’s captivity. In 1812, her mother died. On 20 June 1822, she was admitted to the London Bethlem Hospital at St. George’s Fields in Southwark. Described as single, aged 32, a private governess, from Lambeth, she had been suffering from mental health issues for over four months and had been confined on at least four occasions. In the winter of 1821, she had been placed in the Clapham Road madhouse for three weeks. Then around 10 June 1822, she suffered a fifth attack, speaking angrily and incoherently and biting cups and saucers. Her family believed her condition to have been caused by disappointment in love but her religious mania was also noted and is clearly evident in her poetry. In late 1822, with her brother standing surety for her, she was released. However, he had his own difficulties: he was declared bankrupt in 1826, convicted of theft, and transported for seven years to New South Wales in 1828. Her father continued in the merchant navy after the war. He died, aged 73, in 1832. She died in Norwich and was buried there, 4 Feb. 1833, aged 42. (ancestry.co.uk 21 Jul. 2020; findmypast.com 21 Jul. 2020; Norfolk Chronicle 11 Jan. 1812, 22 Sept. 1832; Morning Post 20 Aug. 1827) AA