Author: Capper, Louisa
Biography:
CAPPER, Louisa Rebecca, later Coningham (1776-1840: ancestry.co.uk)
The anonymous A Poetical History of England is attributed to “Miss Capper” in a contemporary pencilled note on the title page of the BL copy of the 1810 edition. The preface describes the poem as “a very juvenile production” that had been used in manuscript at Rothbury House school (in Kennington, London) and was printed for the pupils’ convenience. However, the preface indicates a male author and the grounds of the attribution to Capper are not known. She is not known to have written any other verse but her Abridgement of Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding was published under her name in 1811. Capper was the youngest of three daughters of Colonel James Capper (d 1825) of the EIC and his wife Mary Johnson; she was born in Madras on 15 Nov. 1776 and baptised there. The family returned to Britain in 1791 and settled in Cathays near Cardiff in Wales. Capper’s mother may have died in India. Her sister, Marianne, married Robert Clutterbuck in Cardiff in Jan. 1798. James Capper left Cardiff in 1814 with his affairs in disarray; he died at Ditchingham, Norfolk, in Sept. 1825, leaving his estate to a Mrs. Charlotte Sutton. No information has been found about Louisa’s whereabouts or activities before her marriage on 16 Oct. 1811 at Northwood in the Isle of Wight to the Rev. Robert Coningham. He was from Londonderry, Ireland, and matriculated at Peterhouse College, Cambridge, in 1807; he was ordained in 1810. The Coninghams' eldest son, John, was born on 6 Dec. 1813 in Lisworney, Glamorgan, Wales, but likely he died young. A second son, William, was born on 26 June 1815 in Cornwall and he survived his parents. Robert Coningham died on 23 May 1836 at Chorley Wood, Hertfordshire; his will, proved on 23 July 1836, left his estate to Louisa. She died on 25 May 1840 and was buried in the cemetery at Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire. (ancestry.co.uk 18 Oct. 2023; ODNB [Louisa Capper and James Capper] 18 Oct. 2023; National Archives [UK] PROB 11/1704/225; Salisbury and Winchester Journal 28 Oct. 1811; Oxford Journal 20 Jan. 1798) SR