Author: Strickland, Catharine Parr
Biography:
STRICKLAND, Catharine Parr, later TRAILL (1802-99: DCB)
She was born in Rotherhithe, London, on 9 Jan. 1802, one of eight surviving children born to Thomas Strickland, manager of the Greenland Docks on the Thames, and his second wife Elizabeth Homer. Her sisters Agnes and Susanna Strickland (qq.v.) are included in this database. The family lived briefly in Norwich before moving to Bungay, Suffolk, and then to Reydon Hall near Southwold. The six daughters were taught by their father but he died in May 1818 leaving the family in difficult financial circumstances. Catharine and four of her sisters turned to writing to supplement the family’s income; Catharine’s The Tell Tale (1818) made her the first to be published. She wrote other works for children including The Young Emigrants, or, Pictures of Canada (1826), based on information from her brother Samuel who emigrated to Upper Canada. On 13 May 1832 she married Thomas Traill of the Royal Scotch Fusillers; they were to have nine surviving children. After visiting his family estate of Westove in the Orkneys they set off for Canada and settled on land in Douro (not far from her brother, Samuel, who lived in Lakefield just north of Peterborough). Thomas Traill suffered from depression in the isolated rural community and he sold their farm in 1839. In Peterborough he struggled to succeed as a property dealer and it was Catharine who supported the family with her writing. Her Backwoods of Canada (1836) remains the work by which she is best remembered; she also published in the periodical press, including in England where she was helped by her sister Agnes. In 1849 the family moved to a farm near Rice Lake where Catharine wrote The Female Emigrant’s Guide (1854-55). The farm was destroyed by fire in 1857; among the few items saved from the blaze were Catharine’s botanical specimens and notes. Thomas Traill died in 1859 and she moved to a small house, Westove, in Lakefield. In collaboration with a niece she produced two botanical works: Canadian Wildflowers (1868) and Studies of Plant Life in Canada (1885). Her final published works were the autobiographical Pearls and Pebbles (1894) and Cot and Cradle Stories (1895). In 1897 she appealed to the RLF for assistance and was awarded £150. In her letter of thanks, dated 26 July 1897, she claims the title of “oldest English female writer now living.” She died at home on 29 Aug. 1899 and was buried in Lakefield’s Hillside Cemetery. (DCB 15 July 2022; ODNB 15 July 2022; ancestry.co.uk 15 July 2022; RLF file 2503)
Other Names:
- Catharine Parr Traill