Catherine Sinclair

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CS was perhaps best known during her lifetime as a prominent Edinburgh philanthropist, but as a writer she is best remembered for her Evangelical fiction aimed at young people or children, such as Modern Accomplishments (1836), Modern Society (1837), and Holiday House: A Series of Tales (1839). She also wrote three books based on her travels around Great Britain, as well as several advice or conduct books with a strong Protestant emphasis. Although many of her texts have heavy anti-Catholic themes, CS is ultimately remembered for didactic texts that still appeal to the child's imagination.
Monument to CS at Charlotte Square and Queen Street in Edinburgh.

Milestones

17 April 1800
CS was born in Edinburgh, the seventh of thirteen children, besides two half-sisters from her father's first marriage.
Ewan, Elizabeth, Sue Innes, and Siân Reynolds. The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women : From the Earliest Times to 2004. Edinburgh University Press, 2006.
325
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray, Brian Harrison, and Lawrence Goldman, editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
under Sir John Sinclair
February 1829
While also working as her father's secretary, CS anonymously published a horror story titled The Murder Hole: An Ancient Legend in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine.
Sinclair, Catherine. “The Murder Hole: An Ancient Legend”. Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, William Blackwood, pp. 189 -2.
25 (February 1829): 189-192
By 12 January 1839
CS published, through William Whyte and Co. of Edinburgh, her best known text, the children's stories Holiday House; a Series of Tales.
The Standard, p. 1.
1
1861-1864
During the last few years of her life, CS issued through James Wood Publishing in Edinburgh a series of simple little children's stories, told in puzzle form and entitled Letters.
OCLC WorldCat.
6 August 1864
CS died in the home of her brother John, at Kensington Vicarage in London.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray, Brian Harrison, and Lawrence Goldman, editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Biography

Birth and Family

17 April 1800
CS was born in Edinburgh, the seventh of thirteen children, besides two half-sisters from her father's first marriage.
Ewan, Elizabeth, Sue Innes, and Siân Reynolds. The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women : From the Earliest Times to 2004. Edinburgh University Press, 2006.
325
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray, Brian Harrison, and Lawrence Goldman, editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
under Sir John Sinclair

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