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.
  • BirthName: Catherine Sinclair
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 et al. The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women : From the Earliest Times to 2004. Edinburgh University Press, 2006.
325
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
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, Vol.
25
, William Blackwood, Feb. 1829, pp. 189-92.
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.
“Review”. The Standard, 12 Jan. 1839, 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. 1992–1998, http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/worldcat/. Accessed 1999.

6 August 1864

CS died in the home of her brother John, at Kensington Vicarage in London.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

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 et al. The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women : From the Earliest Times to 2004. Edinburgh University Press, 2006.
325
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
under Sir John Sinclair

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