Catharine Trotter

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Since the late twentieth century CT has been known chiefly for her early writings, shortly before and after the year 1700, which include tragedies, poetry, a comedy, and a short fiction. Though this first phase of her career overlaps with a later one (under two different names, birth-name and married name), they are clearly distinguishable. Characteristic of the later phase, during which she published as Catharine Cockburn, are weighty works of philosophy and theology, and familiar letters. Some of her letters reflect her intellectual pursuits; her personal and domestic letters have only recently come to notice.
  • BirthName: Catharine
    The spelling Catherine is also used.
    Trotter
  • Nicknames: Calista, Daphne,
    Delarivier Manley used both these names for CT (the first one after one of her own heroines).
    Sappho Ecossaise
    This name was bestowed on her in Germany.

  • Married: Cockburn
    CT wrote all her dramatic works while her name was Trotter, but published some of her later works as Cockburn.
  • Pseudonyms: Olinda; A Young Lady; Constantia
    CT wrote to her future husband under the name of Constantia, one of her own dramatic heroines.
    ; the Author of . . . .

Milestones

Probably 16 August 1674

CT was born in London, one of two daughters. The record of her baptism thirteen days after this looks reliable, though both her names are mis-spelled.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

After 8 April 1693

Olinda's Adventures; or, The Amours of a Young Lady, a short epistolary novel generally ascribed to CT , appeared anonymously in Letters of Love and Gallantry, here titled The Adventures of a Young Lady.
This date is given to one of the makeweight letters added at the end of the volume, after Olinda's.
Greer, Germaine et al., editors. Kissing the Rod. Virago, 1988.
406

By mid-1702

CT made her first anonymous foray into philosophical debate, with A Defence of the Essay of Human Understanding, Written by Mr. Lock.
Kelley, Anne. Catharine Trotter: An Early Modern Writer in the Vanguard of Feminism. Ashgate, 2002.
15 and n10
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. 18 July 2011, http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.

After 11 May 1749

Catharine Cockburn (formerly Trotter) died at Long Horsley, Northumberland, where she was buried. This was the day she made her will, being apparently too weak to sign for herself.
Kelley, Anne. Catharine Trotter: An Early Modern Writer in the Vanguard of Feminism. Ashgate, 2002.
269-70
Greer, Germaine et al., editors. Kissing the Rod. Virago, 1988.
407

Biography

Birth and Family

Probably 16 August 1674

CT was born in London, one of two daughters. The record of her baptism thirteen days after this looks reliable, though both her names are mis-spelled.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.