The Right Years
I’ve noticed contradictory information regarding when Catherine Crowe was born and when she died. I’m 99% sure the correct years are: 1790 and 1872. The June 22, 1872, issue of London Week News (shown below) reports that, on June 14 of that year, the author died at 82 years of age. It’s corroborated by the June 24, 1872, issue of a London publication called Births, Marriages, and Deaths (page 7), but you might need a subscription to NewspaperArchive to see that.
And, thanks to Alex Matsuo, who visited Crowe’s grave, we can see the same year-of-death and age-at-death carved in stone. You might have to squint a bit. It’s old. (The inscription is a bit easier to read here.)
That’s pretty convincing evidence. And it’s easy math to set the year Crowe was born at 1790. Still, if you go to the archives at University of Kent and look at Geoffrey Larken’s unpublished bibliography of Crowe, you’ll read about what he found in the St. George’s, Hanover Square, parish records: Catherine Crowe was born on September 20, 1790. (Thanks for the legwork regarding this, Allison!)
The Wrong Years
Nonetheless, some websites give these years: 1803-1876. This one does. This one, too. Until I went back and fixed it, I had done the very same on this site. Turns out, folks have been getting it wrong for a long time. In this 1904 edition of The Night Side of Nature, the editor offers “c. 1800-1876.” This 1885 “Dictionary of Eminent Persons” says “1800-1876,” and a couple of years before that, this “Imperial Dictionary” said the same. When exactly the “1803” thing cropped up, I don’t know. It hardly matters.
The Internet is notorious for spreading misinformation, but doing so wasn’t invented in the Digital Age. Maybe this serves as a good reminder to us all — myself included — to dig up the solid evidence rather than cut-and-paste mistakes. Be cautious, not repetitious.
–Tim
BROM BONES BOOKS 