Catherine Scrafton

1. Residuary legatee in the will of her husband Richard Scrafton, written 04/05/1779 and proved 23/03/1780.

2. Miss and Mrs Scrafton were subscribers to the first edition of 'Poems on Several Occasions' by Ann Yearsley (3rd edition published 1785); Ann Yearsley wrote a poem, 'Verses on the Death of Miss Scrafton, who Died Sept. 1, 1788 Ages Twenty Two Years' (1790). (Yearsley also published 'A poem on the inhumanity of the slave trade' (1788) with specific reference to Bristol's role in the trade.)

3. 'Died - On Thursday, May 28, Mrs Catherine Scrafton, of Trinity Street, relict of the late Richard Scrafton.' She was buried 10/09/1788 at St Augustine the Less, Bristol. Administration of the effects of Catherine Scrafton late of Trinity Street Bristol widow who died 15/05/1807 at Trinity Street left unadministered by Thomas Parks by Edward Parks and Ann Jones (wife of Elihu Jones) and by Thomas Webb the nephews and niece and four of the next of kin by James Raper Highmoor one of the executors of the will of the said Edward Parks and by Jane Taylor (wife of William Taylor) the administratrix of the unadministered effects of Edward Parks was granted to Thomas Webb of Wellington, Salop, ironmonger, the administrator of the unadministered effects of said Thomas Webb. Former grants Canterbury June 1807, Jan 1823, Feb 1829, Jan 1844 and December 1844.  Effects under £200.

4. Decree of the Supreme Civil Court in Trinidad, 30/01/1846 regarding the creditors of Samuel Span, deceased, and of Paradise and Cane Garden estates. Notice for creditors to come forward. Query as to what sums of money are outstanding from the debt to Catherine Scrafton for the sum of nearly £8000 and the further sum of £3000 four per cent bank annuities from the articles of agreement dated 29/10/1823.

1. PROB 11/1063/162.

2. Ann Yearsley, Poems on Several Occasions (3rd ed., 1785) p. xl; Steve Can-Hagen, '"But Genius is the Special Gift of God!": the reclamation of "Natural Genius" in the late eighteenth-century verses of Ann Yearsley and James Woodhouse' in John Goodridge and Bridget Keegan (eds.), A History of British Working Class Literature (2017) chapter 4.

3. Monthly Mirror vol. 1 p. 439 (1807); National Probate Calendar 1874.

4. London Gazette Issue 20630 p. 2895.

We are grateful to Ruth Hecht for her assistance with compiling this entry.

We are grateful to Mariateresa Bucciante for supplying a source for the location of Trinity Street - close to Bristol Cathedral rather than the larger Trinity Street (BS2) which did not exist until the 1830s.