IV BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



Of this marriage there were eight children : Thomas, born 

 in 1758; Samuel, in 1760, and two sisters. The remaining 

 four fell victims to the small-pox, at that date an almost 

 inevitably fatal disease. v 



Thomas, who was Catharine's father, early obtained employ- 

 ment with the ship-owners, Messrs. Hallet & Wells, and 

 through them became master and sole manager of the Green- 

 land docks, a position which threw him in the way of meeting 

 many of the great men and explorers of the last century. He 

 was twice married, first to a grand-niece of Sir Isaac Newton, 

 and through her he came into possession of a number of books 

 and other treasures formerly belonging to that celebrated 

 scientist. ' Mrs. Strickland died within a few years of her 

 marriage, having had only one child, a daughter, who died in 

 infancy; and in 1793 Mr. Strickland married, as his second 

 wife, Elizabeth Homer, who was destined to be the mother 

 of a family of nine, five of whom have made a name in the 

 literary annals of the century. Elizabeth and Agnes, after- 

 ward joint authoresses of "The Lives of the Queens of Eng- 

 land," and each the writer of other historical biographies, 

 poetry and other works ; Sara and Jane, the latter author of 

 " Rome, Regal and Republican," and other historical works, 

 were born in London, Kent. There, also, on January 9th, 

 1802, Catharine Pair was born, and though named after the 

 last queen of Henry VIII., who' was a Strickland, she has 

 always spelt her first name with a " C," and was ever known 

 in the home circle by the more endearing words " the Katie." 



Mr. Strickland's health being affected by too close applica- 

 tion to business, he was advised to retire and take up his 

 residence in the more bracing climate of the eastern counties. 



After living a few months at "The Laurels," in Thorpe, 

 near Norwich, he rented "Stowe House," an old place in the 

 valley of the Waveney, not far from the town of Bungay. 



"The first and happiest days of my life were spent at 'Stowe 

 House,' in that loveliest of lovely valleys the Waveney," she 



