Three women and a baby called Catherine on Good Hope

The 1817 slave register and later returns from John Tharp's Good Hope estate list eight children with a mother called Catherine: Tabia (b. 1804), Nancy (b. 1806), Archy (b. 1812), Hannibal (1813-12th of February 1820), Joseph (b. 1817), Hercules (b. 23rd of January 1820), Nicholas Smith (b. 1824), who was described as Mulatto, and Isabella Williams (b. 1825). 

There were four women called Catherine on the estate, but Catherine Oldham was described as Quadroon and cannot have been the mother of any of these children (see 'Keaty of Good Hope'). The three who could have been were:

1. Catherine (b. 1782), whose mother was not named. She was between 22 and 43 when these children were born and could therefore have given birth to any of them. As we'll see, she must have been the mother of the six oldest children.

2. Catherine (b. 1808), whose mother was Minerva (see 'Claritta of Good Hope'). She is unlikely to have given birth to Hercules at the age of 12, but was 16 and 17 when Nicholas Smith and Isabella Williams were born and, if they had different fathers (to account for the differing colour descriptions), she could have given birth to either or both of them.

3. Catherine (b. 1810), who was described as Mulatto, and whose mother was called Mary Ann (see 'Mary Ann of Good Hope'). She couldn't be the mother of Isabella Williams because Isabella had no European ancestry. She could, however, have given birth to Nicholas Smith when she was 14.


Going down a generation, the 1820 return of 'increases' and 'decreases', the only one that gives dates, records the birth of a daughter called Catherine on the 20th of May 1820, to a mother called Tabia. The only other Tabia on the estate was born in about 1760, and could not have been Catherine's mother.

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