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Catherine Cooper Hopley

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Catherine Cooper Hopley
portrait photograph of Hopley seated, holding a baby turtle in her hand
Hopley c. 1893
Born (1817-10-05)October 5, 1817
Whitstable, Kent
Died 1911 (aged 93)
Occupation Author, naturalist
Relatives
  • Edward Hopley
  • John Hopley
  • Thomas Hopley

Catherine Cooper Hopley (October 5, 1817 – 1911), also known by the pseudonym Sarah L. Jones,[1][2] was a British author, governess, artist, and naturalist known for her books on the American Civil War and her nature books for general audiences, including the first popular book on snakes in the English language.[3][4][5]

Early life and family[]

Hopley was born in Whitstable, Kent, the only daughter among four children to parents Edward Hopley (1780–1841), a surgeon, and Catherine Cooper Prat (1792–1878). Her oldest brother Edward Hopley (1816–1869) became a noted painter and entomologist, while her second brother, John Hopley (1821–1904) emigrated to America and became a noted publisher and political figure in Ohio.[3][6][7] Her youngest brother Thomas Hopley (1819–1876) was a schoolteacher convicted in the beating death of a student in the Eastbourne manslaughter trial.[8][9] Little of Hopley's early family life is known.[3]

Travels in America[]

Hopley came to the United States in the mid-1850s to visit family in Ohio and Indiana. She was active in the Cleveland area from 1855 to 1859, displaying crayon drawings and watercolours in the Ohio State Fair and giving instruction in drawing, painting, music and French.[10][11] In 1860 she traveled to Virginia, where she was present at the outbreak of the American Civil War. During her travels, she encountered several Confederate leaders including President Jefferson Davis, Stephen Mallory,[12] Robert E. Lee[2] and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. She corresponded with the London press, and her habits of frequent sketching made some Virginians suspect her of being a spy for the North. Unable to cross the Union blockade to return north, she traveled further south, and was a tutor to the children of Florida governor John Milton. She left Florida in 1863, and soon returned to England. She returned briefly to the United States in 1883, as a guest of Mrs. James A. Garfield.[10]

In England, she began publishing on her travels in America. In her two volume Life in the South (1863), she describes her observations of the social culture in Virginia between 1860 and 1862 writing anonymously as "A Blockaded British Subject", "Miss Jones, and under the initials "S.L.J.".[1] Her tone has been described as both neutral and sympathetic to the Confederacy and slave-owning society: she opposed slavery, but claimed it was not as bad as had been portrayed, and noted instances of Northern opposition to emancipation.[2] Her biography of Confederate general Stonewall Jackson was published in August, 1863, one of the first biographies published after Jackson's death.[13][14] It was generally not well received.[12]:127 Hopley's third book, Rambles and Adventures in the Wilds of the West (1872), contained information on American birds, plants, and insects.[5]

Natural history[]

Back in England, Hopley became increasingly interested in reptiles and amphibians. She worked in the Gardens of the London Zoological Society (the precursor to today's London Zoo), and published short notes on snakes, fish, and insects in journals. Her 1882 book Snakes: Curiosities and Wonders of Serpent Life was the first popular book on snakes in English.[3] The British Quarterly Review described Snakes as "the most thorough, the most complete, and the most popularly readable that has been published in English on the subject."[15] Snakes includes detailed observation of feeding behaviour in snakes, including the mechanism by which Xenodon snakes erect their teeth in a viper-like fashion, an observation that predates those by E. G. Boulenger (generally credited with the description) by over 30 years.[3]

Hopley never married, and she died in England[lower-alpha 1] in 1911, aged 93. The date of her death has been stated as April 9,[3] while some contemporary obituaries have a byline of May 1.[17] Contemporary obituaries state she was suspected of being a British spy while in America and imprisoned for several months.[17][18][19][20]

Books[]

  • Life in the South: From the Commencement of the War (1863)
  • "Stonewall" Jackson, Late General of the Confederate States Army (1863)
  • Rambles and Adventures in the Wilds of the West (1872)
  • Aunt Jenny's American Pets (1872)
  • Stories of Red Men from Early American History (1880)
  • Snakes: Curiosities and Wonders of Serpent Life (1882)
  • British Reptiles and Batrachians (1888)

Notes[]

  1. ↑ Some modern sources state she lived in Tickenham, Somerset, e.g.[3][5] However, some contemporary sources list her residence as Twickenham, a London suburb.[16]

References[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Jennings, John Melville (1949). "Catherine Cooper Hopley: A Blockaded British Subject". pp. 77–78. JSTOR 4245605. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Campbell, Duncan A. (2003). English Public Opinion and the American Civil War. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 119–. ISBN 978-0-86193-263-4. http://books.google.com/books?id=WMUXggOQ7ZsC&pg=PA119. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Adler, Kraig (2007). "Hopley, Catherine C. (1817–1911)". Contributions to the History of Herpetology. 2. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. pp. 110–111. ISBN 0916984710. 
  4. ↑ Johnson, Betty J.; Smith, Hobart M. (1985). "Sundowner, the forgotten ophidiophile". pp. 119–134. https://archive.org/stream/bulletino202119841985mary#page/118/mode/2up. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Creese, Mary R. S. (2000). Ladies in the Laboratory? American and British Women in Science, 1800-1900. Scarecrow Press. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-585-27684-7. http://books.google.com/books?id=amtGAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA107. 
  6. ↑ Van Vugt, William E. (2006). British Buckeyes: The English, Scots, and Welsh in Ohio, 1700–1900. Kent State University Press. pp. 214–. ISBN 978-0-87338-843-6. https://books.google.com/books?id=XGhLJ2AacqAC&pg=PA214. 
  7. ↑ Hopley, John Edward (1912). History of Crawford County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens. Richmond-Arnold Publishing. pp. 627–630. https://archive.org/stream/historyofcrawfor02hopl#page/626/mode/2up. 
  8. ↑ Cust, Lionel Henry; Pottle, Mark (2004). "Hopley, Edward William John (1816-1869), subject painter" (in en). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Digital object identifier:10.1093/ref:odnb/13761. http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/13761. 
  9. ↑ Moore, Julian (January 2008). "Hopley, Thomas". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Digital object identifier:10.1093/ref:odnb/93658. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/93658. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Artists in Ohio, 1787-1900: A Biographical Dictionary. Kent State University Press. 2000. pp. 425–426. ISBN 978-0-87338-616-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZdICm_W8xKwC&pg=PA425. 
  11. ↑ "State Fair: Awards of Premiums". Cleveland Morning Leader. 21 September 1858. p. 2. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83035143/1858-09-21/ed-1/seq-2/. 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Bennett, John D. (2008). The London Confederates: The Officials, Clergy, Businessmen and Journalists who Backed the American South During the Civil War. McFarland. pp. 125–. ISBN 978-0-7864-3056-7. https://books.google.com/books?id=k6Q56Wd0MGQC&pg=PA125. 
  13. ↑ Foreman, Amanda (28 June 2011). A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War. Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-679-60397-9. https://books.google.com/books?id=TX9v3cU2MiUC&pg=PR2-IA145. 
  14. ↑ Noyalas, Jonathan A. (2010). Stonewall Jackson's 1862 Valley Campaign: War Comes to the Homefront. Arcadia Publishing. p. 93. ISBN 978-1-61423-040-3. https://books.google.com/books?id=EHRDCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT93. 
  15. ↑ "Review: Snakes: Curiosities and Wonders of Serpent Life. By Catherine C. Hopley". 1883. pp. 476–477. https://books.google.com/books?id=W3pHAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA476. 
  16. ↑ The Entomologist. 28. Simpkin, Marshall & Company. 1895. pp. 53 & 160. https://books.google.com/books?id=i_cqAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA53. 
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 "Catherine Cooper Hopley". New-York Tribune. May 2, 1911. p. 7. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1911-05-02/ed-1/seq-7/. 
  18. ↑ "Catherine Cooper Hopley". The Fairmont West Virginian. May 6, 1911. p. 4. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86092557/1911-05-06/ed-1/seq-4/. 
  19. ↑ "[no title"]. May 4, 1911. p. 453. https://archive.org/stream/nation92jannewy#page/452/mode/2up/search/%22Hopley%22. 
  20. ↑ "Notes For Women". Auckland Star. 13 July 1911. p. 8. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19110713.2.87. 

Further reading[]

  • Eaton, Clement (1979). "Charles Darwin and Catherine Hopley: Victorian Views of Plantation Societies". pp. 16–27. OCLC 5016437. 
  • Mullen, Richard (1994). Birds of Passage: Five Englishwomen in Search of America. London: Duckworth. ISBN 0715624296. 

External links[]

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