A woman with ties to Goulburn has written an "imaginative history" of a well-known woman from the district in the 1850s.
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Frances Maber's Remembering Catharine tells the life of Catharine Maber, from her harsh beginnings in Ireland to her transportation for stealing and her eventual marriage and move to Goulburn.
It is written in the first person, as a novel, and this makes the book immediately engaging.
"Her story starts in Ireland and follows 10-year-old Catharine into the world of work, then the joys and sorrows of growing up," Mrs Maber said.
She said Catharine had been married but her husband threw her out and she stole some stockings when she was down and out.
"When she was before the Old Bailey, she made a point to the judge that she had been unfortunate in her marriage and her husband had left her and this was part of the reason that she stole the stockings," Mr Maber said.
She was sentenced to transportation to NSW.
"She came out as a convict and met ex-convict William Maber in Sydney. She was selected by a Mrs Wilshire to be her maid and needle-woman in Liverpool. They shifted to Sydney because Mr Wilshire owned a large tannery there," she said.
"She did not marry William, because she was already married, but they decided to be a couple and she was known as Mrs Maber."
William Maber was a lady's shoe maker and he set up business on the corner of Kent and Erskine Streets, Sydney.
"They did quite well until the building was auctioned and the new owner tipped them out. They then moved to Goulburn in 1847 and they lived somewhere on Auburn St," she said.
Throughout the book, Catharine is presented as an ordinary person struggling to live an honourable life, despite life's challenges.
One of these was when her husband was imprisoned for five years, from 1852, for robbing a house in Gunning.
"Catharine then became a single parent with two dependent children. She tried to get him a ticket of leave, but did not pursue it because she would have to leave Goulburn and she could not afford that because she had ways of earning money here from needlework and housework," she said.
She said her husband William was a good cricketer and his son William was also a cricketer and their grandson was a professional boxer, who became quite famous and was known as 'Shadow Maber'.
"He was a successful boxer, who boxed all around the colony. He was successful that he went to box in the USA and eventually settled there in Detroit," she said.
Mrs Maber said her motivation for writing the story lies in a connection between the main character Catharine and Mrs Maber's Crookwell-born husband, the late Bill Maber.
She first visited Goulburn years ago with Bill. Since his death, she has spent extended periods here, walking the streets, talking with members of the Goulburn and District Historical Society and using records held in the Goulburn Mulwaree Library.
"It is an exercise in imaginative biography, which is a term used by Professor Manning Clark during his a Boyer Lecture in 1976," she said.
"I started researching the book in 1975, when I discovered 'Shadow Maber'.
"Then in 2009, I received a letter from Pat and Terry Fearnley, the famous footballer, saying they were cousins to Bill
"They came to Perth to meet us and they had done much research into the Mabers through Trove and found all sorts of information about them, which helped me a great deal."
Her previous stories have all been for children and have centred on the bush and wombats.
Remembering Catharine is available at the Argyle Book Emporium, and is also available from Amazon, Booktopia and the Book Depository.
For more information about Frances Maber visit: www.willitthewombat.com
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