Naming of the Wards and Other Significant Areas

Margaret Catchpole Maternity Ward

Margaret Catchpole arrived in Australia as a convict in 1801. In 1797 she had been sentenced to seven years imprisonment in Ipswich, England for smuggling and horse stealing. Though she was considered to be a "model prisoner" for the first two years of her sentence, her subsequent escape from gaol resulted in her being transported to Australia for life.

On arrival in Sydney she was assigned to the service of John Palmer, a government official in Woolloomooloo. Through her hard work and resourcefulness she was transferred to Richmond Hill to act as midwife to Mrs Rouse, wife of a farmer. She was subsequently made farm overseer and later opened a general store in the Hawkesbury. She also acted as the local midwife. During her life in North Richmond she attended many confinements at pioneer homesteads.

Through records of her correspondence in the early 1800's, Margaret Catchpole made a substantial contribution to our knowledge of the early settlement days. Letters of 1806 and 1809 document her eye-witness accounts of the Hawkesbury floods, during which she saved several children's lives.

Margaret Catchpole played a pioneering role in the colony's survival, and as a midwife, she delivered the children of the first settlers. Margaret Catchpole was granted a pardon in 1814 and at the age of fifty-eight died from influenza which she contracted from one of her patients.