Dorchester Illustration no. 2291 Catharine Clapp in Lemuel Clap House
One-half of a stereoview card showing Catharine Clapp in the parlor of the Lemuel Clap House. In the late 18th to early 19th century, the family began using Clapp, but Catherine’s father Lemuel continued to spell his name with one “p”. When Lemuel died in 1819, he left the house to his unmarried daughters Catharine and Rebecca. Rebecca died in 1855.
The illustration shows Catharine in her later years sitting in the parlor. The Society has pieces of the wallpaper seen in the illustration – the wallpaper was there during the Revolution when the house was used as a barracks for Colonial troops during the Siege of Boston.
The entry for Catharine in the family genealogy:
Catharine, b. April 17, 1782; d. unm. Feb. 21, 1872, in her 90th year. She retained her mental faculties to the last, reading her bible and other good books daily, without glasses, which through her long life she never used; was a worthy woman, of the old puritan stamp; lived and died in the house in Willow Court, occupied by her father during his life. The house, after her death, as elsewhere mentioned, passed into the hands of her nephews, Frederick and Lemuel.
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