We have no portrait of Alexander Stopford Catcott, father of  George Symes Catcott, Reverend Alexander Catcott, and Martha Catcott.  

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Stopford died three years before Chatterton was born but still managed to influence him through his sons and the above paraphrase of psalm 104, which was also published in 'A Treatise on the Deluge', a book by the Rev. Alexander.

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Chatterton, through his friendship with George Symes Catcott, was able to gain access to the libraries of the Catcott brothers, where he must have had the opportunity to read Stopford's works, including his paraphrase of psalm 104, as well as The Court of Love, A Vision from Chaucer; and various sermons etc. It should be noted that the Chatterton family attended services at Temple Church, where Stopford's son, the Rev. Alexander, was the vicar.

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According to Chatterton's sister, Mary, in a letter to Herbert Croft, which Croft published in  Love and Madness (p.144), Chatterton at, 'About his 10th year he began (with the trifle my mother allowed him for pocket money) to hire books from the circulating library and we were informed by the usher made rapid progress in arithmatick. Between his 11th and 12th year he wrote a caterlogue of  the books he had read to the number of 70.  History and divinity were the chief subjects.' 

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Click the title pages below to read the books, if you dare.  Apparently some 'experts' claimed that The Court of Love was a work by Chaucer. 

Alexander Stopford was also a contributor to OVID'S Metamorphoses, book 13, p.435.

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More to do on this page... [.QE!.]