Catherine Clark

  General Notes:

Catherine Clark, was born October 20, 1812, at Lazare, on the Isle ofMan. She was the fourth child in a family of eight, and when she hadgrown to womanhood in this place, she married James Corlett and moved toManchester in England. Five children were born to the Corletts, one ofthem dying in infancy. James Corlett was successful in his business as aprinter, and acquired quite a fortune. His business made him acquaintedwith Joseph Chatterley, a wheelwright, merchant, and carpenter, of whomhe bought his printer's blocks. The Corletts and the Chatterleys becameclose friends and when, in 1844, Latter-day Saint missionaries broughtthem the message of the restored gospel, Catherine Corlett and herchildren joined the Church, as also did the family of Chatterleys. JamesCorlett was favorable to the call, and apparently would have joined, buthe became suddenly ill and died unexpectedly.

Catherine Corlett's parents, being bitterly opposed to the Latter-daySaints, tried their best to persuade their daughter to give up Mormonism,and to stay in England, from which she was contemplating a move withother converts to Utah. She loved her parents, and hated the thought ofdistressing them, and of becoming estranged from them, but she knew deepin her soul that the ancient gospel had been restored, and she could notgive it up for the sake of any earthly friendship. Later on, when shewrote to some of her relatives for names and dates of the family,preparatory to doing work for them in the temple, she was told that hername had been stricken from the family record. Yet not for this, nor forany of the hardships which her obedience to the gospel entailed upon her,did she ever falter in her decision or regret the step she had taken.

When the Chatterleys decided to leave Manchester and move to Utah, theypersuaded the Corletts to come with them, or to follow them, and JosephChatterley helped Mrs. Corlett to dispose of her property. TheChatterleys left England in 1849, arriving in Salt Lake City thefollowing year and were called at once to settle in the Dixie country andhelp develop the iron mines of Iron County. Joseph Chatterley began in1852 to build a gristmill in Cedar City.

Catherine Corlett and her children overtook the Chatterleys in St. Louis,Missouri, in 1850, where Mr. Chatterley had been making wagons for peopleexpecting to cross the plains. He is said to have made fourteen wagonsthere at that time. The Corletts were not ready to come on with theChatterleys to the West, but had to wait six months to get their propertyand affairs in shape for the journey. Unlike many of the people who weregathering to Zion, Mrs. Corlett came with wealth, but very much unlikewealthy people in general, she was concerned for those less fortunatethan herself, and paid the way for many others who were struggling to getto Utah. She brought with her from England many of her householdbelongings, two servants, a gardener, a fine blooded mare which she likedto ride, and also a buggy and a team. She sold the buggy and among otherequipment which she bought for the westward journey, she got four wagonsto carry her possessions and her servants over the long wilderness roadto the mountains.

Her travels on the plains belong to a biography which should be writtenof her: Indian troubles and perilous times, hair-raising in their natureto anyone who had been accustomed to peaceful England. Riding in thecovered wagon, jolting and slow over the winding road, did not agree withCatherine Corlett, and she used to ride her blooded mare in the gloriouswide-open plains, sometimes venturing far ahead of the company.

During the remainder of the journey Mrs. Corlett had to ride in thestuffy and tiresome wagon, or walk alongside. They reached Salt Lake in1851, still having fifty-six head of livestock, and a goodly portion ofthe wealth which she had when she left Manchester, in the Old Country.Let no one imagine, however, that a generous soul like Mrs. Corlett wouldretain her riches very long with poverty and want, toiling or sufferingon every side. It seems that Joseph Chatterley met the Corletts in SaltLake City, and his son, John took charge of their livestock in Parowan,to which place they went at once. In that same year, November 11th, 1851,a company of emigrants, the Corletts among them, left Parowan to settleCedar City.

In the following winter Joseph Chatterley and his wife made the long tripby team to Salt Lake City to report the progress of the iron mines whichhe had had a call from the Church to develop. They were accompanied byMrs. Corlett who became a second wife to Joseph Chatterley on the 21st ofFebruary, 1852, the ceremony being performed by President Brigham Youngin the Endowment House.

Whatever the charm of the prospect facing the second Mrs. Chatterley, asshe made the long, laborious trip back through the wilderness stretchesto Southern Utah, those charms were supplied by and wrapped up in heruncompromising testimony of the truth. It was for that only that she hadleft her life of luxury and sacrificed her social standing to travel aquarter of the way around the world to spend the rest of her days inprivation and hardship. She gave to the poor, she gave to the Church, shetook stock in the iron mines because the Church was trying to developthem for the good of the country. She had to part with her gardener andher neighbors and friends in need....

Having by her generous gifts initiated herself into the equal brotherhoodof poverty on every side, she took her few remaining linen sheets andtable covers she had brought from Manchester, and drew out the warp to beused as thread in sewing on buttons and patches and meeting othernecessities where thread was a minus quantity. Faithful to the light oftruth which had burst forth into the darkness of her former world, shehad stepped down deliberately and cheerfully in three years from wealthto want. Her parents had disowned her, lifelong friends had turned away,but she never once looked back nor faltered in her fixed purpose.

In 1853 when it was known to Joseph and Catherine Corlett Chatterley thatshe was again to be a mother, he expressed two wishes of endearment forthe new baby, first: if it were a boy, it should be called Joseph, forhim. Second: that it be given a treasured copy of the Book of Mormonwhich he had bought in England, an early edition without chapters orparagraphs. On September third, he was accidentally shot and killed justseven days before the expected baby was born.

The baby was a girl, and with respect to her dead father's wishes, shewas given the name, Josephine. She was also given her mother's name,Catherine, and began her strenuous career in the world as JosephineCatherine Chatterley, the one and only combination of Clark andChatterley, an unsuspecting little beginner without a father, and soon tobe also without a mother, and destined to a most unusual career to blessand save the lives of many, and leave her memory enshrined in theirgrateful hearts.

Before getting lost in events subsequent to this time, a farewell glanceshould be given to the carpenter-blacksmith-wheelwright, and man ofgeneral skill and efficiency, Joseph Chatterley, a true man, a faithfulfriend, and uncomprising Latter-day Saint. In the records of Cedar City,his death is called a serious loss to the country. His last resting placemarks the first place that was upturned for burial of the dead in CedarCity. Passing years tend to minimize the importance and dim the realityof worthy souls who have passed on, but to us who knew Aunt Jody wecherish reverence for her father whom we have never seen. And of hermother, whom we have never seen, we think with kindness and admiration.Besides all the other good service that she and Joseph Chatterley gave tothe world and their fellow beings, they gave Aunt Jody, which of itselfshould entitle them to a place of exaltation in the great world to come.Catherine Corlett Chatterley died on the 19th of November, 1856, and wasburied in the Cedar City Cemetery.

Catherine married Joseph Chatterley, son of John Bouren Chatterley and Ann Nuttall, on 21 Feb 1852 in Cedar City, Iron Co., UT. (Joseph Chatterley was born on 17 Apr 1807 in Elton, St.Mary, Bury, Lancashire, England, christened on 10 May 1807 in St Mary, Bury, Lancashire, England, died on 7 Sep 1853 in Cedar City, Iron, Utah, USA and was buried in Sep 1853 in Cedar City, Iron, Utah, USA.)

Catherine next married James Corlett on 23 May 1837 in Braddon, Isle Of MAN. (James Corlett was born on 22 Mar 1809 in Jurby, Isle Of MAN, England and died in Salford, Lancastershire, England.)