A coach of Joseph's time.
There aren’t any indications as to whether Joseph’s wife
Mary or any of their children accompanied him on these travels or whether they
remained in Liverpool. Joseph’s abode of Manchester in Josephine’s
baptism record may indicate they stayed in
After Joseph’s death in the 1830s, a series of adverts appeared in the Newcastle
Courant, placed by M[onsieur?] Cafferata, Surgeon Dentist. The M. Cafferata in
question was Mr James Lewis Cafferata, who was born in Genoa in 1797. The obvious question is, was
he related to Joseph Cafferata? I don’t have the answer, but considering the
name and profession, I think it is more than likely. If we make that
assumption, then the next question is: what was the relationship? Was he
Joseph’s Son? Brother? Nephew? There is conflicting evidence for these,
particularly the hypothesis that James was Joseph’s son. The old family tree
mentions a Dr Cafferata – was this James? Added to that on one family tree, Dr
Cafferata is shown as marrying Maria Horton. (I haven’t been able to find
supporting evidence for this though.) James Lewis Cafferata married Maria
Horton in Birmingham
on 28th April 1824. Birmingham
was also one of the towns that Joseph visited regularly on his travels. Some of
Joseph’s adverts also state that his practice was operated by Dr Cafferata and
SONS.(4)
All of the sons Joseph had with Mary would have been too young to be
practising with Joseph in 1824, but James would have been old enough, and was the
right profession. If James WAS Joseph’s son, then who was James’ mother? Mary
seems too young – she was born around 1786, so would only have been 11 when
James was born, even if she’d been able to leave Lancashire and travel to Genoa to meet Joseph.
James was naturalised as a British citizen in 1844, but a search of the
naturalisation papers doesn’t shed any light on the matter. I would love to
find out the answers to these questions but I suspect the problems may never be
solved.