Joseph Cafferata:
The Start of the Story...
... and Some Un-answered Questions
The best place to begin is at the start of 1796, when French Revolutionary forces under the command of Napoleon went to war in Italy, with the aim of disrupting Austrian power in the area. Napoleon defeated Piedmont by the end of April, and subsequent campaigns led to French domination throughout the region. The previously independent Republic of Genoa was set up as a satellite state of France called the Ligurian Republic and it is here that the name of Cafferata makes its first appearance. A family story says that Joseph Cafferata was an armour maker who didn’t want to fight for Napoleon and the French and so fled to England at the beginning of the 19th century. The story doesn’t, however, tell us when or where Joseph was born. A guess of around 1780 would seem reasonable in view of the date of his marriage and ages of his children.
The earliest documented reference to Joseph comes in the parish records of St Paul’s, Liverpool which shows that he married Mary Pendleton (a Lancashire native) on the 1st February 1804.(1)
Pulling Teeth by Louis-Léopold Boilly, 1825 - Would Joseph have worked like this? | However, a newspaper advertisement placed in the
Liverpool Mercury in 1830 stated that he had been working in Liverpool for 28
years, that is, since 1802.(2) Whatever the date Joseph arrived in Liverpool,
it appears that he underwent a fairly radical change in career as he is
alternatively described as a surgeon, dentist or doctor. In the marriage
register his occupation is given as surgeon. In Liverpool,
Joseph and Mary lived for many years at |
There followed three sons; Joseph (b.1807), John (b.1810) and William (b. 1812) and another daughter, Mary (b.1815). On old family trees, a sixth child is mentioned; “Dr” Cafferata, with no first name given, and this gives rise to some interesting speculation, which I’ll deal with later.
