Louisa Capper

Louisa Capper (1776–1840) was an English writer, philosopher and poet of the 19th century. She was the mother of two notable sons.

Louisa Capper was born on 15 November 1776 at Fort St George, Madras, India. She was the youngest daughter of Mary (née Johnson) and Colonel James Capper, an officer in the army of the East India Company, known as a writer and meteorologist. Her grandfather, Francis Capper, was a London barrister; her uncle of the same name was a Church of England clergyman.

She is chiefly remembered for writing An Abridgment of Locke's Essay concerning the Human Understanding, published in 1811. Her Children's Stories however were a more profound contribution to the history of literature, marking a departure into a new populous genre in early Victorian readers. She was a pioneer of writing directly for children in a modern idiom.

A Poetical History of England (1810) is also attributed to Capper, being a versed history of England from Roman times to the start of the House of Hanover in 1714. It ran to a second edition in 1815. Her history was republished in 2012 as A poetical history of England; written for the use of the young ladies educated at Rothbury-House School, etc, by the British Library.

Louisa Capper married, on 16 October 1811, the Reverend Robert Coningham. His respect for her was such that on re-writing his will, he made her sole executrix and guardian. Much of his money came from slave sugar in St Vincent, where his uncle Walter Coningham had made a fortune at Colonarie Vale. Robert received a share of the money paid by the British government under the Slave Compensation Act 1837.

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