Between the two of them they created evening classes so that the workers at a local hemp factory could learn to read there and at Sunday School each week.

[6] With Faith Gray,[6] Catharine Harrison established in 1784 a School for Spinning Worsted in York, offering an education for girls.

[7] The school was staffed by women volunteers and the girls were taught to read and to spin and in return the student's were paid wages for their work and clothed.

She had no ambition to vote but she felt that middle class women had a duty to inspect female sections of charities.

[10] Impressed by Richardson's poetry, she arranged for Poems on Different Occasions to be published in 1806, also promoting the work through The Gentleman's Magazine.

[17] Through relations on her mother's side, Catharine was also acquainted with another Yorkshire gentry family, that of Sir George Strickland, 5th Baronet.