Her entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography describes her as "one of the few true convict chroniclers with an excellent memory and a gift for recording events".

[2] Catchpole had little education and worked as a servant for different families until being employed in May 1793 as under-nurse and under-cook by the writer Elizabeth Cobbold at her house on St Margarets Green in Ipswich.

The source also states that she had fallen in love with a sailor named William Laud, who had joined a band of smugglers; later, he was pressed into service in the Royal Navy.

[2] On the night of 23 May 1797, Catchpole stole John Cobbold's coach gelding and rode the horse 70 miles (110 km) to London in nine hours, but was promptly arrested for its theft and tried at the Suffolk Summer Assizes.

[1] The Margaret Catchpole Public House is situated on Cliff Lane close to the site of the Cobbold Brewery in Ipswich.

The author claims that "the public may depend upon the truth of the main features of this narrative" however, some discrepancies have since come to light, and some writers, including the Rev.

It also formed the basis of the 1912 film The Romantic Story of Margaret Catchpole which starred Lottie Lyell in the title role.

Cobbold's book was also adapted into a libretto by Ronald Fletcher, which was set to music as the opera "Margaret Catchpole: Two Worlds Apart" by British composer Stephen Dodgson in 1979.

The Romantic Story of Margaret Catchpole is a 1911 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford and starring Lottie Lyell.

Local East Suffolk (Benhall) folk group Honey and the Bear feature a song about the life of Margaret Catchpole on their 2019 album Made in the Aker.