As can be seen from the plaque on The Saints Rooms, The notable William Wordsworth - and the notorious Fletcher Christian - were both educated here.
William Wordsworth was born in Cockermouth on 7th
April 1770 in the rather splendid Georgian property in
Main Street now known as Wordsworth House.
William's sister Dorothy was also born in the house a year
later, and they were baptised together in All Saints Church's predecessor. John Wordsworth's grave can also be seen in the churchyard.
Fletcher Christian - of Mutiny on the Bounty fame - was born on the 25 September 1764 to Charles and Ann Christian at Moorland Close Farm on the outskirts of Cockermouth
The town has consistently 'punched above its weight' in strategic importance, commercial and social life and in its famous sons, who include not only the Wordsworths and Fletcher Christian, but John Dalton - who proposed the theory of atoms - and astronomer Fearon Fallows. Many of these received their initial schooling at All Saints School, on whose original site now stands The Saints Rooms
Did You Know?
After the mutiny, Fletcher Christian sought refuge on the remote pacific island of Pitcairn, taking with him a Tahitian ‘wife’. Her real name was Mi’mitti but Christian called her Isabella. It is no coincidence that Isabella was the name of Christian’s cousin, a famed beauty and heiress after whom another island, Belle Isle in the centre of Windermere, was named.
