Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1844-[1975] (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
71pp
Context area
Archival history
Citation: Gatchell, Joseph (1844) (2007). The Disenthralled: Being Reminiscences in the Life of the Author; His Fall From Respectability by Intemperance, and Rescue by the Washingtonian Society. London: Forgotten Books (originally published at Troy, New York: N. Tuttle).
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
2017 Forgotten Books paperback reprint of The Disenthralled: Being Reminiscences in the Life of the Author; His Fall From Respectability by Intemperance, and Rescue by the Washingtonian Society, an 1844 memoir/temperance tract written by Joseph Gatchell, plus Kerby A. Miller's notes on the book. Gatchell was born into a Quaker family, likely in County Wicklow, and emigrated to the American eastern seabord in his teans to live with his uncle, who died soon after. Gatchell moved into a boarding house, where he developed a drinking problem. Returning to Ireland, Gatchell obtained work with the Bank of Ireland and performed but lost his job after a branch closure. Gatchell found employment in another bank near Dublin but his drinking and gambling worsened, leading to the loss of his lob and bankruptcy. Returning to America, Gatchell took a series of menial seafaring and railroad jobs. Ending up at Chatham, New York, his landlord convinced him to take the Washington Pledge.