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COXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA. 725
is uncertain; but according to her own account *, fhe came into the world on the sth
of April, 1689. Her original name was Martha, which fhe changed for Catharine
when fhe embraced the Greek religon. Count Rofen, a lieutenant-colonel in the
Swedifh fervice, who owned the village of Ringen, fupported, according to the cuftom
of the country, both the mother and child, and was, for that reafon fuppofed to be her
father. She loft her mother when fhe was three years old, and Count Rofen dying
about the fame time, was left in fo deftitute a fituation, that the clerk of the village re-
ceived her into his houfe. Soon afterwards Gluck, Lutheran minifter of Marienburgh,
took her under his protection, brought her up in his family, and employed her in at-
tending his children. In 1701+ fhe efpoufed a dragoon of the Swedifh garrifon of
Marienburgh {. Many different accounts are given of this tranfaction; one author § of
great credit affirms that the bride and bridegroom remained together eight days after
their marriage; another ||, of no lefs authority, afferts, that on the morning of the
nuptials her hufband was fent with a detachment for Riga, and the marriage was never
confummated. ‘This much is certain, that the dragoon was abfent when Marienburgh
furrendered to the Ruffians, and Catharine, referved for a higher fortune, never faw
him more.
General Bauer, on the capture of Marienburgh, faw Catharine among the prifoners;
and, {mitten with her beauty, took her to his houfe, where fhe fuperintended his do-
was put to death by Peter, for openly declaring himfelf to be the brother of Catharine ; and that the fifter
received for fome time a penfion of 300 roubles from the Emprefs, but was afterwards confined in a houfe
‘of correction during the reign of Peter I. by Catharine’s defire.”? He adds, “ Catharine was brought up
in Gluck’s houfe ; fhe became the miftrefs of Tiefenhoufen, a captain of Swedith horfe, by whom fhe had a
fon ; he afterwards gave her in marriage to a dragoon of his troop, with whom fhe lived three years, until
fhe was taken prifoner at Narva by the Ruffians.’? But this minilter, who is well informed in what relates
to the latter part of Catharine’s life, and the means by which fhe afcended the throne, feems to have detailed
many idle reports about her family and early hiltory. Bufch. Hift. Mag. xi. p. 48.
Before I clofe this note I mutt mention the opinion of Bufching, who, during his refidence at Peterf-
burgh, colle&ted much authentic information in refpe& to the various parts of the Ruffian hiftory: amongit
other articles, he has given anecdotes of Catharine I. which he opens by faying, ‘* All the accounts which
‘writers have hitherto given, or rather conjectured, of the birth and family of Catharine I. are falfe.”’
Ibid. iii. p. 190. He fays her family was from Lithuania, and her father’s name Samuel ; her brother °
was Count Charles Scavronfki ; her fifter Chriftina married Count Simon Hendrikof, and the other, whofe
name was Anne, Michael Yefimofki. He confirms her marriage with the Swedifh dragoon, but places the
{cene at Fraufladt in Poland, and not at Marienburgh. He informs us, that he obtained this information
from an old lady whofe name he conceals, who died lately at Peterfburgh, and knew Catharine from her
firft appearance in Ruffia, and was greatly in her favour. He adds alfo.an account of an officer who brought
Catharine’s fifter Anne from Lithuania to Peterfburgh. With great deference, however, to fo refpeétable
an authority, we cannot, merely upon this hearfay evidence, fet afide the teftimonies of Weber, La Motraye,
and Bruce: this ftory feems, in effeét, the fame flying report as that in Voltaire; and the lady who gave
the intelligence to Bufching, might be willing to ratify the current report in Elizabeth’s time, in honour of
her friend and patronefs Catharine. It appears, however, as well from this intelligence as from the infor-
mation of Weber and Baflevitz, that fome real or pretended relations of Catharine made their appearance at
Peterfburgh during her reign; that they were acknowledged and promoted by her, and afterwards by
Elizabeth, not unwilling, perhaps, to believe, without inquiry, her mother’s family to be nobly defcended.
Schmidt, in his Materialen, &c. has collected in one point of view great part of the intelligence which
relates to Catharine and to him I am greatly obliged for abridging the trouble neceffary in fuch a compli-
cated inquiry. :
* Baflevitz in Bufching, ix. p 575. Some fay fhe was born fo early as 1583, Bufching, ix. p 48r.
+ Weber fays in her eighteenth year; but if, according to her own account, fhe was born in 1689, fhe
was only thirteen. ,
{ Wurmb affured Weber, that during her refidence at Marienburgh fhe was a pattern of virtue and good
behaviour; which contradiéts the report, that fhe had been a common woman in Livonia,
§ Weber. || Bruce, p 74: \ i
mettic
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