Manchester Suffragettes and Suffragists

Lydia Ernestine Becker, suffragist.

Today a statue of Millicent Garrett Fawcett was unveiled near Parliament. My latest feature for Discover Your Ancestors online magazine explores the fight for women's rights by Manchester suffragettes and suffragists during the late nineteen and early twentieth centuries.

In the mid-to-late 1860s, Manchester committees to campaign for women’s property and voting rights were founded by Elizabeth Wolstenholme (later Elmy), Lydia Ernestine Becker, Emily Davies, Alice Scatcherd and others.

‘Suffragists’ like Lydia Becker and Margaret Ashton argued that voting reform should be fought for using only peaceful, constitutional means. The suffragists scored a major victory in 1869 when property-owning women were given the right to vote in local government elections and act as Poor Law Guardians.

But women (and working-class men) still could not vote in national elections. Sheer frustration at successive governments' refusal to give women the vote led 'suffragettes' like Manchester-born Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters to take direct action. However, it was not until 1928 that all women over the age 21 of were given the vote, and put on an equal footing with men.

The Pankhurst Centre, Manchester

My book Tracing Your Manchester and Salford Ancestors has several tips for researching suffragette and suffragist sources in Manchester libraries and specialist archives. I also thoroughly recommend visiting Emmeline Pankhurst’s home at 62 Nelson St, Manchester, which is now a museum and heritage centre, if you wish to find out more about the suffragettes' story.

Images:
Lydia Ernestine Becker (1827–1890), an early campaigner for women’s political rights and founder member of the National Society for Women’s Suffrage in 1867. Manchester Faces and Places Vol. 1, J. G. Hammond & Co., c. 1895. Author’s collection.

62 Nelson St, Manchester, now the Pankhurst Centre. Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters lived here from 1897–1907. © Sue Wilkes.

New Release: Tracing Your Manchester and Salford Ancestors

I'm thrilled to announce that Tracing Your Manchester and Salford Ancestors has been released early! It's currently on special offer here on the Pen & Sword website, and should soon be in stock on Amazon.

Suffragist Lydia E. Becker.

Here's the blurb:
'For readers with family ties to Manchester and Salford, and researchers delving into the rich history of these cities, this informative, accessible guide will be essential reading and a fascinating source of reference. 
    Sue Wilkes outlines the social and family history of the region in a series of concise chapters. She discusses the origins of its religious and civic institutions, transport systems and major industries. Important local firms and families are used to illustrate aspects of local heritage, and each section directs the reader towards appropriate resources for their research. No previous knowledge of genealogy is assumed and in-depth reading on particular topics is recommended. The focus is on records relating to Manchester and Salford, including current districts and townships, and sources for religious and ethnic minorities are covered. A directory of the relevant archives, libraries, academic repositories, databases, societies, websites and places to visit, is a key feature of this practical book'.

Salford hero Mark Addy.

Tomorrow, I'm visiting the WDYTYA Live! show at the NEC, and if all goes to plan, I'll be signing copies of my new book at the Pen & Sword stand. Hope to see you there!

Black-and-white images from Manchester Faces and Places, Vol. I, J.G. Hammond & Co., c.1889. 

Manchester New Synagogue and Beth Hamedrash, Cheetham Hill.

Jessie Stephen: Servant and Suffragette

Today I'd like to welcome fellow Pen and Sword author Michelle Higgs to my blog. Michelle's wonderful new book Servants' Stories is out now., and Jessie Stephen's career is just one of the many amazing true stories inside:

JESSIE STEPHEN: THE HOUSEMAID WHO BECAME A SUFFRAGETTE AND TRADE UNIONIST

By her own admission, Jessie Stephen was no ordinary housemaid. Born in 1893, she was the daughter of a tailor who worked for the Co-operative Society in Glasgow. She wanted to be a schoolteacher and when she was 14, she won a scholarship to secondary school. Sadly, Jessie had to leave a year later when her father became temporarily unemployed. Duty to one’s parents and contributing to the family finances had to come first. 

When she was interviewed about her life in 1977, she recalled:

“trade was so bad that particular year [1908], I had to go out to work. I went to one or two jobs, factory jobs, but it was only half a crown a week and I wasn’t helping Mother. So I said I’ll find a job in service because at any rate the money will be completely free of any expense to Mother. Of course, you’d have your board and lodging… I am grateful to my Dad. He cried a bit when I was said I was going…he wanted something better for me but of course in later years, I justified his appreciation of what I’d learned.”

(From recorded interview in LSE Library’s collections, ref: 8SUF/B/157, 1 July 1977.)

Like so many working-class girls, Jessie Stephen went into domestic service as a ‘general’, working first in Glasgow. She quickly found she was better educated than many of the mistresses she served. Jessie described one of the homes in which she worked:

“There were four [servant] girls … [and] they had two bathrooms [in the house] but we weren’t allowed to use the bath. Oh, no! We had to go in the wash-house and have our bath in the copper, warm the water and get in the copper, one of the girls holding the door so any of the men who might pass couldn’t get in. It was humiliation that servants had to suffer back then, as if we were different creatures. We were often very much cleaner than they were because we were always taught to be clean. Every one of us had a bath every week, my Mother saw to that.”

Not content with her lot, Jessie became a labour activist at an early age; she was made vice-president of the Maryhill branch of the Independent Labour Party at the age of 16. She was also a militant suffragette and a member of the Women’s Social and Political Union; while wearing her maid’s uniform, she dropped acid into pillar boxes to destroy the contents.

Determined to improve the working lives of her fellow servants, Jessie was also involved in founding a domestic workers’ union in Glasgow in 1913. There were minor successes, but it was difficult to recruit members and the union eventually became affiliated to the Domestic Workers’ Union of Great Britain.

You can find out more about Jessie Stephen’s experiences as a domestic servant in Servants’ Stories: Life Below Stairs in their Own Words 1800-1950 by Michelle Higgs (Pen & Sword, 2015).

Michelle’s blog about servants is at http://servantsstories.blogspot.co.uk and you can also follow her on Twitter: @michellehiggs11.

IMAGES:

Jessie Stephen, 1930. (Source: Bundesarchiv Bild 102-09812, Jessie Stephen).

Members of the Women's Social and Political Union campaigning for women's suffrage in Kingsway, circa 1911. (Source: The Suffragette by Sylvia Pankhurst. New York: Source Book Press, 1970. First published by Sturgis & Walton Company, 1911. Facing p. 174)

Blue plaque for Jessie Stephen MBE (1893-1979) in Chessel Street, Bristol. (Source: Flickr: Jessie Stephen MBE. Author: Trevor Johnson)

Find My Past Preview: The Suffragettes

This week's Find My Past episode explores the Suffragettes' heroic struggle to win votes for women. On 4 June 1913 Emily Davison stepped onto the racecourse at Epsom as a protest to help publicise the suffragette movement.  She died from her injuries shortly afterwards. 

In this week's programme, which airs on Yesterday at 9pm on Thursday, three people - Philippa Bilton, Katy Arnander and Matt Jopling - discover how their ancestors are linked to this famous but tragic incident in the history of women's rights.