Mondy, Maria Charlotte 

Signed the petition from the family home, 2, Coldbath Street, Greenwich London SE. This was a poor street at the bottom of Blackheath Hill on the way to Lewisham.  Her parents were both working as shoemakers, but both their children worked hard to gain an education. Maria became a teacher and her brother Edmund became a professor of Mining ,

Samuel Mondy and Caroline Glasscock  had married in Deptford in 1839  Both their parents were shoemakers.   Mary was born in Water Street, Bristol in 1843.

 By 1851 the family had moved back to London and were living in Cold Bath Lane Greenwich .  Maria now had a younger brother, 5 year old Edmund.  Her father was a shoe maker and her mother Caroline a shoe binder. 

 In the 1861 census 15 year old Edmund was an apprentice shipwright.  18 year old Maria is absent and I have not traced her whereabouts. Very probably she is working in a school, or perhaps was in Lewisham running a small day school. (see below)   

In 1865 Maria was recruited to the London Association of schoolmistresses, Emily Davies’ organisation which fostered the education of girls by supporting their teachers.  In 1866 she laft home and was living at  44 Charrington Street Oakley Square.  This was a lodging house run by a widow, Ellen Theobald. 

 In 1867 her brother  won a prize from the Royal Society of arts for mathematics done with Deptford Local Board, he won £3 He won another prize for mechanics in 1869   He was a ship wright still. By 1871 Caroline had died, and Samuel has moved to 3 Mount Pleasant Place, Lewisham Road. For a while Maria ran a ladies day school there in 1860, so her father may have owned the property already.  He is employing a live-in Apprentice and they have a servant.  Edmund is now a student at the Royal School of Mines. In 1880 Edmund went to India as a professor of mining, and remained there until he retired in 1903.   By 1881 Samuel has moved to Commercial Place Greenwich and has a house keeper and two lodgers.  He is employing two men and an apprentice. By 1901 he is living in Chetwynd Road St Pancras with his new wife (Amelia Hunt, his housekeeper!)

 In 1871 Maria was teaching at Denmark Hill Grammar School, a large boys’ preparatory school in Camberwell, said to be one of the two best in London. She was one of two governesses, there were also 3 masters and 37 boys boarding.

She was involved with the Working Women’s College in Queen Square and you can see an example https://archive.org/stream/selectionsfromwo185work#page/2/mode/2up of a creative a magazine put together by students of the  Working Women’s college at the time that she  was an associate there. 

At this time she became a mature University student .  From 1879-1880 and 1882-3 she enrolled at University College London for courses.    By 1881 she is a visiting teacher, lodging in Crowndale Road with a qualified nurse and a widow Jane Russell, who is an agent for The Metropolitan Association for Befriending Servants. 

,   In 1891 Maria is still a visiting teacher lodging at at 37 Crowndale Road, sharing with Jane Russell  (now a secretary for a servants association}  and Minnie Baker, clerk to a reading room and Margaret H Bayton, aged 17, a typist. These young working women, Minnie and Margaret , are boarders having their meals provided by Maria and Jane.

In 1891 she is a London member of the American Institute of Instruction, possibly attending in July 1891

She was involved in the National Home Reading Union which offered courses of prescribed books to people of all classes, with reading circles to support their reading. She wrote a pamphlet for the Union which includes suggestions for organising reading groups for young people.  . https://archive.org/details/readingasmeansof00mondrich to read it on line!  From page 4 She writes about her personal experiences of teaching classes of working class children in Board schools and the practical ways that she introduced the children to literature.

 

The Columbian Reading Union. Magazine recorded
721 1896
“Miss Maria C. Mondy, who is in charge of the young people’s section of the
National Home Reading Union, London, in a pamphlet on School Libraries, has
quoted these words from Sir Walter Scott: To make boys learn to read, and then
place no good books within their reach, is to give them an appetite, and leave noth-
ing in the pantry save unwholesome and poisonous food, which, depend upon it,
they will eat rather than starve. She has also gathered some powerful words
from Rev. E. Thring on reading as a means of education.”

  When Maria’s father died in 1905 he left 119 .6..3d

In 1896 and 1921 she was on voters registers at 17 West Hill, Highgate as a householder for Crowndale Road as well as West Hill.    In the 1911 census she records living there on her own, with four rooms    Before she died in 1925 she would have been able to vote.  When she died in Highgate she left £259..1s..10d and her Professor brother was her executor.

 

Miss Amos, Champion Hill

It is now thirty-five years since I found a copy of the 1866 Suffrage Petition name list, bound into a  volume of pamphlets at Girton Archives. The volume caught my eye as I was enjoying coffee and biscuits in the archive office with Kate Perry the Archivist. Just a few weeks ago I returned to the Archive, having discovered that a second copy of the petition list lay buried in a box of much later Suffrage materials [GCPPDavies 17/51],  To my delight, I found that this copy was annotated in Emily Davies' hand.

When Emily Davies used a spare copy of the 1866 suffrage petition list to mark up supporters who had been prepared to help her to (probably) collect more signatures for the next, much larger petition she marked some names with a vertical stroke of the pen.  The note on the first page of the list in her writing reads "Sent packets to"

In spite of years of research there are still some 150 women (of the 1,499  who signed the petition) whom I have not yet identified.  One of these was a Miss Amos,  Champion Hill.  That has now changed.  Miss Amos was one of those brave women who must have requested a packet of campaigning literature and perhaps new petition forms.  A fresh search of the newspapers on Find My Past revealed her activity- successfully entering her pupils for the University Local Examinations.  Davies had campaigned for these exams to be opened to girls in 1865. I

It emerged that Miss Catherine Elizabeth Amos was born in 1830, the daughter of a Manchester manufacturer.  She was attending a Ladies School at Mount Vernon Green, possibly as a pupil teacher, in 1851.  By 1861 she was boarding with the family of a magistrate, a Mr Hargreaves in Paddington.  Her younger sister was also boarding in the household, and Katherine was working as a visiting governess. 

It is likely that she was still a governess, this time in one of the well-to-do households of Champion Hill Dulwich, when she signed the petition.  By 1861 her fortunes had changed, and she had taken over Belmont House School ( now the Belmont Hotel, De Montfort Square, Leicester.)  By now she spelled her name  Katherine. She had fourteen live-in pupils with assistance from her sister and two other teachers.  It was at Belmont House that her pupils succeeded in University Local Examinations.  This commitment linked her with Emily Davies and confirmed her as a suffrage supporter. 

In about 1876 she moved her school to Coed-Bell Chislehurst, where in 1891 she had 31 boarders, and was assisted by her sister,  a niece and six more teachers. She died aged 92, leaving over £20,000.

Katherine had  remarkable career. She was undoubtedly encouraged by her association with the remarkable Emily Davies, so early in her career.  She was a pioneer in offering young women the opportunity to take the University Local Examinations- leading to university education at least one pupil got a scholarship to Lady Margaret Hall and a first-class degree. She showed great courage by signing the controversial Suffrage Petition when she was a humble governess at the start of her teaching life.

Many thanks to the Archivist at Girton in 1995- Kate Perry.  She offered me that cup of coffee and a biscuit in her office and enabled my discovery of the petition.  Many thanks too, to today's custodian of the Archive, Hannah Westall, for her warm welcome last month!    

Three Spinsters in Margate

At Burleigh House ,13 Cecil Street, Margate, there was a girl's school run by two sisters, Josephine Theakston Waude and Helen Waude. With their older step sister Isabella Theakston they signed the petition. In 1866 they were 36 and 32 years old. They had 24 boarders in 1861. They were interested in improving the standard of the education they could offer their pupils, because in 1864 Josephine had signed the petition to the Syndics of Cambridge University asking that girls should also be permitted to take the University Local Examinations. This petition was successful and by 1867 girls from across the country were taking the exams. However by 1871the sisters were on the move and their step-sister Isabella Theakston ( Who dwelt with them , but lived off her own means) had moved to stay with her elder sister Martha Sprunt .

These are single women who were in the fortunate position of being well provided for. They were able to start a school, but were not dependent on it for a livelyhood. Their mother Sarah had married twice, both times to coach builders in the [Old?] Kent Road, Southwark. By her first husband John Theakston she had Martha and Isabella and a boy John who had only lived 7 weeks. Martha was the only sister to marry- her husband was publican of the Coach and Horses in Greenwich Market , then worked as a clerk for a gas company before becoming a Licenced Victualler.
John Waude's two daughters were born in Southwark and their father died in 1850. He appears to have been a very successful coach maker, working in fine materials (there is an Old Baily trial where he gives evidence when his stock was stolen) The girls moved to Rose Hill, Ash near Canterbury and in 1851n census are described as Independent Proprietors of houses. By 1881 Helen, Josephine and Isabella moved to Westmoreland.

The three women lived out the rest of their lives at Raven Bank, Staveley near Kendal. The house still exists and is a substantial stone house in leafy grounds, built in 1851. Isabella died first, then Josephine- each leaving several thousand pounds to their sisters. The last sister to die left over £17,000 to a Mr Thorp.

These unmarried sisters appear to have been unusual, in that they were well provided for. Their widowed mother had made a prudent second marriage, and Mr Waude, and possibly Mr Theakston also, had invested in property which provided an steady income for the girls. They had run a school for a number of years- was this in lean times when rents were low perhaps. But unlike many of the single women who signed the petition in 1866, their lives for the next five decades were comfortable and secure (Or did they shiver in their Lakeland home, huddling in one room, economising on everything, property rich but income poor???)

Use your vote!  She campaigned for it from the age of 24 and lived to vote herself!

Constance Phillott (1842-1931) Artist

A Cottage Child by Costance Phillott

Constance Phillott (1842-1931)  Was born in  1842 the daughter of Dr Arthur Phillott and Frances Caroline Frend, a sister of Mrs De Morgan.  Her mother’s family were involved with founding Bedford College, which pioneered education for young women.  .    In the 1851 census her father was a GP in Wimpole Street, where the family were living.  .  In 1871 she is with her father. at 251 Stanhope Street , describing herself as an artist  .  In 1881 census she describes herself as an artist.  In the 1911 census her 100 year old mother is head of the household which consists of her sister and two servants. Apparently she was active in Suffrage societies,.   

In 1929 she appears in the electoral register at 6 Devonshire Hill in the same house as Mary Sarah Burt, Maude Olin and Rhoda Wiltshire, all of whom were on the Voters register.