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!    

Lucy Castle (1843-1921)

Christ Church Schools, Cubitt Town, London E

Lucy Castle's life was affected by the responsibilities that she had to take on at an early age.  Her father, a cooper, died when she was 19, and her only brother died when he was 25.  She became the sole support of her mother, and worked her way up from Pupil Teacher to headmistress.  She was fortunate to have a career path as a Board School teacher already begun at the age of 18.  It would have been her own hard work and ability which would have encouraged her teachers to train her as a pupil teacher.  It is not clear how she came to sign the petition, but it could be that her father had connections with the Radical artizans in the city, or maybe she knew one of the teachers who belonged to the London Association of Schoolmistresses.

Born in about 1843, In 1861 18 year old Lucy was a pupil teacher at St Mary’s National School. Whitechapel.  Her father Charles was a wine cooper, and they were living at 8 Back Court, St Mary Colman in the city. Her brother Charles, aged 15 was a messenger.   The next year her father Charles Castle died.  When she signed the petition, she was teaching at Christ Church Schools, Cubitt Town, on the Isle of Dogs.   In 1871 she was lodging at 23 Spencer Street, Islington with her mother Martha who was dependent on her.  She was a schoolmistress in a National School. It is likely that her brother Charles died the next year, leaving her as the sole support for her mother. In 1881 she was head mistress of a Board School. She lived  with her mother Martha in Birchanger Road, Norwood.  Her mother died in 1883.   In 1901 she was living alone, and was a headmistress of a board school. In 1911 she has retired to 78 Lowther Road, Preston, Brighton on a teachers pension. Again she lived alone, and her home had 6 rooms. When she died in Brighton County Borough  Mental Hospital in Haywards Heath in 1921 she left £1278 5s 7d.

1871 census Registration district: Islington Sub-registration district: Islington East ED, institution, or vessel: 23a Household schedule number: 144 Piece: 286 Folio

55 Page Number: 42

Elizabeth Bucknall  Cotton Winder of Stockport Road, Manchester

Elizabeth Bucknall married shortly after signing the petition, but also a year after she had her first child with William Henry Dunmore.  She was to deliver their second child a week or so after their marriage and her signature.  At the baptism of her first child in church she was 'Elizabeth Dunmore' but when she signed the Petition she used her legal name.as an unmarried woman.   
   

Born in 1839, the daughter of James Bucknall, a labourer, in 1841 she was living in Ormond Street, Manchester. By 1861 the family were living in [Gt?] Chatham Street, and James was working as a porter, her mother Ann as a dressmaker, her elder sister Ann as a maker of paper bags, and Elizabeth herself as a cotton winder. In June 1865 William Henry and ‘Elizabeth Dugmore’ had son John baptised, In the second quarter of 1866, shortly after signing the Petition, Elizabeth married William Henry Dugmore.  Their daughter Maud Victoria was born on 12^th June, 1866 and baptised in October 1866.,. William was baptised in 1868, and Tom in 1869.   By 1871 she was living in Clowes Street with her husband William Henry Dugmore, and Jhn, aged 7, Maud Victoria, aged 5 and Tom aged 2. William was a coachman, and later a cabbie. 

1861 Census Registration distric tChorlton  Sub-registration district Chorlton upon Medlock ED, institution, or vessel: 32 Household schedule number77 Piece: 2882 Folio: 102 Page Number: 13

Maude Victoria Christening Name: Maud Victoria Dugmore Birth Date: 12 Jun 1866 Baptism Date: 14 Oct 1866 Parish: Ardwick, St Thomas Father's name: William Henry Dugmore Mother's name: Elizabeth Dugmore Reference Number: GB127.M273/1/2/3 Ancestry

Use your vote!  Rachel Parry (1829-1915) couldnt...

But she could still protest with her niece by defacing the 1911 census!  In the column for infirmity ('deaf',' blind' etc) her niece Ada wrote "unenfranchised"

Rachel Parry signed the 1866 Suffrage Petition in Rochdale.  Her father had died six years before, and her mother was carrying on in the shoe business.  Rachel was born on 7^th September 1829.  Her father Charles made clogs . She was baptised at the Quaker meeting house but they were apparently not in full membership.  However she attended the Quaker Ackworth School from 1841- 1843,(Student no 6400 page 142 https://archive.org/stream/listofboysgirlsa00ackw#page/142/mode/2up )  as did other members of her family. In the 1841 census Charles and Sarah Parry, Rachel, and her five siblings lived at St Mary’s Gate, Spotland, Rochdale.  Rachel’s father died in 1860 leaving just under £2000.   In the 1861 census her mother Sarah was described as a widowed shoe dealer employing 5 men.   In 1871 Sarah, Rachel and brother Albert  are at Heights Cottage, Spotland, and her mother now employs a boy and three girls in addition to the 5 men and is a shoe manufacturer.  By 1881 she and her mother are shoe dealers and live at 119 Tachbrook Road, Leamington  Brother in law James Wormal, and his wife and daughter are living with them.  Sarah died in 1882.  By 1891 Rachel had a shoe warehouse in Eastbourne and lived in Grove Road Eastbourne.  Her brother Albert was manager of her Warehouse, and her brother in law James Wormall shared her home.

In 1901 she has retired to Ilfracombe, Devon with James Wormall. She described herself as  a retired boot dealer. In 1911 she is living with Ada Sophia and they fill in the census under protest. http://www.jliddington.org.uk/1911-census.html   When she died in 1914 she left £783.8s..9d and her niece Ada Sophia Wormall was her executor.  Ada Sophia had also been a student at the Quaker Ackworth School in the 1860’s.and was a supporter of the Order of the Golden Age, an organisation based in Paignton which advocated fruitarianism , peace, happiness heath, purity, Life and Power. 

1861 census Registration district: Rochdale Sub-registration district: Wardleworth ED, institution, or vessel3

Household schedule number: 59 Piece: 3043 Folio: 58 Page Number: 13

1911 census Civil Parish Ilfracombe County/Island: Devon Country Street address: Westem Bank, Station Rd, Ilfracombe Registration district: Barnstaple Registration District Number: 284 Sub-registration district: Ilfracombe ED, institution, or vessel: 16 Household schedule number: 76 Piece: 13366

Use your vote! She couldn’t…

Elizabeth Pease Nichol (1807-1897) Campaigner against Slavery and for Medical Education A Quaker born in Darlington, she founded a local women’s abolition society, personally collecting thousands of signatures for anti-slavery petitions. She supported Chartism.   When she married Professor Nichol in her forties, she was expelled from the Quakers for marrying ‘out’ which saddened her.  After signing the 1866 suffrage petition she joined the local Edinburgh Society fo Women’s Suffrage.  When Sophia Jex Blake and others demanded the opportunity to study Medicine there in 1877, Elizabeth spoke out at the rowdy public meeting where male medical students were abusive and threatened violence. She commented that if this was the attitude of the only doctors available to women, then it was high time women qualified!

 Ellen Bemrose

In May 1866 Mrs Ellen Roberts, young wife and mother, signed a very influential document.  With eleven other women from Denbigh and nearby St Asaph in Wales, she signed a Petition to Parliament asking for votes for women.  How did she come to support such a remarkable idea?  .  Was it to do with her family background, or was it to do with new friends she had made in Denbigh when she moved there four months before?   At this distance of time it is impossible to know for certain. 

   Ellen Bemrose was born in 1834 the daughter of William Bemrose and his wife Elizabeth.  In the 1861 census she at home at the busy stationers and printers on the corner of Irongate in the ‘Irongate, Derby’ Louise Rayner 1864 [Derby Museums and Art Gallery ]

centre of Derby.   Most of her   family members were practically involved in the business.   Her father William Bemrose, her two elder brothers and possibly her mother too. 

Ellen’s father, William Bemrose, had been born in Northamptonshire in about 1794 and in 1809 had been apprenticed to Mozley’s Printers in Gainsborough Lincolnshire aged 15.  In 1810 Mozley’s moved to Derby.  By 1826, when he was 32, William had set up his own printing firm there.  At first it was a small stationary shop at Wirksworth.  However he soon set up a factory at Midland Place Derby to make tickets and timetables for the railways.  Ellen was born in 1834.  By 1851 the family were living at 35, Irongate. William and his son Henry were partners in the firm employing   "46 hands exclusive of 4 in the family 11 journeymen, 6  apprentices, 22 boys, 2 women and 3 girls.’  There were three apprentice booksellers, a widowed visitor, Mary M Edwards, and two servants.

The 1851 census for the Bemrose household

Ten years later the family are at 1 Sadler Gate, At the factory Ellen’s father now employed 33 men, 36 boys, and 11 women and girls.  Ellen was at home with her parents, an apprentice bookseller and two servants.  Her brothers had married and moved out.

The 1861 census for the Bemrose household

Marriage

On 26^th June 1862 Ellen married John Henry Roberts at All saints Church Derby. He was 24 years old, and was the Second Master of Derby Grammar School. 

He had entered Emmanuel College Cambridge in 1856, been ordained a deacon at Salisbury in 1861 and priest in Litchfield in 1862.  In the 1861 census he was recorded as an Assistant Master at Mannamead School, near Compton Gifford, Devon. 

The Derby Mercury of Wednesday 23^rd  October 1861 records “ Derby Grammar School- The vacancy of Second Mastership of this school has been filled up by the appointment of Rev John Henry Roberts , B A of Emmanuel College Cambridge and late master of the Lower School, Rossall.”

Derby Grammar School moved, St Helen’s House, in 1861-2 while Ellen’s husband was Second Master. Founded in about 1149, by 1865 the transition from traditional grammar school to public school was already under way under the new headmaster the Rev Walter Clark.

 

All Saints church Derby in 1803

Ellen and John continued to live in Derby until 1866 when he was appointed Head Master of Denbigh Grammar School

Derby Mercury, Wed Feb 21, 1866

The Denbigh Grammar School - We are able to announce that the appointment of Headmaster of the school has been conferred upon the Rev. John Henry Roberts, MA, of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, late second master of the Derby Grammar school. Mr Roberts graduated in 1859 when his name appeared as senior optime - also in the classical honours. The highly creditable position he gained at the University is a sufficient guarantee for his classical and mathematical attainments; while the marked success he has met with at Derby in preparing candidates for the various competetive examinations, gives every reason to hope that he possesses all the qualifications necessary to render him a most valuable and efficient master. The school will reopen at Easter for boarders and day scholars in suitable commodious premises, for which arrangements are being made. Denbighshire Telegraph

Pall Mall Gazette, Thursday Feb 22 1866
The Headmastership of Denbigh Grammar School has been conferred on the Rev. John Henry Roberts, MA, Emmanuel College, Cambridge, second master of the Grammar School at Derby. Mr Roberts graduated in 1859, when he was seventeenth senior optime in the Mathematical Tripos and fifteenth in the third-class of the Classical Tripos.

Thomas Gee

Ellen, John and their young family arrived in Denbigh early in 1866, and it is likely that their early acquaintances in the town included the family of Thomas Gee and his wife

Susanna.  Thomas had been a pupil in the grammar school himself and maintained his interest in the school alongside his Liberal politics, printing business and passion for Welsh culture.

 In April 1866 John Stuart Mill, newly elected Liberal MP, had suggested to his step daughter Helen Taylor and her fellow members of the Kensington Society, that if they could collect 100 good signatures for a petition asking for votes for women, he was prepared to present it to the House of Commons. 

The Kensington Society was a women’s discussion group.  It included many women who had already started to campaign for women’s education and property rights, There were 68 members, aged from

Charlotte Manning

80 to their late teens.  Though meetings were in Kensington, at the house of Adelaide Manning, country members could contribute to the discussion by post.  After a discussion that women should have the vote, led by the artist Barbara Bodichon, it was decided to collect signatures for a petition.  Mrs Manning, the hostess of the society, already had several relatives involved as members, and she turned to her family connections in the search for signatures.  At least ten of her relatives were persuaded to sign, including her brother’s daughter’s sisters in law, Clara and Jane Wicksteed who lived at St Asaph, close to Denbigh.  It is likely that it was they who recruited Mrs Susannah Gee to collect signatures in Denbigh. The new headmaster’s wife, Ellen Roberts was persuaded to sign, as were her neighbours

Vale Street, Denbigh

It is likely that Susannah Gee asked Ellen to sign the suffrage petition, along with her neighbours Dorothy James, Jane Pierce, Anna and Annie Roberts, Anne Davies and Mary Ann Smith, many of whom may have been her neighbours in Vale Street. 

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.