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 26th 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 23rd 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
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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
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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
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Charlotte Manning
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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.