Miss Rebecca Worsley Edward St Brighton An unremarkable life?

 

Cousins United. Ada Maria Yates and Maria Byam

 Cousins united.

Miss Ada Maria Yates  (1839-1904)

Miss Maria Christina Elizabeth Byam (1834-1925)

 98 Lansdown Place Brighton

Some twenty four women signed the Suffrage petition in Brighton, including these young women who came from army officer families, with strong links to the aristocracy. Ada Yates and Maria Byam were well connected young women who were never to marry. 

Ada Yates  was born in India.  Her mother died when she was about three years old. .  She was brought back to Brighton where she lived with her uncle,  The Rev Whannell Yates, and widowed aunt Mrs Byam.  For a number of years her relatives ran a small preparatory school. Their young pupils were often, like Ada, children born in India, several were from aristocratic backgrounds. By 1867 Ada's father had returned from India to die.  He left only about £800.   When Ada died in 1904 , she was still living at Lansdown Place with her uncle. Intriguingly Ada left £11,711..8s..4d when she died.

Maria Byam was one of eight sisters. Her mother was Elizabeth Augusta Temple, daughter of a baronet and in 1851 her father was a colonel. Alongside the gaggle of sisters, finally there was a little brother,`Temple aged just two.  The family clearly loved Brighton, as they had a house there (Byam House)  as well as the family home in Warblington, Hampshire.   In 1866, when  Maria was visiting her Yates cousins at 98 Lansdown Place, she signed the petition with the other women in Brighton. She had moved to Los Angeles by 1910 where she was living in a boarding house on her own income. 15 years later she died there  leaving £1768..19s .3d. 

A Family United. Betty Bird, and her four daughters, Mrs Alice Young, Miss Elizabeth Bird, Mrs Ann Cain and Mrs Emma Belward.

 

Fanny Young , Mrs Catherine Potter ,

 

 

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