13th June 2009
Why am I interested in these obscure women, and why do I think it is important to find the trajectory of their lives? Carmen Atkinson is a perfect example of a woman who is not remembered on the internet- google her and there is nothing. In fact she almost appears to want to obscure the record, changing her given name time and again. However in her two public utterances- asking for girls to be allowed to take the University Local Exams, and signing this petition- she was putting herself forward in support of controversial issues concerning women’s rights. In her professional life as a school proprietor in Brighton she keeps her name Carmen Atkinson, even though as a private individual she uses the anglicised form.
One of the puzzles of the petition- which led to the founding of the early suffrage societies the next year, was that of the hundreds of school mistresses who signed only a handful appear as members or subscribers to those societies (For example Miss Buss and Elizabeth Wolstenholme ) I suspect that the publicity resulting from the distribution of the document to the press and MPs could have had a devastating effect on the businesses that these women in particular were running.- If you thought the idea was ridiculous would you want your daughters teacher to support it?
The trajectory of Carmen’s life – glimpsed through the census- lends some credibility to that idea. After 1866 she moves to Brighton. Her husband may be commuting to visit her from Barnards Inn, but they are living apart. He has a respectable job as Clerk in the Bank of England, From 1881 they both describe themselves as widowed. Was this separation encouraged by her public stand on women’s rights?
Of course she had been running a school in the family home from at least 1864- and in their early married life they had lived on his private means in Devon (1851 census). So, unusually , she was a businesswomen and her husband was in a good job and also perhaps had other means. She did not have to work, yet perhaps she chose to educate young girls, and took an interest in improving that education. (However the early results lists of the University Local Exams do not show her entering any successful pupils)
So we have just any bright young Spanish woman, daughter of an army officer, arriving in Devon by 1834, marrying at the age of 19 a well to do young Bank Clerk (Their son’s record at Oxford suggests that Charles John Atkinson’ father was a knight.) having three sons and a daughter and going on to set up a school in the family home. She supports two women’s causes publicly. Then/And she separates from her husband, and in Brighton sets up two more schools, one for boys then one for girls. Her widowed mother Asuncion Navarrete lives with her throughout her life in England, dying aged nearly 90, and we leave her in 1901 living in a Convalescent Home for Gentlewomen in Folkestone.
Is this just a forgotten life, or is it remarkable?
Showing posts with label Carmen Atkinson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carmen Atkinson. Show all posts
Saturday, 13 June 2009
Friday, 12 June 2009
Carmen Atkinson- Woman of many names
PM
I have spent the afternoon pinning down Carmen. She was born Maria Carmen Benita Gertrude Navarrete in Cartagena Spain- When she was first married , in 1851 census, living in Plymouth she called herself Maria. In 1861 she was Carmen both at home and professionally when she signed the University Local Exams petition.
Running her prep school and girls’ boarding school in Brighton she calls herself Catherine, and at the convalescent home in 1901, she is known as Mary C Atkinson. No wonder she was hard to track down. She had three sons while living in Devon, one of whom, Harry Percy Atkinson, went to Oxford University and became a vicar.
There is still a puzzle about her daughter Constance who in 1861 is listed as being 17 years old and born in Blackheath. I think that this could be an error, and have ordered what seems a possible birth certificate –for a child that could have been 17 months old- and has the name Carmen Emily Adelaide Constance Atkinson born 1859 in Greenwich, who appears at school in Westbury on Trym in 1871. I have to wait until about the 21st June to receive the certificate.
Ancestry.com who made all this possible have done a little sneaky trick. They snare you into ordering the certificates from them for £22, but they are still available from the GRO for £7. I don’t normally buy certificates for the Suffrage Petition women, only when there is a particularly knotty puzzle which needs unravelling…
I have spent the afternoon pinning down Carmen. She was born Maria Carmen Benita Gertrude Navarrete in Cartagena Spain- When she was first married , in 1851 census, living in Plymouth she called herself Maria. In 1861 she was Carmen both at home and professionally when she signed the University Local Exams petition.
Running her prep school and girls’ boarding school in Brighton she calls herself Catherine, and at the convalescent home in 1901, she is known as Mary C Atkinson. No wonder she was hard to track down. She had three sons while living in Devon, one of whom, Harry Percy Atkinson, went to Oxford University and became a vicar.
There is still a puzzle about her daughter Constance who in 1861 is listed as being 17 years old and born in Blackheath. I think that this could be an error, and have ordered what seems a possible birth certificate –for a child that could have been 17 months old- and has the name Carmen Emily Adelaide Constance Atkinson born 1859 in Greenwich, who appears at school in Westbury on Trym in 1871. I have to wait until about the 21st June to receive the certificate.
Ancestry.com who made all this possible have done a little sneaky trick. They snare you into ordering the certificates from them for £22, but they are still available from the GRO for £7. I don’t normally buy certificates for the Suffrage Petition women, only when there is a particularly knotty puzzle which needs unravelling…
Carmen Atkinson
Carmen Atkinson Aldbor' House Tottenham Green N (1823-1905) on the 1861 census
After a day of research yesterday I wrote this morning:
I have had a very interesting tussle with Carmen Atkinson- she appears to have come to England from Cartagena in Spain with her mother Asuncion Navarrete and married her husband Charles John Atkinson in Devon and they had their daughter Constance in about 1844 in Blackheath. I will double check the marriage under his name.
I can’t track them in the 1841 or 1851 census where they should be somewhere! In 1861 they are at the petition address- she is running a boarding school for girls with three live in teachers. Her husband is a clerk in the Bank of England. However in the 1871 census he is living alone in Barnards Inn Holborn dealing with the civil service as a clerk at the Bank of England. By 1881 he is retired in lodgings in Surrey describing himself as a widower and in 1891 his home is in Devon, where he dies later.
I cannot find Carmen in the 1871 census, but in 1874 she is listed in a directory as running a private school at 32 Montpelier Crescent Brighton and in 1882 she is running a Ladies School at 24 Sussex Square . In 1891Census she and her mother are in lodgings in Brighton, where a fellow lodger is an upholsterer, so they may have fallen on hard times. Asuncion dies in about 1895, and Carmen appears to die in Billericay Essex in 1905. I need to find her in the 1841, 1851 , 1871 1881 and 1901 census.
She is remarkably elusive, as is her mother, however she appears as Carman and Carmen as well, so there may be other variations on her name. So today I need to track her in those censuses and also what happened to her daughter Constance.
I am fascinated that from at least the 1880’s she and her husband both described themselves as widowed. I suppose he could have supported her in her business as a school proprietor while he lived. The school at Tottenham appears large and prosperous, and lasted for at least 1861-1866- Carmen also signed the University Local Exams petition in 1864 for Emily Davies, so she is likely to have been an enlightened and progressive schoolteacher.
I can’t track them in the 1841 or 1851 census where they should be somewhere! In 1861 they are at the petition address- she is running a boarding school for girls with three live in teachers. Her husband is a clerk in the Bank of England. However in the 1871 census he is living alone in Barnards Inn Holborn dealing with the civil service as a clerk at the Bank of England. By 1881 he is retired in lodgings in Surrey describing himself as a widower and in 1891 his home is in Devon, where he dies later.
I cannot find Carmen in the 1871 census, but in 1874 she is listed in a directory as running a private school at 32 Montpelier Crescent Brighton and in 1882 she is running a Ladies School at 24 Sussex Square . In 1891Census she and her mother are in lodgings in Brighton, where a fellow lodger is an upholsterer, so they may have fallen on hard times. Asuncion dies in about 1895, and Carmen appears to die in Billericay Essex in 1905. I need to find her in the 1841, 1851 , 1871 1881 and 1901 census.
She is remarkably elusive, as is her mother, however she appears as Carman and Carmen as well, so there may be other variations on her name. So today I need to track her in those censuses and also what happened to her daughter Constance.
I am fascinated that from at least the 1880’s she and her husband both described themselves as widowed. I suppose he could have supported her in her business as a school proprietor while he lived. The school at Tottenham appears large and prosperous, and lasted for at least 1861-1866- Carmen also signed the University Local Exams petition in 1864 for Emily Davies, so she is likely to have been an enlightened and progressive schoolteacher.
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