Women’s Suffrage in Southampton
IN 1866 only nine people in the whole of Hampshire signed the national women’s suffrage petition. Four of these signatories were from Southampton.(1) This was the second petition asking for votes for women, the first was in 1832. The 1866 petition was presented to the House of Commons by John Stuart Mill M.P. It had been handed to John Mill by Elizabeth Garrett and Emily Davies.
Emily Davies was born in Carlton Crescent, Southampton in 1830 when her father was a locum vicar. (2) Though born in Southampton she spent her childhood in Chichester, Normandy and from age nine Gateshead. Her brothers were well educated, two at Cambridge University and the third became a solicitor, but Emily was expected to settle with domestic activities, caring for family and her work in her fathers parish. She resented this inequality having been denied any serious schooling at home or elsewhere.(2) On the death of her father she moved to London in 1862 becoming a campaigner for women’s suffrage and women’s higher education. Emily Davies was ultimately founder of England's first residential college for women: Girton College, Cambridge University. |
Emily Davies
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On 13th May 1869 Southampton enabled the first Hampshire suffrage petition. This had been sponsored by the towns M.P. Russell Gurney. He was M.P. for Southampton from 1865 till his death in 1878 and was a very important supporter of the women’s movement.
He introduced the Married Women’s Property Bill to the House of Commons initially in 1868 and again in 1870. This was designed to change the law relating to property. From the 13th century, on marriage, any property or money of a woman (whether wages, gifts or inheritance) became the property of her husband.The Bill was passed in 1870 and despite its limitations, that needed amending in coming years, became the first attempt to give married women equal legal rights to their own property and money. In 1876 Russell Gurney ensured the Medical Act was passed by parliament. This Act, known as the Russell Gurney Enabling Act, meant for the first time women were able to study and graduate in medicine. Messrs Windebank and Kingsbury, owners of Bevois Mount Nurseries, bred a pelargonium ‘Russell Gurney’ in 1869.(3) |
According to Elizabeth Crawford in her book The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: a regional survey “a local committee of the Manchester Society For Women's Suffrage was formed” in Southampton on 11th August 1870. From this she states “one might deduce that suffragists in Southampton felt politically closer to the Manchester Society’s rather more radical and active conduct of the campaign” than those geographically closer. She also notes that amongst the founding members is Mrs Jemima Jane Sawyer of Thanet House, Bevois Road (which is now Lodge Road).
Within a year of its formation the society had seemingly been a success as the 1871 Women’s Suffrage petition recorded 374 Southampton residents supporting its aim (1) and 2,000 attended the town’s first suffrage meeting on the 8th April for a lecture by Millicent Fawcett.(1) Four further such meetings were held in 1873, 1876, 1878 and 1882. The meeting in 1882 was held in the Southampton Philharmonic Hall. It seems very little or no activity in Southampton was recorded in The Women’s Suffrage Journal for about twenty years. In 1905 a branch of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Society was established in Southampton. |
“Janie Terrero held drawing room meetings for the society in 1905 and 1907. In 1909, by which time the secretary was Miss M. Boswell (109, Alma Road, The Avenue), the society was holding monthly evening meetings at the Bungalow Cafe.” (1) (pictured left) This was at 157, Above Bar now the Guildhall Square.
“During the 1910 election the society opened a shop at 3, Above Bar and in March the Actresses’ Franchise League staged three short suffrage plays, Cicely Hamilton’s Pot and Kettle , and How the Vote Was Won and The Apple by Inez Bensusan.”(1) By 1st March 1912 Janie Terrero had been arrested in London after taking part in the window smashing campaign and was sentenced to four months imprisonment in Holloway. |
Janie Terrero pictured wearing her hunger-strike medal and silver Holloway brooch. Both handkerchiefs were embroidered in Holloway, the one below by Janie.
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Janie Terrero would have been in her early fifties when she was arrested. She had support from her husband, Manuel, as he was himself a member of the Men’s Political Union. She did not want him to know of her involvement prior to the campaign “as I know with your usual kindness and consideration for me you would want to come too, this I could not allow” .... “I feel my honour as a woman at stake and I must take up my stand with the rest. If I should get into prison don't pay my fine but let me go through it properly ...”
She later wrote an account of her prison experiences of 1912; “I was in close confinement for twelve days, was in two hunger strikes & was forcibly fed in April & again in June. To those who intend to be actively militant, I want to say this; you cannot imagine how strong you feel in prison. The Government may take your liberty from you & lock you up, but they cannot imprison your spirit. The only one thing the Government really fears is the hunger strike. They fear it not because of our pain & suffering, but because it damages their majorities. How strong that weapon made us feel. If they had only dared, they would have put us in a lethal chamber. Some people wonder at the courage of our women, but I believe physical courage is a common human attribute, & I do not see why women should possess it in a lesser degree than men.”(4) |
Although Janie Terrero may only have lived in Southampton (Fir Tree Lodge, Banister Road) from 1898 (5) till possibly her arrest in London in 1912 her ties to the town are much deeper. Her husband Manuel was the grandson of General Juan Manuel de Rosas.
General de Rosas was the exiled Governor of Buenos Aires province and leader of the Argentine Confederation 1835–1852. When Darwin met him in 1833, during his voyage on the Beagle, he insightfully described him as an “extraordinary character; he is at present a most predominant influence in this country and probably may end by being its ruler.” In 1852 Rosas fled to England and lived the rest of his life in Southampton. He lived on Burgess Road Farm, located near the now St Alban’s church and ‘Flowers’ estate, where he died in 1877 – his farm house is pictured below. |
General Juan Manuel de Rosas
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Women’s full suffrage finally came about in 1928, sixteen years after Janie Terrero was force fed in prison. This was probably in part due to the likes of Lord Curzon and the National League for Opposing Woman Suffrage whose sentiments are clearly laid out in this poster below (c. 1910–1914). However, the central poster depicts a hope that became reality when the first woman M.P. was elected in 1919.
Notes
1. Elizabeth Crawford, The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A regional survey, p. 163.
2. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
3. Garden Records IV, 1869.
4 ‘The Suffragette Handkerchief at the Priest House West Hoathly’, online article found on The Sussex Archaeological Society website (sussexpast.co.uk).
5. Dave Jacobs, 2009, Friends of Southampton Old Cemetery.
– F.B.
©Bevois Mount History
1. Elizabeth Crawford, The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A regional survey, p. 163.
2. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
3. Garden Records IV, 1869.
4 ‘The Suffragette Handkerchief at the Priest House West Hoathly’, online article found on The Sussex Archaeological Society website (sussexpast.co.uk).
5. Dave Jacobs, 2009, Friends of Southampton Old Cemetery.
– F.B.
©Bevois Mount History