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Emily Davies and the Women's Movement, 1862-1867

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2014

Andrew Rosen
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Extract

Emily Davies' reputation rests almost entirely on her role as founder of the first Cambridge college for women—so much so that her biographer, Lady Barbara Stephen, entitled her lengthy and scholarly work (still the standard life fifty years after its publication) Emily Davies and Girton College. In keeping with her focus on Emily Davies as an educational pioneer, Lady Stephen paid little heed to the blind alleys that Davies first entered and then retreated from during the 1860s—the abortive editorships of the Englishwoman's Journal and Victoria Review, not to mention her brief and vexing stint as secretary of the first women's suffrage organization established in Britain.

Emily Davies' involvement with the nascent women's suffrage movement was not long lived, and was terminated with such ruffled feelings that she remained aloof from the suffrage cause for most of the rest of her career. Yet it was largely between 1865 and 1867, the years during which she played a central role in founding and then leading the first women's suffrage society, that the institutional and ideological strengths and weaknesses that were to characterize the suffrage movement for the next thirty years were shaped.

Emily Davies' father, John Davies, was an Evangelical minister. In 1815, at the age of twenty, he had left his native Wales to attend Queens' College, Cambridge, which had become one of the focal points of the then burgeoning Evangelical movement. He subsequently became both clergyman and schoolmaster, living mostly in Chichester until 1840, and then at Gateshead (near Newcastle) for the next twenty-two years.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , Fall 1979 , pp. 101 - 121
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1979

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References

1 Stephen, B., Emily Davies and Girton College (London, 1927)Google Scholar.

2 Davies, E., “Family Chronicle,” p. 243Google Scholar. “Family Chronicle” is the 460-page unpublished holograph autobiography of Emily Davies. The manuscript is owned by Girton College, Cambridge. In her introduction, Davies wrote that the work was “not intended for publication, but as to some public matters, it may be convenient to have some authentic record, verifiable by reference to contemporary letters or notes made at the time” (“Family Chronicle,” n.p.). “Family Chronicle” is indeed filled with references to and quotations from letters and documents written at the time of events described, and for this reason is far more accurate than most autobiographies.

3 Jane Davies died of lung disease in Torquay on January 17,1858. Henry Davies died in England the following summer, having been brought home from Algiers. William Davies, who served as a naval chaplain in China, died there in October 1858.

4 There is no satisfactory biography of Barbara Bodichon. Burton's, H.Barbara Bodichon (London, 1949)Google Scholar is bowdlerized, simplistic, and out of date. The pertinent chapters in Stephen, Emily Davies, continue to furnish the best introduction to Barbara Bodichon. Valuable insights based on more recent research can be obtained from Bradbrook's, M.C. “Barbara Bodichon, George Eliot and the Limits of Feminism,” The James Bryce Memorial Lecture (Oxford, 1975)Google Scholar, from the introduction to Bodichon, B.L.S., An American Diary, 1857-8, Reed, J.W. Jr. (ed.), (London, 1972)Google Scholar, and from Haight, G.S., George Eliot and John Chapman (New Haven, 1940)Google Scholar.

5 Howitt, M., Autobiography, II (London, 1889), 34–35Google Scholar.

6 For a detailed account of the agitation for married women's right to own property, see Holcombe, L., “Victorian Wives and Property,” in Vicinus, M. (ed.), A Widening Sphere (Bloomington, 1977), pp. 3–28Google Scholar.

7 Englishwoman's Journal, I, March 1858, 1–13Google Scholar and 58-59, and June 1858, 217-27.

8 Ibid., May 1858, 203-04.

9 Davies, E., “Letters Addressed to a Daily Paper at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1860,” in Thoughts on Some Questions Relating to Women, 1860-1908 (Cambridge, 1910), p. 6Google Scholar.

10 Davies, E., “Northumberland and Durham Branch of the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women,” Englishwoman's Journal, VIII, December 1861, 225Google Scholar.

11 Davies, E., “Family Chronicle,” p. 244Google Scholar.

12 Ibid., p. 257.

13 E. Davies to Madam, April 7, 1862, as quoted in Davies, E., “Family Chronicle,” p. 25lGoogle Scholara. See also London School of Economics, E. Davies to H. Taylor, August 28, 1866, Mill-Taylor Coll., XIII, 185.

14 Davies, E., “Family Chronicle,” p. 263Google Scholar.

15 Girton College, E. Davies to B. Bodichon, January 1863, Bodichon Papers, Box 3. On this occasion Barbara Bodichon sent a check to pay the rent.

16 The subscription figures are quoted in a letter: Girton College, S. Lewin to Dear Madam. January 1, 1863, Bodichon Papers, Box 3.

17 Girton College. E. Davies to B. Bodichon, January 14, 1863, Bodichon Papers, Box 3.

18 Davies, E., “Family Chronicle,” pp. 289 and 337Google Scholar. In 1864, Emily Faithfull was named in support of Helen Codrington's counter-petition against a divorce suit filed by her husband. Admiral Codrington. Faithfull, whose relationship with the Codringtons was decidedly murky, at first fled the country to avoid appearing in court, then returned and completely contradicted an affidavit she had given six years earlier to the effect that the admiral had attempted to rape her while she was sleeping in a bed with his wife. Faithfull's flight and subsequent recantation apparently resulted from her strong need to keep other facets of her relationship with the Codringtons from being exposed. (For a more detailed account, see Fredeman, W.E.. “Emily Faithfull and the Victoria Press,” The Library, fifth series, XXIX, June 1974, 143–45Google Scholar.

19 Davies, E., “Family Chronicle,” p. 423Google Scholar. Mrs. Manning later became the first Head Mistress of Girton College.

20 Girton College, “Members (notebook containing holograph membership list of the Kensington Society), Davies Papers, Box KEN 1.

21 “The Kensington Society,” printed rules inserted in Davies, E., “Family Chronicle,” as p. 423Google Scholara.

22 “The Kensington Society,” printed circular dated March 25, 1865, inserted in Davies, E., “Family Chronicle,” as p. 423cGoogle Scholar. The topic was of considerable significance for many young unmarried mid-Victorian women, for whom limits imposed by their parents provided one of the chief obstacles to liberty. The other two questions listed in the circular were “By what means may sentimentality be checked without discouraging healthy sentiment and individuality of character?” and “What national characteristics are expressed in English dress?” It is not clear if either of these questions was discussed at subsequent meetings.

23 Girton College, “Members,” E. Davies Papers, Box KEN 1.

24 The problem was hardly unusual: according to the Census of 1851,42 percent of the women in Great Britain between the ages of twenty and forty were spinsters. Spinsters were particularly numerous in watering places such as Bath, Cheltenham, and Brighton, and genteel districts of London such as Kensington and Hampstead. (Parliamentary Papers: Census of Great Britain, 1851, II, 1854, xlii–xliii.Google Scholar)

25 “The Kensington Society,” printed circular inserted in Davies, E., “Family Chronicle,” as p. 423dGoogle Scholar.

26 Girton College, E. Davies to B. Bodichon, November 14, 1865, Bodichon Papers, Box. 1.

27 E. Davies to Mr. Tomkinson, November 10, 1865, in Davies, E., “Family Chronicle,” p. 439Google Scholar.

28 Girton College, E. Davies to B. Bodichon, November 14, 1865, Bodichon Papers, Box l.

29 L.S.E., B. Bodichon to H. Taylor, May 9,1866, Mill-Taylor Coll., XII, 40.

30 L.S.E., H. Taylor to B. Bodichon [draft], May 9, 1866, Mill-Taylor Coll., XII, 41.

31 L.S.E., B. Bodichon to Dear Madam [H. Taylor], n.d., Mill-Taylor Coll., XII, 43.

32 As quoted in Blackburn, H., Women's Suffrage (London, 1902), p. 54Google Scholar.

33 Davies, E., “Family Chronicle,” p. 487Google Scholar.

34 L.S.E., E. Davies to H. Taylor, June 5, 1866, Mill-Taylor Coll., XIII, 174.

35 L.S.E., E. Davies to H. Taylor, August 28, 1866, Mill-Taylor Coll., XIII, 185.

36 L.S.E., E. Davies to H. Taylor, August 6, 1866, Mill-Taylor Coll., XIII, 183.

37 L.S.E., E. Davies to H. Taylor, September 28, 1866, Mill-Taylor Coll., XIII, 186. Girton College, E. Davies to B. Bodichon, n.d., Bodichon Papers, Box 1.

38 L.S.E., E. Davies to H. Taylor, August 6, 1866, Mill-Taylor Coll., XIII, 183.

39 L.S.E., E. Davies to H. Taylor, July 18, 1866, Mill-Taylor Coll., XIII, 181.

40 Girton College, E. Davies to B. Bodichon, August 10, 1866, Bodichon Papers, Box 3.

41 Girton College, E. Davies to B. Bodichon, August 21, 1866, Bodichon Papers, Box 3.

42 L.S.E., E. Davies to H. Taylor, September 28, 1866, Mill-Taylor Coll., XIII, 186.

43 L.S.E., B. Bodichon to H. Taylor, October 21, 1866, Mill-Taylor Coll., XII, 48.

44 At a meeting in Sheffield on February 26, 1851, Abiah Higginbottom and a Mrs. C. Ash had announced the founding of the Sheffield Women's Political Association, the “special object” of which was to be the “enfranchisement of our sex” (Sheffield Free Press and Rotherham and Barnsley Advertiser, March 1, 1851). It remains unclear, however, whether members were enrolled or further meetings held; a petition subsequently presented to the House of Lords by Lord Carlisle was signed by Abiah Higginbottom alone.

45 L.S.E., M. Taylor to H. Taylor, October 22, 1866, Mill-Taylor Coll., XIII, 261.

46 H. Taylor to E. Davies, October 26, 1866, as quoted in Davies, E., “Family Chronicle,” pp. 502–03Google Scholar.

47 L.S.E., EL Taylor to M. Taylor [draft], November 2, 1866, Mill-Taylor Coll., XIII, 262.

48 A far more detailed account of Helen Taylor's role in the suffrage movement appears in Robson's, A.P.W. excellent article, “The Founding of the National Society for Women's Suffrage 1866-1867,” Canadian Journal of History, VIII (1973), 1–22Google Scholar (hereafter referred to as “Founding”). Robson did not, however, make use of the Davies and Bodichon papers at Girton College or the N.U.W.S.S. collection in Manchester; her article contains relatively little material on Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon or on the pivotal role of the Kensington Society in fostering the women's suffrage movement. In general an attempt has been made to minimize overlaps with Robson's article, though the conclusion here is in some respects substantially the same as hers.

49 L.S.E., E. Davies to H. Taylor, November 26, 1866, Mill-Taylor Coll., XIII, 189. Emily Davies enclosed a copy of the minutes of the meeting held on November 23. After this letter, she did not correspond with Helen Taylor until June 24, 1867, by which time circumstances had altered greatly.

50 The permanent London committee established on November 23, 1866, clearly preceded the Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage, which was not founded until January 11, 1867. Constance Rover's statement that “the Manchester Society was founded before the London Society” was based on the assumption that the suffrage committee in existence in London during the autumn of 1866 remained provisional in nature, which was not the case. (See Rover, C., Women's Suffrage and Party Politics in Britain, 1866-1914 (London, 1967), pp. 5–6.Google Scholar)

51 Davies, E., The Higher Education of Women (London, 1866)Google Scholar.

52 E. Davies, diary headed “College,” September 29, 1866, as quoted in Davies, E., “Family Chronicle,” p. 500Google Scholar.

53 L.S.E., E. Davies to H. Taylor, October 15, 1866, Mill-Taylor Coll., XIII, 187.

54 Archives, Manchester Public Library, E. Davies to L. Becker, February 9, 1867, N.U.W.S.S. Coll., Box M50/1.

55 Davies, E., “Family Chronicle,” p. 508Google Scholar.

56 Girton College, E. Davies to B. Bodichon, January 29, 1867, Bodichon Papers, Box l.

57 Robson, A.P.W., “Founding,” Canadian Journal of History, VIII, 15Google Scholar.

58 L.S.E., M. Taylor to H. Taylor, March 4, 1867, Mill-Taylor Coll., XIII, 264.

59 Englishwoman's Journal, III, Supplement, April 1867, 197.

60 L.S.E., J. Boucherett to H. Taylor, April 9, 1867, Mill-Taylor Coll., XII, 58.

61 L.S.E., J. Boucherett to H. Taylor, April 30, 1867, Mill-Taylor Coll., XII, 59.

62 Archives, Manchester Public Library, E. Davies to L. Becker, March 19, 1867, N.U.W.S.S. Coll., Box M/50.

63 L.S.E., J. Boucherett to H. Taylor, May 12, 1867, Mill-Taylor Coll., XII, 60.

64 Davies, E., “Family Chronicle,” p. 509Google Scholar.

65 Girton College, E. Davies to B. Bodichon, June 3, 1867, Bodichon Papers, Box 1.

66 L.S.E., E. Davies to H. Taylor, June 24, 1867, Mill-Taylor Coll., XIII, 191. See also L.S.E., M. Taylor to H. Taylor, June 18, 1867, Mill-Taylor Coll., XIII, 270.

67 Robson, A.P.W., “Founding,” Canadian Journal of History, VIII, 21Google Scholar.