Jane Smeal

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Eliza Wigham , Mary Estlin, and Jane Wigham (née Smeal), (around 1845)

Jane Smeal (married Wigham ; born in Glasgow in 1801 - died in Edinburgh in November 1888 ) was a leading Scottish abolitionist and suffragette . She was the stepmother of Eliza Wigham and the second wife of John Wigham.

Live and act

Jane Smeal was born in Glasgow in 1801, she was the sister of William Smeal. She was raised as a Quaker at Ackworth School in Yorkshire . Her family lived in Edinburgh and later moved to Aberdeen . As Quakers, Smeal's family was unusual in Scotland. The 1851 census shows that there were fewer than 400 active Scottish Quakers at the time.

Smeal became the leader and secretary of the radical Glasgow Ladies Emancipation Society. Her brother William founded the "Glasgow Anti-Slavery Society" in 1822, a forerunner of the "Glasgow Emancipation Society", and he was later active in the latter. Smeal had a number of anti-slavery activities long before the Free Church was drawn into this problem.

In 1838 she and Elizabeth Pease from Darlington published an important martial arts pamphlet entitled Address to the Women of Great Britain . This document called on British women to speak in public and set up anti-slavery organizations for women. A writing that Smeal prepared for Queen Victoria was believed to be the "final blow" that ended slavery in the Caribbean.

In 1840 Smeal became the second wife of Quaker John Wigham, who was a tea merchant and active abolitionist in Glasgow. Wigham had lost two of his children and his wife in 1830. But the family was brought back to life by marrying Smeal. Jane Smeal became Jane Wigham, who had a close friendship and cooperation with her stepdaughter Eliza Wigham . The wedding of Smeal and Wigham took place in the same year as the "World's Anti-Slavery Convention" in London, where Eliza was one of the delegates. After the "Ladies' Emancipation Society" had ceased its activity, Jane and Eliza founded the Edinburgh branch of the National Society for Women's Suffrage with some of their friends . Priscilla Bright McLaren became president, Elizabeth Pease became treasurer, and McLaren's daughter Agnes McLaren became one of the two secretaries alongside Jane. Despite the lack of support from their husband John, they established the Edinburgh Society as one of the leading British groups that supported the controversial views of the American abolitionists and social reformer William Lloyd Garrison .

John Wigham died in 1864 and Eliza continued to live in the family residence on South Gray Street in Edinburgh to care for her stepmother, Jane. She died in November 1888 after a long illness.

heritage

Jane Smeal was one of four women considered closely associated with Edinburgh and the subject of a campaign by historians in 2015. The group of historians tried to give the "forgotten heroines" of the city, namely Elizabeth Pease Nichol , Priscilla Bright McLaren , Eliza Wigham and Jane Smeal the necessary recognition.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Iain Whyte: Send Back the Money! : The Free Church of Scotland and American Slavery . James Clarke & Co 2012.
  2. ↑ Paul A Pickering, Alex Tyrrell: The people's bread: a history of the Anti-Corn Law League . Leicester University Press 2000. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-7185-0218-8
  3. ↑ a b c Lesley M. Richmond, 'Wigham, Eliza (1820–1899)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 3 June 2015
  4. ^ Women on the Platform , DRB's Scottish Women's History Group. Retrieved June 3, 2019
  5. ↑ Elizabeth L. Ewan, Sue Innes, Sian Reynolds, Rose Pipes (Eds.): The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women From the Earliest Times to 2004. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press 2006. p. 376. ISBN 0748626603
  6. ↑ Megan Smitley: The Feminine Public Sphere: Middle-class Women and Civic Life in Scotland. 2009. P. 1803. ISBN 184779744X
  7. ↑ Elizabeth L. Ewan, Sue Innes, Sian Reynolds, Rose Pipes (Eds.): The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women From the Earliest Times to 2004. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press 2006. p. 376. ISBN 0748626603
  8. ↑ Elizabeth Crawford: The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866–1928. 2003. ISBN 1135434026
  9. ↑ The Scottish Suffragists: Eliza Wigham See also: Eliza Wigham accessed April 26, 2019
  10. ↑ Herald Scotland, June 2, 2015. Retrieved April 26, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Smeal, Jane
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wigham, Jane (after marriage)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Abolitionist, women's suffrage activist
DATE OF BIRTH 1801
PLACE OF BIRTH Glasgow , UK
DATE OF DEATH November 1888
Place of death Edinburgh