Katharine Russell, Viscountess Amberley

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Lady Amberley, album print by Camille Silvy (1870)
Lord and Lady Amberley, portrait by William Notman

Katharine Louisa Russell, Viscountess Amberley (born Stanley ; April 3, 1842 , † June 28, 1874 ), often called Kate for short , was a British suffragette and early supporter of contraception in the United Kingdom. She was the mother of the philosopher Bertrand Russell .

family

Katharine Russell was the second youngest child of the politician Edward Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley , and the Henrietta Dillon-Lee. Her mother campaigned for women's education and thus also shaped her children. Of Katharine's nine siblings, Rosalind Howard, Countess of Carlisle was also a suffragette, while Maude Stanley was a pioneer in youth work .

On November 8, 1864, Katharine married John Russell, Viscount Amberley , a son of former Prime Minister John Russell, 1st Earl Russell , and his wife Frances . The couple's first child, John Francis Stanley , was born the following year. This was followed in 1868 by the twins Rachel Lucretia and a stillborn daughter. The couple's youngest child, Bertrand Arthur William , was born in 1872.

Lady Amberley had, with her husband's approval, a sexual relationship with the biologist Douglas Spalding , their children's head of house. Spalding was encouraged to do his research in the Amberley's house, and Lady Amberley acted as his assistant. Spalding suffered from tuberculosis and was not eligible for marriage. According to the younger son's memory, the Amberleys were concerned about his abstinence and "allowed him to live with her," although Russell wrote that he saw no signs that she was getting any satisfaction from it. The exact nature of the relationship between Lady Amberley and Spalding is unknown because her mother-in-law found out the truth about the relationship and destroyed her daughter-in-law's diaries and most of her daughter-in-law's letters shortly after her son's death.

Views

Lady Amberley was a suffragette and early supporter of women's rights. She encouraged women to study medicine, funded school fees for medical student Emily Bovell, and employed Elizabeth Garrett Anderson as a personal physician. Harriet Grote introduced her to Helen Taylor in 1865 . The following year she signed a petition for women's suffrage. In 1867 Lord and Lady Amberley traveled to Canada and the United States. They stayed in the States for several months and met Lucretia Mott , after whom their daughter was named. Lady Amberley became president of the Bristol and West of England Women's Suffrage Society in 1870 and advocated equal pay for women and their education and access to all professions.

After a meeting of the suffragettes in the Hanover Square Rooms , Countess Russell told her son that she was pleased that her daughter-in-law had not attended. But this relief did not last long. Viscountess Amberley spoke at the Mechanics Institute in Stroud on May 25th of that year. This prompted Queen Victoria to exclaim, "Lady Amberley deserves a decent beating!"

death

Viscountess Amberley died in 1874 after contracting diphtheria in her daughter, who died five days after her . Her husband was deeply affected by her death and his decision to have her body cremated shocked society. Lady Amberley's remains were originally interred on the grounds of her Wye Valley residence without any religious ceremony. Shortly after the husband's death two years later, all three were transferred to the Russell family grave in Chenies .

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ^ The Complete Guide to the British Peerage & Baronetage: Russell, Earl (UK, 1861). Cracroft's Peerage, accessed February 23, 2016 .
  2. ^ Peter Edmund Stanley: The house of Stanley: the history of an English family from the 12th century . Pentland Press, 1998, ISBN 1-85821-578-1 .
  3. ^ A b c British Women's Emancipation since the Renaissance. From historyofwomen.org, accessed February 23, 2016.
  4. ↑ Gillian Brown, Kevin N. Laland: Sense and Nonsense: Evolutionary perspectives on human behavior . Oxford University Press, 2011, ISBN 0-19-958696-9 .
  5. ^ Ray Monk: Bertrand Russell: The Spirit of Solitude . J. Cape, 1996, ISBN 0-224-03026-4 .
  6. ^ A b c Elizabeth Crawford: Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 1866-1928 . Routledge, 2001, ISBN 0-415-23926-5 .
  7. ↑ Dale Spender: Women of Ideas: And What Men Have Done to Them . Routledge, 1983, ISBN 0-7448-0003-X .
personal data
SURNAME Russell, Katharine, Viscountess Amberley
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Amberley, Katharine Louisa Russell, Viscountess (full name); Stanley, Katharine Louisa (maiden name); Amberley, Kate
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British suffragette
DATE OF BIRTH April 3, 1842
DATE OF DEATH June 28, 1874