Mary Bateson

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Mary Bateson

Mary Bateson (born September 12, 1865 in Robin Hood's Bay , † November 30, 1906 in Cambridge ) was a British historian and suffragette .

biography

Scientific career

Mary Bateson was the daughter of William Henry Bateson, a Masters degree from St John's College , Cambridge . Her mother Anna Aikin campaigned for women's rights . No information is available about Mary Bateson's childhood; she had three sisters, Anna, Margaret (who later became a journalist Margaret Heitland), Edith (sculptor) and another named Margaret. Their common brother was the biologist William Bateson . Mary Bateson visited the school of Misses Thornton in Cambridge, before a year at the Institute Friedlander in German Baden spent. From 1881 to 1884 she was a student at the Perse School for Girls , which her parents helped found. Still a student herself, she taught German at the school . The father William Bateson, who was described as a "remarkably sweet and tender character", died in 1881, leaving his family in affluent circumstances.

In 1884 Mary Bateson entered Newnham College for Women, also co-initiated by her parents, and in 1887 attended the first class of the historic tripo . Her thesis on Monastic Civilization in the Fens was awarded the Historical Essay Prize that same year . From 1887 she began to deal seriously with the culture of the Middle Ages and to acquire profound knowledge of Latin ; her mentor was the historian and future Bishop Mandell Creighton , husband of the suffragette Louise Creighton . He was the founding editor of the Dictionary of National Biography , to the original edition of which Bateson contributed 108 biographical articles, including not a single article about a woman. She also regularly wrote articles for the English Historical Review . Her most important work is the two-volume Borough Customs (1906). Her journalistic activities gave her a good reputation, so around 1905 she was invited as a prestigious Warburton Lecturer at the University of Manchester to give two lectures on Survivals of Ancient Customs in English Borough Law .

In 1889, Mary Bateson was appointed lecturer in English constitutional history at Newnham College , where teaching other than research and writing was unsatisfactory. In 1903 she was one of the first women scientists to receive a Newnham Research Fellowship, which she herself had campaigned to establish. After her scholarship expired, as she was financially well off, she gave the money back to the fund so that other scientists who needed it more urgently than they needed could be supported.

In addition to her academic work, Mary Bateson “like any upper-class English woman” took a lively part in social life in Cambridge. Because of her intellect and her wit, she was, according to historian Alice Gardner , a welcome guest at parties, "any party was sure to be successful if Mary Bateson was on the guest list". Historian Thomas Frederick Tout reported that Bateson was also "popular socially in circles that cared little about her personal (academic) distinction," emphasizing her "rare sense of humor ... her deep, heartfelt laugh ... and hers." cheerful comradeship ”. Bateson did not marry, and no close relationship with a man is known. She lived with her mother for a long time, but at an unknown point in time she moved into her own house, an unusual move for a " spinster " (unmarried woman who had passed the usual age at marriage).

Mary Bateson died of a cerebral haemorrhage in a Cambridge hospital on November 30, 1906, at the age of 41 . Bertrand Russell wrote: “She will be a terrible loss to Newnham and Cambridge ... I have greatly respected and admired her. She was the last person expected to die. ”Obituaries appeared in several major newspapers, but only one mentioned her activities as a suffragette.

Fight for women's rights

Bateson was an advocate for women's suffrage , and in 1888 she became the organizer of the Central Society for Women's Suffrage at Cambridge . Bishop Creighton disapproved of this commitment and informed her of this in a letter; she promised to take his advice but did not act and in the years that followed she became involved in various functions in the Cambridge Women's Suffrage Association (CWSA), which her mother had co-founded. She was a member of the college council and took part in the ultimately unsuccessful efforts to get women full members of Cambridge University from 1895 to 1897 (which was not introduced until 1948).

On May 19, 1906, Bateson was part of a delegation of 350 women representing over 25 organizations to Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman . The delegation represented "women who have received PhDs in literature, science and law from universities in the United Kingdom and British Colonies, universities in Europe and the United States". She presented a petition , signed by 1,530 female college graduates, "who believe that the disenfranchisement of one sex is harmful to both sexes and a national injustice in a country that claims to be governed under a representative system". Mary Bateson was one of ten speakers; In her speech she pointed to the achievements of women in the profession and advocated a combination of academic and political activities.

Publications (selection)

(as editor)

  • Catalog of the Library of Syon Monastery .
  • A Narrative of the Changes in the Ministry, 1765–1767, Told by the Duke of Newcastle in a Series of Letters to John White, MP Longmans, London 1898.
  • Early English Text Society (Ed.): George Ashby's poems . Oxford University Press, London 1899.
  • Cambridge Gild Records . Cambridge Antiquarian Society, Cambridge 1903.
  • Grace Book B . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1903.

(as an author)

  • Mediaeval England (1066-1350) . TF Unwin, London 1903.
  • Borough customs (=  The publications of the Selden Society ). Quaritch, London 1906.
  • as well as numerous magazine articles and encyclopedia articles

literature

  • Mary Dockray-Miller: Mary Bateson (1865-1906). Historian of the Latin Middle Ages . In: Jane Chance (ed.): Women Medievalists and the Academy . University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI 2005, ISBN 0-299-20750-1 , pp. 67-78 , doi : 10.1093 / ref: odnb / 30640 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Papers of Mary Bateson. In: archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk. Retrieved May 3, 2020 .
  2. ^ Dockray-Miller, Mary Bateson , p. 67.
  3. ↑ a b c d John Simkin: Mary Bateson. In: spartacus-educational.com. May 19, 1906, accessed May 2, 2020 .
  4. ^ Dockray-Miller, Mary Bateson , p. 68.
  5. ^ Dockray-Miller, Mary Bateson , p. 70.
  6. ^ A b Dockray-Miller, Mary Bateson , p. 72.
  7. ^ Dockray-Miller, Mary Bateson , p. 71.
  8. ^ A b Dockray-Miller, Mary Bateson , p. 74.
  9. ↑ Dockray-Miller, Mary Bateson , pp. 73, 74.
  10. ^ Dockray-Miller, Mary Bateson , p. 69.
personal data
SURNAME Bateson, Mary
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British historian
DATE OF BIRTH September 12, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Robin Hood's Bay
DATE OF DEATH November 30, 1906
Place of death Cambridge