"No ordinary woman" - Lady Charlotte Murchison

A collection of posts on my companion blog Digging the Dust have been about some of the lesser-known men and women who took part in the 1860s Zambezi Expedition led by David Livingstone.

A major mover and shaker behind this Expedition was Sir Roderick Impey Murchison of the Royal Geographical Society (Livingstone dedicated his famous work Missionary Travels to Murchison) but it is interesting to discover that the major mover and shaker behind Sir Roderick was his wife.

Charlotte Hugonin was born in 1788 in Hampshire, daughter of General Francis Lewis Hugonin, just one in a long line of military men. She met and married Roderick Murchison in 1815 after he had retired from the Peninsular campaign (he was in The 95th Rifles now well-known via the “Sharpe” novels and films).

Initially her husband had no great ambition, was somewhat of a spendthrift and intent on indulging in the hunting, shooting and fishing lifestyle common to many retired army officers. Charlotte, however, had other ideas. Perhaps their lack of children meant that she could put all her energies into her passion for science, geology in particular.

The Light of Science (Mrs Murchison) dispelling the darkness which covered the world

But it took her almost ten years to curb her husband's idle ways and interest him in more intellectual pursuits. While travelling through Europe they became acquainted with Mary Somerville, the eminent science writer who remained a life-long friend. Together with another friend, chemist and inventor Humphry Davy (of Davy Lamp fame), Charlotte eventually persuaded her husband to take up studies in chemistry and geology. After that, there was no stopping him and together they became involved in fossil hunting and paleontology all around Britain and throughout Europe, in company with many of the other scientists and enthusiasts of the day. Charlotte drew the sketches to accompany her husband's written discoveries such as The Silurian System.

Corals from Geology Matters

Then in 1838, Charlotte came into a large family inheritance and their new house at fashionable 16 Belgrave Square was soon the focus of grand soirees featuring the most important politicians and scientists of the day. Charlotte was an accomplished hostess, but was often laid low with illness as a result of malaria contracted in Europe while on one of their early expeditions. She died in 1869 and was buried in the Brompton Cemetery. Her husband outlived her by another two years, by which time he had been lauded with honours and medals galore for his research and discoveries. Assorted land features around the world from Russia to Australia to Uganda carry his name and there is even a Murchison crater on the moon!

This blue plaque on Sir Roderick Murchison’s home at 21 Galgate, Barnard Castle, County Durham where he lived during his early self-indulgent fox-hunting days, shows many of the places around the world where he is celebrated. As too often was the practice in the Victorian age, the brilliant and accomplished power behind his throne, his wife Charlotte, has been side-lined and disregarded.

From the Blue Plaque trail

From the biographical entry for Charlotte in the Oxford Dictionary of Biography:

“It was she who introduced him [Sir Roderick] into the geological world, and it was her money and social position which helped him achieve such extraordinary prominence within it (he was knighted in 1846 and made baronet in 1866). She took an active part in the scientific pursuits which she had initiated, and her views are intimately connected with Roderick Murchison's work. Charlotte Murchison also played a role in making higher education accessible to women: in 1831 it was her wish to attend Lyell's [Charles Lyell] geological lectures at King's College that caused them to be opened to both sexes,”

 And here is an extract from her obituary in the Manchester Courier, 20 February, 1869

 “Lady Murchison was no ordinary woman, and the world of science owes her a deep debt of gratitude; for if her ladyship (then Mrs Murchison) had not - nearly half a century ago - weaned her husband’s powerful mind from the ordinary occupation of a retired Peninsular captain, and attracted his attention to the engaging purist of science, England might never have had occasion to be proud of the illustrious baronet, who has fought such a good for fight for geology and whose labours have caused English geological knowledge to be respected wherever civilisation and human industry have utilised the products of the quarry, the coal, or the gold field.”

There is no accessible formal portrait of Charlotte, although the National Portrait Gallery lists a photograph of her taken in 1860 but it has not been digitised.

This photograph taken in Bath in September 1864 during the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science shows the two most recognised and celebrated men of the day, both with umbrellas - David Livingstone with his familiar cap and in light-coloured clothing, Sir Roderick Murchison. Perhaps somewhere in the background or the blurred melee of top hats and bonnets at their feet is Charlotte.

 

From Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institution publication

Visit these websites for more about Charlotte and other early female geologists:

Trowelblazers

Geology Matters

Early women geologists

The first woman to vote in Britain

A brick wall in family history research has often led me to look at various Maxwell families who lived in Lancashire during the mid 1860s, especially widows. And while I haven’t as yet solved that personal puzzle, I was astonished to discover that one of the women who interested me has turned out to be the first woman to cast a vote in Britain!

Lily (or Lilly) Maxwell is thought to have been born around 1800 in Greenock, Scotland, although no-one of that name appears in the birth or baptismal records of Scotland’s People around that time. Lily may not have been her Christian name, or perhaps it was a contraction of some other name like Elizabeth. Maybe she wasn’t a Maxwell by birth either, so her early days remain a mystery. 

Some references state she opened a small china and tea supplies shop after her husband died around 1861 but there is no proof she was ever married - all the Census Returns described as being unmarried. How she came into enough funds to establish a shop is also unknown.

Lily (Lilly) Maxwell, c 1867, image Manchester City Council

She first appears in the 1841 Census Return for Cheetham, Manchester, as a Female Servant, born in Scotland. (Many 1851 Returns for Manchester are missing or damaged and too difficult to read). In 1861, she is shown living on her own at 17 Bridge Street, Ardwick, Manchester, aged 60, and described as a “Housekeeper for Print Works”. And in the 1871 Census she describes herself as a “Cook”  and has several lodgers.

There’s no knowing for certain either if she was the same Lilly Maxwell mentioned in the Manchester Courier of 5th March 1836 being sent to prison for 4 months for stealing “bacon and other articles the property of Fred. Doubleday” but given what a struggle life could be for any woman on her own at that time or who found herself in difficult circumstances after a supporting partner or husband died, it may well have been her.

Lily wasn’t lily-white as a shop-owner either. On 4 April 1866, she made the newspapers again when she was fined One Pound in the Police Court for defrauding her customers with unjust weights and light measures.

However, as a shop-owner, she had to pay rates to the local council. In 1867 there was a by-election for the local Member of Parliament, one of the candidates being Jacob Bright. Although women weren’t allowed to vote at the time, all men who were ratepayers were. Somehow, Lily’s name mistakenly appeared on the registered list of voters. An early supporter of the suffragist movement, Lydia Becker, got wind of this and so she encouraged Lily to cast her vote. (Jacob Bright looks like a good man to vote for, an “advanced radical”, peace campaigner and a supporter of women’s suffrage.)

One can only imagine the scene when the two women fronted up to the poll. In those days, you had to announce out loud your choice of candidate. Of course, there was much consternation but as Lily was clearly listed, the returning officer had little choice but to accept her vote. It is said the other voters cheered when Lily did so. Several other female property owners in Manchester attempted to follow suit, but within a year the suffragist movement had been banned and any loopholes in rate books blocked by law.

This brief news item, however, appeared in The Ashton Weekly Reporter on 15 August, 1868. (It refers to the general election held a year after the by-election) Being successful once, no doubt Lily was prepared to run another test, but this time she and all the others would have been rejected.

“Miss Lilly Maxwell and 1,100 other women householders in the township of Chorlton-upon-Medlock have sent in claims to be placed on the list of voters for Manchester.”

Lydia Becker went on to be celebrated for her early work in the women’s movement, but poor Lily wasn’t so lucky. Although she was still on the rates book for Chorlton-upon-Medlock until 1876, she was admitted to the Withington Workhouse on 5 April 1876 and died on 24 October that same year. Sadly, the workhouse was often where elderly people without any family to support them were forced to end their days. The workhouse records state she was buried in Bradford Cemetery, now known as Philips Park, but where exactly she lies is yet to be discovered.

Withington Workhouse

The Rates Book for 1876, Lily Maxwell second name from top

  

Workhouse Records, Lily Maxwell first line

Lily’s experience seems to have the most coverage in histories of the women’s movement but she was far from the only one who turned up to vote at elections. Read more here at History of Women website. 

Also see Chorlton History blog here.

The "Charlotte Bronte of wood and stone"

Heritage England has a current blog post on women architects. Click here. 

Sara Losh in particular caught my attention with her links to regions in Northern England that interest me because of my own family history, but I was also impressed with the extraordinarily beautiful arts and crafts style interior of the church associated with her, being St Mary's at Wreay, Cumbria. 

Jenny Uglow has written a book about her, The Pinecone, and I look forward to reading it to learn more about this woman described on the cover as "... an individual genius, a Charlotte Bronte of wood and stone"

Images from UK Telegraph Review

Heaps more images on Flickr (thanks to all photographers who have shared them!)

Jessie Lennox, one of the last "Nightingales"

Concluding my blog posts about the women of the Zambezi Expedition on my companion Digging the Dust blog is this about Jessie Lennox, who lived to the great age of 102 and was a lifelong friend of Florence Nightingale. Click here to read about her.

Christina Broom, Photographer

A great exhibition currently on at the Museum of London for those lucky enough to live in London or are able to get there!

Read about Christina Broom, the UK's first female press photographer, at the London Historians blog and do watch the video on the Museum's own webpage to learn more about her work.

Elizabeth ("Emily") Mary Burrup (nee Tudway, later Levick)

Another woman who was involved in the Zambezi Expedition was Elizabeth Mary Burrup (nee Tudway, later Levick). Her interesting story can be read here on my other history blog as part of the project covering the lesser-known individuals connected with David Livingstone in his controversial and failed expedition of the Zambezi River.

Women of the Zambezi Expedition

Stories about the women who were part of David Livingstone's Zambezi Expedition have been posted to my other more general history blog, Digging the Dust.

Click here for the story of Anne Mackenzie, sister of Bishop Charles Mackenzie.