Lydia Becker's Letter Book'

(Letters sent in a personal capacity, as Hon. Treasurer of the Manchester Committee for the Married Women's Property Bill, but mostly as Secretary of the Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage.

Letters to Miss Jessie Boucherett, Esther Becker, Mrs. W. Shields of Newcastle and Miss Becker's aunt Mrs. Backhouse, 21 Mar., about petitions [to Parliament for women's suffrage], the latter referring to Mr. Gladstone's antagonism; to Mrs. E. Kyllman, 21 Mar., claiming that the letters she writes are her personal property. The Committee may see copies of those relating to its business, but they will remain in her hands even if a new Secretary is appointed; to Hon. Mrs. Liddell, 24 Mar.; to Miss Boucherett, 22 Mar., about the campaign to put women householders on the electoral register; to Professor Jack, 22 Mar., disagreeing with his support of the vote for single women only; to Miss Florence Hill, 23 Mar.; to R. Harper, esq., of Birmingham, 23 Mar., to Mrs. P.A. Taylor of London, 24 Mar.; to Dr. Brown, 24 Mar.; to her aunt, Mrs. Backhouse, about the Prestbury petition, n. d; to Miss Boucherett, 26 Mar., re same and agitation among ratepayers of Hulme , to Jacob Bright, M.P. 27 Mar., about the Hulme ratepayers meeting, in which many women were involved; to Mrs. Pochin, Miss Boucherett, Dr.Grierson, Mrs. Butler, Miss Garrett, Mrs. P.A. Taylor, 28 Mar.; to Miss Anne J. Robertson of Dublin, 30 Mar., saying Mrs. Pochin, Mayoress of Salford, will accommodate her on her visit to Manchester; to Jacob Bright, 13 Apr.; to Miss Boucherett, 31 Mar., comparing Gladstone and Disraeli 'I hope the Tories will remain on the Treasury Bench till the Liberals are united under the leadership of Mr. Bright. He is a far greater man than Gladstone'; procedure for drawing up lists of voters and appealing if one is omitted. Women householders must claim to be on the electoral register, and their claims will be heard; to J. Plant, esq., of the Anthropological Soc., 31 Mar. sending, on request, a copy of her paper prepared for the Ladies Literary Soc. [L.E.B. was President of the Ladies' Literary Soc., which she founded in Jan. 1867]; to Thomas Hare, 1 Apr.; to Miss Boucherett about the Reform Union Conference, 1 Apr.; to Dr. [Richard Marsden] Pankhurst, 3 Apr., asking for his help in searching in the Law Library for illustrations for her paper; to G. Shaw Lefevre, M.P., 27 Apr., asking for copies of his Bill on Married Women's Property; to Miss Theodosia Marshall, 3 Apr., asking her opinion of a paper, which caused a commotion in the Anthropological Soc., of Manchester. Florence Nightingale has joined the [Women's Suffrage] Soc.; to Jacob Bright, M.P., 4 Apr., sending a resolution of the Committee that qualified women be urged to claim to be on the electoral register; to Miss Boucherett, 6 Apr.; to Miss C. Holland, 8 Apr.; to Miss Sarah Ann Jackson asking if she may stay at her country house to recover her health. More about the Anthropological Soc's. reaction to her paper; to Mrs. Jacob Bright, 9 Apr.; to Miss Boucherett, 9 Apr., about her poor health and asking if she may use some of the 'Mission Fund' to recover her strength (this letter has been crossed out); to Rev. S.A. Steinthall, 9 Apr.; to Sarah Ann Jackson, 12 Apr.; to Mrs. Butler, 13 Apr.; to Mrs. Jacob Bright, 16 Apr.; to Sarah A. Jackson of Bowdon, 16 Apr.; to Miss Ann J. Robertson, 16 Apr., about the meeting at which she spoke; to Sarah A. Jackson, 17 Apr., defending Mrs. Pochin and other mothers from Miss Jackson's accusation of disobeying the Scriptures by neglecting their families to attend the Suffrage Meeting; to Miss A.J. Robertson, 25 Apr.; to Miss Wolstenholme, 26 Apr., saying that if Miss Julia Gaskell hesitates about becoming Secretary [of the Committee for the Higher Education of Women] she will propose her; to Mrs. Bright, 27 Apr.; to her sister Esther Becker, 28 Apr., suggesting she applies for the post of Secretary of the Committee for the Higher Education of Women; discusses the power of violence-' more melancholy to me than these occurrences [assassinations etc] is the fact that it 'needs' deeds of bloodshed or violence before the British Government can be roused to do ju

Related Material:See also 'Women's Suffrage. A Record of the Women's Suffrage Movement in the British Isles, by Helen Blackburn', 1902, pages, 71-88, for other letters of this peiod from L.E. Becker, and 'The Suffragette Movement', by E. Sylvia Pankhurst, 1931, pages 35-46, for correspondence between Miss Becker and Dr. Pankhurst. The library also has annual reports and other papers about the Married Women's Property Bill, 1869-1878 (396.2 M1) )