None given

80

Single

37 Durdham Park, Redland, Bristol BS6 6XF

NUWSS

Complies

Mary was born in 1830 in Newcastle. Her mother, Rachel Bragg, was a prominent anti-slavery agitator. Alongside her sister, Anna Maria, she signed the 1866 suffrage petition. Mary moved to Bristol with her sister in 1870, where they both lived at 37 Durdham Park until their deaths. Mary engaged in Tax non-payment alongside Anna Maria, where their dining chairs were removed to pay the tax until someone anonymously paid the fine, and their chairs were returned. Mary followed her older sister’s activism, being a member of the executive committee of the Women’s Liberal Federation in Bristol in 1898. She also became a member of the executive committee for the Union of Practical Suffragists, set up by her sister Anna Maria in 1896. Mary joined the WSPU alongside Anna Maria in 1907, with them jointly contributing £25 in 1908 and a further £10 in September and October 1909. She contributed to the election expenses of George Lansbury, a suffrage candidate supported by Christabel Pankhurst. She complied with the 1911 census alongside Anna Maria as by this time, like her sister, had instead become a member of the peaceful NUWSS. Due to her Quaker beliefs, Mary was a pacifist who was deeply concerned by the Boer War at its outbreak in 1899. Mary died within 5 days of her older sister Anna Maria in October 1914, and it has been inferred they were heartbroken at the looming prospect of the Great War and one the loss of the other. Sources: Crawford, Elizabeth, The Women’s Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 18661928 (London, 1999); Liddington, Jill, Vanishing for the Vote: Suffrage, Citizenship and the Battle for the Census (Manchester 2014). Contributed by Becca Aspden, URSS student researcher, History Dept., Warwick University.