Now! Then! At a Radical meeting at Lydgate (Saddleworth, WR/GM), Samuel Bamford proposes giving the vote to women

Excerpt

With the restoration of the Habeas Corpus Act, the agitation for reform was renewed. A public meeting on the subject, was held at Westminster, on the twenty-eighth of March; and in June, Sir Francis Burdett’s motion for reform was negatived in the House of Commons. Numerous meetings followed in various parts of the country. At one of these meetings, which took place at Lydgate, in Saddleworth, and at which Bagguley, Drummond, Fitton, Haigh, and others, were the principal speakers, I, in the course of an address, insisted on the right, and the propriety also, of females who were present at such assemblages, voting by show of hand, for, or against the resolutions. This was a new idea, and the women, who attended numerously on that bleak ridge, were mightily pleased with it, and, the men being nothing dissentient, when the resolution was put, the women held up their hands, amid much laughter, and ever from that time, females voted with the men at the radical meetings. Our females voted at every subsequent meeting; it became the practice, female political unions were formed, with their chairwomen, committees, and other officials; and from us, the practice was soon borrowed, very judiciously no doubt, and applied in a greater or less degree, to the promotion of religious and charitable institutions.

Order the book

Subscribe to the free daily email

To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations

Comment

Date and source from Helen Walton. I’d love to see her “dissertation on how women were represented at the Peterloo Massacre.”

Something to say? Get in touch

Original

With the restoration of the Habeas Corpus Act, the agitation for reform was renewed. A public meeting on the subject, was held at Westminster, on the twenty-eighth of March; and in June, Sir Francis Burdett’s motion for reform was negatived in the House of Commons.

Numerous meetings followed in various parts of the country; and Lancashire, and the Stockport borders of Cheshire, were not the last to be concerned in public demonstrations for reform. At one of these meetings, which took place at Lydgate, in Saddleworth, and at which Bagguley,-Drummond,-Fitton,-Haigh,and others, were the principal speakers; I, in the course of an address, insisted on the right, and the propriety also, of females who were present at such assemblages, voting by show of hand, for, or against the resolutions. This was a new idea; and the women, who attended numerously on that bleak ridge, were mightily pleased with it, and the men being nothing dissentient,— when the resolution was put, the women held up their hands, amid much laughter; and ever from that time, females voted with the men at the radical meetings. I was not then aware, that the new impulse thus given to political movement, would in a short time be applied to charitable and religious purposes. But it was so; our females voted at every subsequent meeting; it became the practice,―female political unions were formed, with their chair-women, committees, and other officials; and from us, the practice was soon borrowed, very judiciously no doubt, and applied in a greater or less degree, to the promotion of religious and charitable institutions.

272 words.